Trip to Washington DC

Here are some pics from my trip to DC with Ann. If you want to know what we did, check out Ann's blog for the 'blow by blow'.

A mother of daughters should never have to...

A mother of daughters should never have to hear these words!

Look, mom! I'm a super hero!

Here's Charlotte...groovin' in her shades!

And, the other day Ava took a nap with a few of her favorite things (baby and her car seat, little sahja and his green basket, monka-chunka, slippers, pillow and snuggle blanket). This is what it looked like when I woke her up!

The things you hear...

Oh the things you hear when you listen to your children on the baby monitors.

If you know Ava personally, you know that the girl has the gift of gab. When she isn't babytalking (a new favorite habit), she can speak so clearly and has a pretty good grasp of language. Well, tonight she was trying to pass that one on to Charlotte. About 30 minutes after we tucked the girls in for the night, we started to hear conversations. Ava said, "Say Laura." Charlotte said, "Wawa."

Yes, Laura is one of our favorite things. When I called Laura to tell her, she immediately said that Ava (who has not been in Laura's good graces lately because of her unwillingness to talk to Laura on the phone) was going to get a box of lollipops! Laura! Don't follow through on that promise, please!!!

If you want to know what we're doing in DC...

I am taking a Benadryl and sitting on the bed, so check out Ann's blog for a DC update.

Dad will be in charge!

Tomorrow morning I am leaving my family...don't worry...only for five days. My 'best friend Ann Kimmel' (as she prefers to be called) and I are going to Washington DC tomorrow for FIVE DAYS WITHOUT RESPONSIBILITIES! I would say that 'what happens in DC, stays in DC' but 1.) we are too boring for that to be funny (except that neither of us is going to confess to the amazing eating that we will be doing) and 2.) from previous politicians' experience, we know that this isn't true.

Anyway, Dad will be in charge. If you see the girls wrestling him to the ground and stealing his stuff, please step in and save him! Actually, I am thankful to have one of those husbands that my grandmother considers some sort of super hero.

Every year Mark and I take a trip together, sans kiddos, and it restores the wonderful in our marriage. I am hoping that this trip will restore the wonderful in me!

Anyway, no pictures of kids for a few days. If you need an update, just call Laura and she will tell you that Ava thinks 'No, Laura, you're amazing!!!'

So here's how the morning started...

Lately, if Ava wakes up too early, I let her snuggle in bed with me for a little while. Charlotte usually settles right back down to sleep, and all is peaceful in the Solomon world. Well, this morning, Ava calls to me that she needs to go to the bathroom. I get up, sneak her out of her room, take her to the bathroom and then we climb into my bed. But, this morning, Charlotte will not settle down. I give her about 15 minutes, and then we go in for her. When I get into the room, she doesn't have her pacifier. It is usually hooked on to her jammies at night. No wonder she won't go back to sleep! So, I pull her crib out a little and ask her what she's done with her paci. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Ava opening the closet door. She picks Charlotte's paci off the closet floor and hands it to me. Then, she states, in a very parental way, that Charlotte was playing with her paci, so Ava had to take it away!

I am sure that you can imagine the rest of the day!

Girl Update

I know...I stink at blogging. I'm too busy mothering!!! So, just to keep you satisfied, here are a couple of pictures of the darlings.

You can't tell from these pictures, but Ava feels horrible and is a total grump today. I made her wear a hat because our house is cold and her hair is wet. She groused a little, but doesn't like the way I use the hairdryer - the hat is the only option. She lets her dad use the dryer, though!






Charlotte Grace loves her dad! I mean she really loves him. She'll leave her mom, scoot across the floor and grab him when she sees him. And, she is great at hugs! She gives the best hugs these days - and she doesn't let go first!

Indian Summer

So, we're outside enjoying the 70+ degree weather a couple of days ago, when it occurs to me that we were experiencing 'Indian Summer'. Then, a few minutes later, I laughed out loud. Mark is apparently 1/16 Native American (if you're a cowboy, then that's Indian to you...), does that mean that one of my 1/32 Native American daughters (fair skinned and blond) could be the first Native American president? HAHAHA! Just a moment of Solomon political humor...probably not very funny, which is the reason that I don't usually do political humor. But, it is our blog, and you love us!

Back to the real story!

Charlotte has been tough to keep off the back steps. They are scary and dangerous to mothers of 14 month old children! Sometimes she just sits on the bottom steps and looks like she thinks she's big (right! children her age who are 'big' walk! they don't crawl!). But, on this day, she discovered the recycle bin! She thinks it is a new toy box, full of new amazing things!

In this picture she is, once again, tasting the mysterious 'poison berries' that have been all over our lawn since the Norwood Hurricane of 2008. To my knowledge, and don't laugh at the amazing lack of knowledge, she has never swallowed one. I am convinced that this girl will be the one who can nap with gum in her mouth and never get it into her hair! Mind you, we are NEVER going to test that theory. Anyway, she'd given up tasting the berries for a few weeks. She just enjoyed carrying them around, held so tightly in the smallest fist you've seen. But, I guess she wanted to see if anything changed as they ripened! Don't worry. As the president of the Norwood branch of National Safety Directors International, I quickly saved my daughter from certain death and threw the berry into the back yard. If you've never been on the phone with me when something like this happens to Charlotte, I'll tell you that the dogs in the neighborhood have damaged ear drums after she let's out a blood-curdling scream!

This is Ava, being...well...Ava. She is concentrating on something very important with her hair in her face and a little bit of lunch around her mouth. Since she has begun to wash her own hands after meals, I have completely lost control of the food around her mouth. Also, I love the fact that hair around her face doesn't bother her. To me, a 'tucker' (for those of you who have short hair or are boys, a 'tucker' is a person who has long hair around her face, but cannot just let it sit there, looking pretty. A 'tucker' has to tuck her hair behind her ears, ruining the Gwyneth Paltrow sleek look that she saw in the morning, after using her wonderful hand-me-down CHI straightening iron...but I digress). To me, this lack of care for this beautiful mess of hair, means that there is at least one ridiculous, frustrating habit that may not be passed on to this amazing little girl!

Here's a video of Charlotte...listen to Ava. She's my doll!

Here is my Ava-love. Since I don't have a way to shorten her name, I just add to it.

This post is so 'wordy' because videos take so long to load!!! Sorry...or you're welcome!