Baby Love

Yes. I'm still alive. Work has been extremely crazy lately, so I've had zero time to blog or even barely email anyone outside of work. I think things are finally going to slow down for the holidays.. Hooray!

Solomon has been cute and sweet and fun as usual, with a bit of crazy and annoying toddler stuff thrown in there at times of course. He's been very affectionate at times lately which is so fun for us. He had his normal 14-mo. check-up on Friday. His stats are below:

• Weight: 23 lbs. 6 oz. - 41%
• Height: 30 1/2" - 45%
• Head circ.: 47 1/2" - 45%

So, he's much more proportionate than he was last time and just about average. He had his flu shot and four other vaccinations, so he ran a fever and was pretty irritable off and on, on Saturday, but overall he did just fine.

Above, I've posted a few pics.. one of Solomon in his sweet little PJs and another with Alex that I find funny. Alex was getting ready to go for a bike ride so he had on one of those thin cold weather shirts.. It just happened to match Solomon's outfit. Below, I've also posted a few videos of "baby love". :)

"Oh What a Night!"

One of my fav songs says it all... "Oh What a Night!" Last night was truely awesome for me. Obama's speech was outstanding and he really knows how to deliver a speech. Most of the press surrounding Barack Obama's win seems to be focussed around the fact that he's the first African American president of the U.S. That is amazing, but I also think the enthusiasm he and obviously the people running his campaign were able to garner from people all over the country and overseas is amazing. We will soon have an incredible person in office. Now the hard work really begins for Barack Obama.

Silly Solomon

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I would post a fun little video of Solomon being happy and running around the house. He's so silly lately. He knows how to point out his nose and he's working on his ears. He'll just grab them, but I don't think he fully gets it yet. He's jabbering about something all the time and says "Mama" in a very dramatic Sopranosesque kind of tone. He falls alot now too b/c he doesn't know his own limits with the walking/running thing. I've heard boys are crazy about that. Basically, he has a bruise on his head almost every other day. :( He and Coco are still pals. He's still eating well too. We also figured out that he's not lactose intolerant. He just had some issues getting adjusted to the regular milk vs. formula, but seems to be over it now. His favorite toys include his little car that his daycare bought him for his birthday, his monkey, Wheels, the refrigerator magnet set by Leap Frog and random stuff like one of those pitchers with the mixer stopper thing in it.. LOVES that.

We had a great and relaxing weekend.. Friday night, we did some shopping. SAturday, we did some stuff around the house and went out with Brett and Abby at night (left Solomon with my parents). Sunday, we watched some football while Alex worked on the magazine, went over the Brett and Abby's house and played with Solomon. Hope everyone else had a good weekend.

Solomon update and other things

Solomon has officially entered the phase where it'll be hard for me to remember the exact number of months old he is. 13 is the present number. Anyway, I've posted some random new pictures of him at the link below:

http://www.haverhillstudios.com/gallery/albun14

His hair is always curly and crazy now and people often mistake him for a girl b/c of it I think even when he has on very boyish colors. I think people are unobservant and I think Solomon is just a very pretty boy. He really is though. :) People will come up to me all over the place and tell me how adorable he is. I'm sure most parents experience that, but I think he is the cutest. People also tell me that his pouty face is irresistable. In fact, a couple of his daycare people have told me that "everyone likes Solomon. He's just so cute." Okay, okay, enough of the endless bragging.

He's started to put things in drawers like his sippy cup. I currently can't find one from this morning, but since it's full of milk, I"m sure the smell will soon lead me right to it. Delightful! He also loves it if he says "oh oh oh" and I repeat it. It makes him squeal with delight sometimes. He's settled nicely into his 1 yr. old classroom. I don't like it as well as I did the first year, but we'll give it some time.

As far as the rest of my life goes, Alex and I hosted an engagement party last weekend for Brett and Abby. It was fun. We had a really good time and I think everyone else did too. My parents kept Solomon and the dog. It was such a nice thing to sleep in.

Alex is on a camping trip right now for another friend of his who is getting married. It's his bachelor party of sorts. He gets back tomorrow and I think I'll do my best to dump Solomon on him for a while! :)

I also had this saga with Craig's List and getting rid of our shed that's too long to go into, but it's pretty funny. The good news.. We no longer have a shed and a really nice man took it off our hands. We're glad to have the eyesore gone.

Some girls are coming over tonight. It should be fun. Tomorrow, I'll watch the KU vs. OU game! Go KU!!

Pics from Vegas

I'm in Dallas until tomorrow morning. I'm ready to get home and see Solomon. He's so funny lately. I have a few pictures from my Vegas weekend that I've posted below.

