Category: NaBloPoMo

Where to begin?? Happy Birthday Max!

Hubby was home today. It was nice to just have an extra day to chillax with him & bébé. I got to sleep in for a few extra minutes this morning while he spent time with his daughter. Then we opted to do part 1 of our errands before naptime. We ran out to Tiber River for some hair products for Jamayia. Then we zipped over to Baby Bin to see about some soap, again for bébé. They were out of soap, but I did pick up a cool “colouring” book for her instead. You can colour in the pages with crayon, then wipe off with a kleenex and redo again and again and again. Then we went to a Hull’s Family Bookstore to pick up something. And since we were in the area and had a few moments, we stopped in to see Auntie Carolyn at work. She has pics of baby on her desktop, and so she’s already popular at the office. I’m sure she’ll be signing autographs next time we pop in to say hello.

While baby napped, I made so awesome wraps. We got some chicken (breast, Amanda, okay??) strips and some flavoured wraps. We used either guacamole or hummus as a base, then added onions, cukes & tomatoes. Tops with a bit of honey mustard sauce (it came with the strips) and either some Asian Sesame or Ranch dressing. Yummmm-Oooo!! Doesn’t that just make you want one right now?!

Post-nap, it was back out again for a couple more errands, on this side of town. Stopped off at Safeway to make a return. Then off to Toys R Us to investigate a few necessities. Now being in a house, and living in the basement, we need a couple baby gates. She also needs a new high chair. Due to space limitations and aesthetics, we’ve narrowed down the choice to two: the Fisher Price Space Saver vs. this Safety 1st competitor. The first one looks nicer, I think. Next up–new car seat. With her winter jacket on, Jamayia’s getting a little too bulky for her infant car seat. Yet, she’s still under 20 lbs, so she needs to be rear-facing. So, we’ve gotta find one of those convertible options, that’ll hopefully last us until she can sit like a big person in the car. Again, the two options are This one vs That one. This week, “that” one is on sale.

Well, this post isn’t a running advertising spot on purpose. I just started by adding a few links, and decided to see how many links I can actually post here. Made for an interesting challenge because I wanted to find the right sites to show my loyal reader-fans pics of whatever I’m talking about. Please let me know.

And why do I still not have any suggestions for the new name for this blog?

Okay, cool things first.

My brother & I were asked to lead out in some praise & worship songs at church today. The worship leader had asked us a few weeks back. Well, probably the week after she’d asked, the lightbulb went on our church projector. Since then, we’ve been without some of our regular media technology (ie: hymns on big screen). The music at church has been for the most part, kinda dry lately too. There have been a few highlights this year (and it’s definitely a vast improvement over the musical atrocities of last year), but the praise & worship part was practically nonexistant. So, I was happy when I was finally asked to participate, and eagerly agreed. My one motto for this week was “NO HYMNS!”. Don’t get me wrong–I love hymns, but it was time for a change.

The church responded so well today! The singing was just beautiful. Oh, and I’d spoken to my youth pastor, and he found a cord to run from the audio/visual booth computer to the front, where they could connect it to another projector. Praise the Lord! These people sang so well that it almost seemed as though they’ve been storing it up for a rainy day or something. Music is something that touches everyone on one level or another. You just can’t take the risk of screwing it up.

The ugly for today: an interview gone awry. I was shown this link this evening. A tv host decided to get stupid during a satellite interview with Tyler Perry & Janet Jackson as they were promoting the new film “Why Did I Get Married?”. You’ve got to see the link. One thing that annoyed me was that out of 3 anchors sitting in on the satellite interview, not one of them tried to stop the one guy from running his mouth. In fact, the female anchor was urging him on in his nonsense. Had I been the station manager, I so would’ve fired them on the spot. In fact, probably on air for their callousness. Then, in the apology spot, again, the guy was pathetic. And the same female anchor had nothing constructive to contribute. I’m still shaking my head. This entire incident could’ve been much uglier than it was.

Anyhoo, that’s it for the moment. Still enjoying the praise & worship singing experience from today. When you have great music, it helps to set such a beautiful tone on the entire service. Singing is only one aspect of praise and worship. And the rest of the service afterwards totally reflected that. Hopefully this positive trend will continue!

