GG's Bag of Tricks Part II

6 months old Today!

GG iS A ROLLER -she has successfully mastered the art of rolling from her back to tummy and then from tummy to back and so on. Guess who left her baby unbuckled in a car seat sitting on the floor to discover her on her tummy half way under the bed?! DOH! it was too funny. I think she's ready to start crawling already! wow!

GG Is a Grabber - we affectionally nicknamed my second child "Grabby" b/c he had a knack for grabbing stuff within arm's reach and knocking it to the ground. Cups of Juice, stacks of newspapers, hair clips. If he could reach it, he could grab it and of course didn't/couldn't hold on and thus...so GG is following in his footstep. We're gonna have to watch this one

GG is a LOOKER - she gets loads of attention everywhere she goes and if I wasn't already crazy busy and stretched thin and didn't instantly think of the Lindsay Lohans and Jamie Lynn Spears of the world, I so would have signed her up for some pretty baby contest or something like that by now. And she's pretty good about staying "good" on strangers. ...nonetheless, I think I'll keep her to myself for now.

GG is a DANCER! - once this disco mama hears some music, she's bouncing up and down and wiggling her little tushy. it's the cutest thing. And in the vein of living vicariously through our kids, I've already decided that she will be a ballet/tap/modern/jazz dancer and a soccer player super star! ha!

GG is a Rough houser - She is not interested in being handled with kid gloves oh no! Toss her in the air. Roll her about and tossle her here and there. Oh well for wondering if she'd be a princess or tomboy.me and GG this weekend at DC Carnival Parade

holy ENGORGEMENT

guess who went to LA for a day and had to express her engorged boobies into a nasty toilet not once but three times! yuck!

I landed in the am, headed straight to a clien't office for a meeting, left there and went back to the hotel to change for the BET awards, where I went with a client. Halfway into some star's performance, I looked down and realized owwie! Holy Engorgement! I forgot my portable breast pump. *sigh* It's not like it woulda fit in my clutch purse anyway. So....I had to express it out in the john. nastiness!!!!

We dint have time to go home after the award show, but to head straight to the "official" afterparty that took place at the landmark and historic Roosevelt Hotel. Our contact was already there waiting to give us our tickets to the event which featured mucho B list and a few A listers, BET employees, industry executives and some general members of the public who purchased tickets from somebody sellign them on Ebay or something. I never seen so many hoochie mamas in one room. Well technically several ballrooms, the VIP room, and poolside, but you get my point.

While there, I had to relive myself of engorgement at least two times. At least there the bathrooms were pretty decent. I still had to wait in long lines of women with long flowy bleached hair, mini dresses that shamefully shouldn't be allowed to be called a dress they were so damn short and fake boobies! at one point, I thought my perfectly round orbs looked quite fake like silicone implants.

Ha! I guess I fit in there after all!

I couldn't wait to come home yesterday and not have to waste perfectly good breastmilk. I never missed GG so much in her and my entire life as those two days.

GG's bag of tricks

in her handy bag of tricks, my little papushka enjoys...


...biting my nips, just for sport! "OWW!!! no GG! No biting!" I say to her looking serious and quite disturbed.

she returns a cute wide eyed open and innocent smirk, like "uh what did I do?" Hrmph! That child has the gums of a vampire! My word! I don't think she's doing it for spite or fun. Poor child is working her way to get cut off!

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she's a self contained bouncy baby. yup. literally. she loves to dance and hop and cannot be trusted to not hop out of your hands and onto the floor. One must eat a full and balanced meal before trying to play with my child. ha!

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playing with her feet whilst laying on her back, showing off her flexibility and dexterity. There's no amount of yoga in the world to make me be able to contort into the positions my butter bean manages to get into. Makes me not feel so bad when i see her slump over in her baby chair knocked out asleep on long trips when we can't "fix" her straight. She's made to be that flexible for a reason. It can't be just to say "look what I can do that you can't mom!" ha!

my new Spanish baby

so...this morning we dropped off a little Afro Caribbean cocoa puff we affectionally call GG....



....and this evening, I reach to pick up, Un pequenita bebe se llame....Dora-ito!!!!



Lookey at how the new Panamanian babysitter hooked GG up with BIG OLD GOLD HOOPS TOO!! (and she say she don't know where she put the gold diamond studs that used to be GG's ears. uh oh.)

yikes!

i do adore the little puffs tho! more pics...



GG and her new big brother, the babysitter's 16 year old son, J
and with her new big sister, N, the baby sitter's 4 year old daughter

see GG and J

Jamie Lynn Spears had her baby

Britney Spears has become an aunty yesterday, after her younger sister Jamie Lynn gave birth to a baby girl.