The Ex-KSN Crew - Jennifer, Jason, Mark and Me
Jason, Mark and Me

Jason and Me

Me and Alex

Alex and Me

Vegas Baby

Near the resort where Mark got married.. huge homes.
Mark and Liz getting married and back of Jennifer's head

Alex and I got back from Las Vegas on Sunday. As is typically the case, we were both dead tired when we got back as we had been up very late on Saturday and up early Sunday to catch our flight. We were there to see my friend Mark, from my KSN days, get married. It was at a resort in Lake Las Vegas, about 15 miles south of the strip. We left Friday afternoon and had dinner with Mark's (the groom) other friends and family at a restaurant near the resort. Alex and I not only got to hang out with Mark, but also my friend, Jason, and his partner, Tim. It was a great time! I miss Jason and Mark so much. We used to have a lot of fun together. Jason has promised to send me the pictures he took of all of us. The ones above are from Alex's camera phone b/c I forgot to bring mine. After the dinner, we gambled at a resort casino nearby and slept in Saturday morning! How lovely that was!! Saturday, I had scheduled a couples massage for Alex and me. It was truly awesome.. one of the best we've ever had and that's saying something b/c we get them semi-frequently. We hung out by the pool and relaxed, shopped and got ready for the wedding. The wedding was beautiful. I had forgotten what a truly great writer Mark is. He now writes for the TV show Extra. His wedding vows were to die for, what every girl would want to hear! I think many of us were choked up. Another friend from KSN, Jennifer, and her husband, James, were also at the wedding. It was great to see them as well. We ate, danced, and even watched a party crasher get kicked out! The funniest part was much later in the night. We went to the Planet Hollywood Casino on the strip as a group. Planet Hollywood is one of the newer, hipper, younger casinos. Girls in garterbelts and not much else were elevated and dancing between the craps and poker tables. Mark's wife had gotten us all in free, with no waiting in line and with bottle service (so Hollywood) to this super hip club at the casino. It was awesome people watching as we don't go to places like that typically. In fact, the first time I was in Vegas in '97, there was only one club like this. Now there is one at all of the newer casinos. It's crazy there. Of course, there were more scantily clad women dancing high above the crowds, lots of pumped in smoke, crazy lighting and dancing. There were also tons of security/bouncer people acting like the secret service.. so funny. The best was that a female weightlifter convention was in town! There were so many EXTREMELY masculine-steroided out women walking around with hardly anything on. It was horrifying and awesome people watching all at the same time. A club like that is SO NOT LIKE MARK, who barely sips on a cocktail ever, but it is important to soak up the Vegas experience when you go there. It was such a good time. I really wanted to hang out with my friends for a few more days, but we came back and the best part was, I got to see Solomon. He had been with my parents and we really, really missed him. He missed us too b/c he wouldn't even think about taking an afternoon nap, he just wanted to hang with us. It's good to be home. Hopefully, I'll post more pictures soon!

Week between weeks

Before I forget, I posted some new/newish photos.  Some are of our family reunion early last month from Alex's camera, that he just never processed and also the ones he took of Solomon's birthday last week. I love the photo above of Solomon and Lauren hugging. It's so sweet.

Family Reunion: http://www.haverhillstudios.com/gallery/albun13

Solomon's 1st b-day: http://www.haverhillstudios.com/gallery/albun12

So this past week and this week are just the two weeks between Solomon's b-day and our short trip to Las Vegas. My friend, Mark, is getting married just outside of Vegas at Lake Las Vegas on Saturday. He and I met when I worked at KSN and we've always just kept in touch. He came to Wichita for my wedding and we will go to his. It should be a good time. It's very quick and we're leaving Solomon with my parents for the weekend.  It should be a lot of fun to get away and see a few friends I haven't seen for a while.

Alex and I mostly spent this past weekend catching up. We installed the new carseat that I had to get, due to being rear-ended a few weeks ago. I did some yardwork, went on a bike ride, etc... On Friday night, Alex and I went to Brett and Abby's house for a while and Saturday afternoon, Solomon and I went to Sara and Shane's while the guy's worked at Beerfest.  Our kiddos napped half of the time and we chatted and watched TV. Sara and Shane are as crazy about Notre Dame Football as I am with KU Basketball, so it was fun to watch Sara.  Alex watched a documentary about a guy who lived among grizzly bears on Saturday night. I did the usual thing where I try to watch, but fall asleep a mere 10 minutes in. 

My parents bought Solomon a swingset for his b-day so they put it together this past week and Solomon is REALLY enjoying swinging in it. In fact, he usually get svery upset when it's time to get out. :(  It's fun to watch him giggle in it though.