Our Year in Review 2012

This is a copy of our family letter for those who did not get our holiday cards (we did not order enough this year and ordered late...sorry). 

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

Mother's day 2012

Happy Mother's day to all the mothers out there. My husband thinks this is a silly hallmark holiday but I have to say, I appreciate mother's day. I know it is the one day that I can cater to myself a little more....although never totally because what fun would that be. Who doesn't like sacrificing to make their kids happy from time to time...no sarcasm, I mean it...and if you are a parent, you know it.

Last night I was EXHAUSTED from the lack of sleep the night before, Maddie insisted she was not tired at all so I let her snuggle with me and we fell fast asleep at about 8:30. At 9:30 I woke up, put her in her bed and fell right back to sleep. I would like to say I got a wonderful nights rest...however, Blake decided to wake up at 1:30 am and it took 3 drinks (all rejected), 4 songs and several grumbles before I found out he wanted his diaper changed and got him back to sleep at 3am. 3 more hours of sleep until Blake's early wake up call at 6:30am.

Normally when I get Blake out of bed between 6-6:3, I stumble in...shush him about a zillion times while I change his diaper to keep him from waking up everyone else. This morning I stumbled in but before I could shush him, he looked at me and said "shhhhhhhh" then laughed. I couldn't help but laugh with him and just like that my mother's day started off with a smile.

It continued from there...he asked for his blanket in the bed and when we went out into the living room he covered me with it, kissed me and snuggled in for tv. The best part though was when I said "i love you" he responded with "wuv you mommy" ...I think my heart melted to the floor.

The rest of Blake's morning was spent getting into everything, he created a disaster, destroyed everything he got into and was driving me bananas...however, he broke it up with smiles, laughter, hugs and kisses....so I can't complain too much.

After Maddie and Mark woke up, I went and snuggled back into bed while they did their secret business. I hear Mark getting out the cards and asking her what she wants to write. I also hear Maddie say "today is the day you show moms that you care about them". Her other gems of the day were "mother's day is about being together as a family" (which is why she is with me now at starbucks), "let's make mommy a surprise snack of broccoli and cereal" (gag), "Mommy, I love you even when it is not mother's day", "(singing) Chasing mother's day", followed by singing "catching mother's day", "mommy how is everyone here going to know that I am your daughter and you are my mommy"...and many more that I have unfortunately already forgotten. She really makes my world.

I admit it would be nice to get out on my own on a day I know it would not be declined...but then I would miss out on all these cute things my kids do on a minute by minute basis that makes me a mother. I like spending the time with them, I love hearing the silly things they come up with and look forward to spending the rest of my life as their mother. I just hope they always want to spend the day with me.

Blake's word count 1/08/12

22-kitty
23-baby
24-bomber
25-here ya go
26-I did it
27-bow
28-Apple
29- I love you (Iwuvooh)
30-turtle
31-car
32-jet
33-kinsey
34-Cheers
35-please
36-Book
37-drink
38-bowl
39-walk
40-football
41- backpack (sounds like tackpack though)

Maddie-ism 1/8/12

Maddie: I want to wear my yellow shoes
Me: They don’t fit yet, they will probably fit you this summer
Maddie: But it is summer
Me: Really, do you want to wear your bathing suit outside today?
Maddie: yes, I do. It is warm.
Me: Then Jack Frost will blow his cold winter wind on you and you will have to get your winter coat.
Maddie: Mommy, Jack Frost won’t be there. He is not from our earth.
Me: And where is her from Maddie?
Maddie: Mommy he is from Fairytales.....and books....and sometimes TV but not the real world, not our earth.
Me: Good point, Maddie, Good point. I love you!

I LOVE THAT GIRL

Blake's word count

Blake’s word count has been growing daily...
1-mommy
2-daddy
3-sissy
4-maddie (addie)
5-crackers
6-yea
7-no
8-okay
9-more
10-eat
11-milk
12-dog
13-duck
14-ball
15-bottle
16- Grandma (gee gee)
17-this
18-hat
19-shoe
20-up
21-fish

He is an amazing little boy and I am loving watching him grow.

Maddie's first day at Preschool

Maddie has been wanting to go to school for a while now. For the past year, everytime the school bus comes into our cul de sac, she asks if she can go to school now. Well the day finally arrived (sans bus).