The baby was named Maddie Briann. Spears gave birth at a south Mississippi hospital. Spears starred in Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 children’s TV series.

The Spears family announced in December that 17-year-old Jamie Lynn was pregnant.

The father is Casey Aldridge, a pipe-layer from Liberty, Mississippi.

The younger Spears lives near Liberty with Aldridge, 19, and has been seen around the small south Mississippi town often as her pregnancy became more apparent.

Her family owns a home across the state line in Kentwood, Louisiana.

Spears announced her pregnancy through an article in OK! Magazine and was expected to receive a large payday for exclusive pictures of the newborn.

Source: The Associated Press

belated weightloss wednesday

i don't know why i bothered. i didn't get on the scale, but i felt lighter.

i fit into my size 4 grey Express brand skirt today. yippee!i discovered a new tool: if you Text the number 34381 and input a restaurant and the menu item, Diets.com will reply back with the calorie, fat, carb and protein content of the item. Neat huh? A great way to watch your eating while out on the road. I do think it is automated though, b/c I typed in "Meiwah Moo Shoo Chicken" and I got this:

Moe's Southwest Grill Moo Moo Mr. Chow Kids Burrito with Chicken
Cal: 486, Fat: 15g, Carb: 65g Prtn: 27g

DOH!

her brother, the photographer

i'm really digging this blurry pic of GG that her eldest brother took of her on father's day

So long Nanny Muriel

Yesterday, was GG's first "real" nanny's last day. We're gonna miss her. All 6 foot 3 inches of her. I'll miss hearing whilst sitting in my office Ms. Muriel singing Christian spirituals to GG below and singing so loud and out of tune that I thought someone was skinning a cat...haha.. memories...I'll miss her funny stories talking about how she had hair down to her back a 20 inch waist and all the men used to chase her down in Sierra Leone. ...and about how she got tired messing with the good looking men who were just headaches to manage and how she is happy and content with an "ugly man" Yeah. She said that about her current husband...And well er...he isn't any prize, but he's an orthopedic surgeon so....

She doesn't like taking photos and I had to sneak this one of her. Of course, my middle child was blocking the way. After this photo, she saw the flash and insisted I delete it. But then when she saw it really didn't show her face, she was cool...We gave her a photo collage of GG, a couple of plants cause she was so fond of ours and always admiring ours, a goodbye tip of week's salary and with that, she was off! :(

MONDAY, BRIGHT AND EARLY, WE'RE BACK TO PANAMA (GG's original caregiver is Panamanian)! GG's gonna learn some SPANISH! :D

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in other news,

My "Carol's Daughters" products arrive on Wednesday, only two days after I ordered them. First off the bat, I noticed the pretty brown burlap drawstring bag the products came in. Such echo friendly but still classy packaging.

Then the aromas coming from that bag, sage, jasmine, lemongrass, mint....*sniff* NICE.

As a last gift, Ms. Muriel cornrowed GG's hair using the products. It was so soft. This was after I shampooed and conditioned it. I'm going to love experimenting with this stuff. Thursday, I take out my current twists, wash my hair and prepare for my Friday braiding appointment. I'm looking forward to bathing my lochs in this stuff.

Eva Longoria...FINALLY PREGNANT?

Well the photo that started the rumor...again (note this is not the first time people have speculated about this chic being knocked up)...it sure looks like a baby bump to me, especially considering she is naturally thin...unlike people like Fergie who, if she eats one too many hamburgers, will grow a small pouch and spark rumors of being pregnant her damn self!

what the paparazzi press is reporting....

"Eva Longoria and her new husband Tony Parker are reportedly expecting their first child together. Longoria sparked rumors that she is pregnant after she was spotted sporting a baby bump at the Council of Fashion Designers of America Fashion Awards on Monday night.

The ‘Desperate Housewives’ star has previously admitted that she and Parker do want to start a family saying, “Tony and I would love to have kids.”

A rep for Longoria refused to comment on the rumors. “We do not talk about clients’ personal lives,” the publicist said.

YUP! SOUNDS like a confession to me! Congrats EvLO!!!

weightloss wednesday

FINALLY!!! I broke into the 140s WOO HOO!!

last weigh in: 151lbs
today: 149lbs

If i can shave off 4 more lbs by Monday when I start my juice detox, I'd be good to go.

