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Happy holidays from the Colorado Solomon Family.
We have had an exciting year, full of change, excitement, and growth. In short, we moved from Kentucky to Colorado, started our new lives in a new land and struggle to make things work, and have grown together and through all new challenges of life.
BLAKE
Blake is growing to be a cute, emotional, funny, and loving little boy. While his baby curls are mostly a memory, he has inherited some Solomon body to his hair that keeps him looking dangerous. His incredible energy and ability to deconstruct and disorganize things has earned him the sometimes-nickname of "Brake." He loves to point out motorcycles and tells everyone about Daddy's motorcycle. He is crazy about his Mommy, who he loves to climb on, hold on to, sit next to, and adventure with.
Blake enjoys telling everyone that that he loves his Mommy. Not to downplay his love for Mommy, but his favorite way to indicate favor and disfavor is to say, "me love ____," and "me no love ___." While his grammar is blossoming to good sentences much of the time, he sometimes obfuscates "no me love ___" with "me no love ____" which mean two totally different things. Blake also loves to point in the dark and instruct those around to look at "this," refusing to say what "this" is. Don't make the mistake of referring to him as "baby" or singing "rock-a-bye baby" to him or he will be quick to correct you, "No me Toddle-eer".
MADDIE
Maddie has truly integrated into her new preschool at AISH. Maddie has done a good job of working to make new friends back in Colorado. Her friends love to be around her, and she loves learning about Judaism. She wants to start many a meal with a bracha (prayer), and has been learning the hebrew alphabet. In fact, at music class, she taught the non-jewish class the letters on the dreidel. With groups of kids and adults, she often is the first and only to answer questions about Judaism, such as Noah's organization of his ark, and the lulav and the etrog. She says things to her daddy like, "I want to understand what you said," and "maybe if I get a chocolate milk, I will be able to have more energy." She is the first to tell others in the house who are grumpy that "you should apologize because that wasn't nice." She is fairly competitive unless she is really losing then proclaims that "I am not racing." She also loves to play with her little brother and read books to him. Luckily, she still loves to have books read to her and be held. She is gentle and loves her family. She dearly misses her grandparents in both Virginia and Delaware, and friends in Kentucky.
HOLLY
Holly has been a trooper. To borrow a line from It's a Wonderful Life, Holly has worked hard to make the old Solomon house a home. She forges their days into learning adventures. She takes them to school, book time, museums, and zoos. She showers them with as many playtimes with friends as they can bear. She also endeavors to cook their meals and provide them with healthy foods for them to grow and learn nutrition. She also bakes and teaches how to bake cookies. Holly has done two 5k races, one under 35 degrees (the color run) and the other in low 20's (jingle bell run) - and both races pushing a cold, complaining, four-year old in a stroller. Holly has also done a wonderful job of making new friends in Colorado. She has a small circle of friends with kids who get together while the kids play. She has started a book club for discussing a single book per month. She has even reinforced old bonds by selling Scentsy products and sponsoring Scentsy marketing parties. All this while being treated for cancer at least every other week and lately every week. She and Mark have made a good time of having "Chemotherapy dates" where she and Mark can talk and be together for a couple hours, only interrupted by a friendly nurse needing to start an IV. We have all worked hard to make sure that Holly's (Mommy's) medical treatment and diagnosis is but one of her qualities. We agreed that our rallying cry was that we are going to "get through this," but, rather, "to celebrate and enjoy our lives, together, no matter the speed bumps, bruises, scrapes, and falls." Holly, perhaps, has done the best job of living up to this ideal.
MARK
Mark spent the first two months of the new year studying for his first Colorado bar exam (second overall) to relocate the family to Colorado, living in a hotel room with Bella the dog. He passed the exam and started his own law firm practicing criminal defense. He really missed his family, and the homecoming to their home in Aurora was truly emotional. Mark and Maddie took a 10 day long road trip from Colorado to Delaware to Kentucky and home. They both had an amazing time together and with family and friends. The law practice is now self-sufficient, except for paying salary, but it's very close. He has handled an array of misdemeanors in five jurisdictions. He has also been working part time assisting a lawyer in federal criminal cases, which has been both challenging and interesting. He has been working hard at building his firm and helping Holly at home. I don’t know how he balances so much and still stays upbeat. Being in Colorado has been a chance to climb rocks again, although only once. The mountain drives are breathtaking. The air is clean. We love it here.
Happy Holidays,
Mark, Holly, Maddie, Blake and Bella the dog