Today, Maddie started preschool. We toured the school a couple of weeks ago and she LOVED it. She has been talking about Ms. KA-TREE-NA (Katrina to the rest of us) ever since and telling people all about her new school. She was so excited to start school she didn't even have her normal tantrum about me washing her hair this morning (only 50% of normal tantrum).

We got ready, put on her new dress (that she picked out all by herself), put on her new bookbag (princesses of course) and headed over to Mya's for pictures and to get her nails painted. I think she truly felt like a big girl.

When we arrived at school she seemed like she might just burst at the seams she was so excited. When it was time to go in Mya took her by the hand and led her inside. Right then I ceased to exist. She was in schoolmode. I did not even get a kiss goodbye. Mya showed her where the cubbies were. Maddie's was right beside Mya's and they showed Maddie how to hang up her backpack. Then Maddie followed everyone to get in line to wash her hands. Shortly after parents were kicked out and the school day began.

When we went to get Maddie, we waited by the door while they called kids one at a time to go meet their parents. When Maddie saw us her whole face lit up as she exclaimed "mommy, daddy...I missed you" and broke into a run that only lasted a second as Ms. Pat reminded her "use your walking feet, don't run"...so instead she did this fast almost run walk.

Here are the things she told me about her day:

-I made a new friend named Katie and we threw a purple ball to each other. Katie is my friend

-Katie tried to give me a green ball but I wanted the purple ball (me: so what happened). ..Katie gave me the purple ball, she shared...she is a good sharer

-Ms Pat said Mya and I could play in the block room and we built towers together (me: did mya knock them down)...No Mya did not, I did and Mya said "Maddie that is not nice".

-We went into the coloring room and colored pictures on pink paper

-We learned to talk to the flag (Pledge of Allegiance)

-We sat on the letter rug and talked about our shapes and then we had to match up the letters.

- Ms Pat told me we had to eat snacks (Me: what did you eat)...Crackers, with cheese it was yummy.

-I got to play in doll room, I like the doll room.

-Ms Pat let us play with trains and line them up right (??no idea what that means??)

-They played a song when we were in the rooms that meant it was time to pick up our toys and no more playing


Maddie also sang me a song she learned about being nice and almost every sentence when talking about her day started with "Ms. Pat said". I know she absorbed something about being in line because when she was playing with the toy penguin and the slide she kept telling it that it had to wait in line. She kept saying "no, wait in line....wait your turn....oops you didn't get in line so you don't get a turn"

All and all she seemed to have a lot of fun and told me she can't wait to go back.

Happy 10 months From Mommy

I can not believe that you are 10 months old. When did this happen? It feels like just yesterday I was holding this tiny little baby and now I have my big trouble making little boy.

When ever you are around Maddie and I know you are up to no good...I think that you think your name is "Nothing but trouble" because we tell you that all the time. You could care less about playing with toys, your number one goal is to seek and destroy. Exploring while destroying. Although lately you have given us a run for our money, you already crawl faster than we can handle and now you have added climbing and trying to walk to the mix.

The climbing is going to drive me bananas. I remember hearing stories from Theresa about Fin climbing and thinking, what kid does that....that is scary. I mean I had calm and maybe a little scaredy cat Maddie. You get in places that scare me and then try to dive head first. You have no fear.

You have started cruising and you love to hold hands and walk...it makes you laugh. I love how tickled you get at things you can do. Yesterday while we were getting our oil changed at the dealer you realized that you could use a stool to walk across the room. You were laughing at your self the whole way.

You have also begun pointing at things you want or things you are interested in. You seem to like that now when you are hungry you can point at my boobs and I get the hint. Ha ha. Although we need to figure out how to teach you to say bottle because your nursing time is coming to an end.

You discovered feeding mommy and Maddie yesterday...you thought it was hilarious....you wanted to feed us everything. We draw the line at flowers though. Sorry kid.

I think you are going to be a talker like your sister. You do a great job repeating words. This morning we were sitting on the floor naming the letter magnents and you would point at the letter and repeat it after me (H, O and A). You say Hat, Dog, Cat, Mom, Nad (maddie), Dada, light and Hi...all on your own.

You are my mover. Yesterday at Maddie's dance class, you so wanted to join in. I help your hands and helped you dance...you were cracking up...you were also doing better than most the girls. Ha ha.

I think you have the most amazing personality. You are a one man wrecking crew, when you get mad...you get MAD...but it is so easy to make you smile, to turn your mood around...you love being happy. I love you.