My target/eye/ budgeting is now focused on getting the best jogging stroller, the BOB SUS, which costs a whopping $299.00!!!! yikes!!! Right now I jog with GG's snap and go stroller, which is fine for now, but I'm sure this thing would be better!

mild musings

1. i woke up this morning thinking it was sunday. i was so sad when hubby said it was only Tuesday. i kept waiting for him to say something like "April Fool's"...even though it is June

2. i don't get wearing pants so tight at the waist that it squeezes all your fat up and over the side and front of your pants. a lot of women do this. what is up with that?

3. we are living in a land of plumbers. i thought high waisted jeans were in style. why do i keep getting flashed with muffin tops and dental floss underwear wrapped around chubby bottoms?

4. i hate looking so cute to go to work only to sit at my desk all day and waste a totally fly outfit.

5. damn it's so hot, my baby has heat rash on her chubby cheeks. gotta get Sears in here stat to fix this darn air conditioner unit.

6. my baby is only 5 months old and her hair is already 5 inches long! boy am i in hair care trouble!

7. my dream job would be to read blogs all day and be a talking head on CNN somewhere, talking crap all day...or maybe replace that ditzy ass Sherry 'Shepard on The View

8. i really need to buy some stock in Exxon or something cause dem bitches are making a killing off us poor suckers, might as well get something back.

9. i got to find something fabulous for my husband and dad this father's day. the two of them are the best fathers EVER. they deserve the World!

my daughter. her hair

GG has a full thick head of hair. I do not know how to cornrow or do anything with it.

GG's nanny quit a week ago, besides missing her cooking and language lessons, I'm going to miss the way she would cornrow GGs thick mane. I found it so pretty and easy to manage after it was done, neatly parted and sectioned off. My husband said it made GG's face look rounder and thus by default more like me. (smile)

GG will start going BACK to her first child care giver this Monday, the same Panamanian woman who cared for GG and her 4 year old daughter in her home before she left to get a temporary job. I used to love how she would surprise me and my hubby when we'd come to pick up GG. She would have neatly washed, cream dressed and combed GG's hair and sectioned it into cute little pig tails and she'd leave the back out soft and curly. Since then, that "baby" hair has fallen out and GG's hair has started to become more course and tight curled, similar to mine.

I am sort of on my own now to find hair products and a hair care regimen for her full head of hair. I found this website for White women who have adopted black children or have their own natural- born or adopted biracial children EXTREMELY HELPFUL! What a sad commentary for me though, to have to turn to a resource meant for white women when I am black with a black child! YIKES!!

In any event, tonight I ordered a batch of "Carol's Daughters" products which I've heard does wonders for making soft thick kinky wonderfully nappy hair manageable. It took me so long to embrace my own hair, I certainly want GG to appreciate the beauty in her hair and it's up to me to make sure media, and other people come near her with terms like "good" hair or use the word "nappy" with an upturned lip and scowl on their faces stay FAR FAR AWAY with their negative impressions and interpretations. I want her to have a full full hair of luscious twists and plaits and *sigh* I'd better start embracing this challenging aspect of having a daughter.

I'm happy to be nappy! :D

momma and baby

It won't be long until I will be spotted on the street wearing this fly terry cloth jumpsuit to match my baby girl! ha!! I AM OUT OF CONTROL!!!

GG and JJ at a friend's baby shower this weekend

Learning to Sit at 5 months!!!

Someone's mastering the art of sitting on her own. Thanks Bumbo seat for the early training! The y grow so fast!! SLOOOO W DOOOWN!

weightloss wednesday

i'll be honest. i didn't want to see an increase in the number, so i didn't even bother today. there! i said it! :P hahahaha!

post baby snap backs - crazy!

DAMN CELEBRITIES !!!Christina - 3 months after giving birthNicole- 3 months after giving birth

Halle 2 months later! What?

Secrets to a mess proof baby feeding or how to feed a baby in a hurry

photo: self portrait of JJ and GGmy mom passed along a tried and true tip for feeding the baby food in a hurry. Like when you have to run out the door and have her dressed and can't afford to get her or yourself messy. I've used this method time and time again successfully.

What you need: 1 Baby. 1 large bib 1 washcloth 1 baby wipe 1 jar of baby food and spoon. Patience and a steady hand

First: Put on large terry cloth bib that covers the length of said child.
Second: For right handed moms/dads/caregivers, Sit said child in left knee on lap.
Third: Put child's right arm around your back to prevent her from flailing and holding the spoon and getting food all over herself and you.
Fourth: Cradle child's head in left arm and hold child's left hand with your left hand.
Fifth: Spoon baby food with your right hand.

Use large terry cloth bib to wipe up spills and mess as you go along. Wipe excess mess off of hands and face with wet wipe when you're done! Voila!!!

MESS PROOF FEEDING