My place in the Solari Family Tree:I'm the son of Delbe and Mickie Solari. I'm the youngest of four and the only boy. My sisters, in order of oldest to youngest, are Sue, Shel, and Steph. I am married to Wendi (Smith) Solari and my daughters are Piper Francis (3yrs) and Finley May (four months).
My 3 Greatest joys:1) My Family
2) Surfing
3) Photography/Exploring Nature
My 3 Biggest Goals for the Year:1) To have a wonderful holiday season
2) To end the year financially better than how it started
3) To participate in random acts of kindness for those most deserving
3 Surprising facts about me:1) I want to do a solo hike through Yosemite
2) I still skateboard
3) I still listen to bad 80's music
Hmmm. Where to begin?
Hello all. Aloha from
West Covina.
We've been busy this summer; not so much with work, but rather with learning about life with two kids. On June 2 we became proud parents of Finley May Solari. She was over a week late like her big sister Piper and measured in at 7lbs 2oz and 20". It wasn't until she went to the nursery on day one that she started to have complications, which now seem minor, but at the time were disconcerting. Apparently, not all of the mucus was suctioned and she began choking and had a blocked airway. Luckily, a NICU nurse was doing rotations that day and she snapped into emergency mode and cleared Fin's airway followed by many attempts to pump the mucus out of her tummy. Fin stayed the night in the nursery under constant watch and Wendi and I made routine visits for feedings. The next day Fin was jaundice so she spent 20 hours under UV lights and just hours before being released she had another choking episode while under the watchful eye of Mom and
Amma (Wendi's Mom, Barbara). The first two nights at home Wendi and I took shifts watching Fin as she slept making sure she didn't choke. Those were long nights.
Since then things have, dare I say, returned to normal; or is it abi-normal (think of Igor from "
Young Frankenstein"). We had a close friend tell us that having two kids is no different than having one. Hah! Bologna! We weren't lucky enough to have both kids on parallel schedules; for us one sleeps while the other one is awake and vise-a-versa.
Now, fast forward to four months later and some things are getting more manageable, while new obstacles surface. Finley is growing out of her five o'clock gripes and is sleeping better; sometimes only one feeding at night. Finley basically filled Piper's shoes and started day care. She's a smiley little thing, especially when Piper is around and will laugh incessantly at Piper.
To her chagrin, Wendi's maternity leave expired last month and she returned to work. Her company is under a hiring freeze and they are doing away with certain positions, but of course the commercial real estate business is as strong as ever or so the brokers would like to think.
We signed Piper up for pre-school and the change of venues from day care to pre-school posed challenges, but to her credit, Piper was a trooper and made the transition rather smoothly. But, she has become a 'trying' little individual and testing us throughout the day/night. She is a good big sister though and lends a hand with Fin.
My year has been slow, partly by design--wanting to enjoy Fin's first few months--partly by nature of the beast, in this case the beast is film production. Last year ended as this year began, enveloped in a beautiful shroud fashioned by the
Writers strike with possible Directors and Actors strikes waiting patiently in the wings. That pretty much put the brakes on production. It only took the writers and producers 14 weeks to come to an agreement, of course, the years leading up to the new contract couldn't have used more wisely.:) There were many of us that saw 'It' coming so we sat on emergency savings, but there were others who lost their house and a whole lot more.
The Directors on the other hand spent time and money researching the market and made an agreement with the producers months before their contract was to expire, hmmm. Now, the actor's guilds, SAG and AFTRA, have split, going it on their own and have been out of their contract since the beginning of the summer. Luckily, the actors continue to work, but production has still slowed down.
On the brighter side, I just landed a Disney TV show that runs from mid October-January, knock on wood, and has the potential of going to April, really knocking on wood.
We'd like to think Mel for taking on the Sentinel. We hope all of you are doing well.
All our love,
Joe, Wen, Piper, & Fin