I think I may be shopping on the wrong days. Last Thursday, I went to get a few groceries, and met a group I know at the store. Then on Sunday, I returned to the same store and again, saw the same group, but from afar. (Note to self–never go to that store on a Sunday again. Wayyy to crazy!!). Then today, again a Thursday, I happened to see the same group. This time, however, it was in driving past them at an intersection, though I was headed to a different store. LOL. Clearly I need to change over my shopping days….

Baby had an early awakening yet again today. Funny how I think it’s early, yet many other people childrens awake even earlier than mine. But, she went down after about 90 mins, for a good 2 hrs. Yay!! Translation–I also got a nap too. And yes, she did take a second nap today. Again, yay!!

Alrighty, must keep this short. Hubby’s working from home tonite. Beats being at the office though, fo shizzle… Yay!!

First off, Happy Anniversary to my cousins Andy & Coni. 3 yrs for them today. By today’s standards, that’s a milestone. Congrats!

It was a very humdrum kind of day. I didn’t go out (big surprise there). I did have a great chat today. We covered all sorts of topics in that convo. One thing I will say here is that we were wondering why sex, often (but not always) when shown on tv and spelled out in books, is portrayed as a neat & tidy and very meaningless chore?

Off the sex topic, I will segue into something else. I went to a child’s first birthday party this past weekend. Enough people were invited, thanks to the ease of Facebook invites. Though I had to wonder, and legitimately so, if the child’s parents actually knew all the people they were inviting. I mean, because they just blitzed their friends lists, out of towners were even casually invited. They rented out a room at a community sports arena for this party.

To be honest, however, a good part of me was wondering how much of this was actually for the kid. Did the child say to its parents “hey, throw me a bash and invite everyone you ‘kinda know of’ online?” Did the parents stop to think about how their child won’t ever remember this and that this event would really come across as a show for themselves? There were people at the party who had never met the birthday baby before. Almost like a social. Oh, and it was listed at a 5 hour event. I’ve been to shorter weddings… And, again on the honesty train, the party wasn’t all that. I wasn’t too impressed to be walking into a 1 yr old’s birthday party with the song “Sexual Healing” blasting through their speaker system. There were a gazillion presents, which seemed kinda overkill at the time. The food was cold and the selection was minimal. The room wasn’t the cleanest and this party really seemed to be more about the adults and not so much about the kids.

Don’t get me wrong–I think a child’s birthday should be celebrated. That first year can be quite a big one and deserves to be celebrated. However, I also think that when the party is for your child, then that should be evident. Invite people who mean something to your child’s life. No need to go overboard. If you want to have a party for yourself, then have a separate party. It’s shouldn’t be about the material presents or bragging rights because x number of people showed up at your event. Someone described the event interestingly…it seemed to be overcompensation for the circumstances of that family’s life.

I just let that experience be a learning one for myself. As a mother, when I claim to be doing something for Jamayia, then it should be about her. Small events are okay. Big events are fine too, when it’s not a waste…

Jamayia has this fascination for the water cooler in the kitchen. She loves water. Most importantly, she loves cascading water. Showers & bath times rock for this kid. Hand washing is pretty neat too. But in all those cases, she can never reach the faucets herself.

Enter the water cooler. Wouldn’t you know that the little tabs are right within arm’s reach. Of course we tried to block off the offending thing. There are 2 huge, and full, jugs of water in front of the cooler. But of course she can easily stretch and reach out and still get the tabs.

Today’s latest and greatest trick, realizing that by pulling up on the little tab, water comes out. (Just this morning she was trying hard to stick her finger in the little spout, but it always came out dry). As determined as she is, she finally figured it out all on her own. Water comes out when you pull on the tab-thingees. And, she can enjoy the water when she pulls with one hand, and puts her other hand under the streaming water. C’est excitant, n’est-ce pas?

Sure, now she’s got the rest of us mad busy trying to figure out how to block off the water cooler. Wish us luck please….

Black pepper—definition: something you don’t want your child playing in as though it’s sand.

We’re kinda living out of boxes for the moment. And well, they’re on the floor (because they don’t belong on the kitchen table) and within baby’s eye level and hand reach. Wouldn’t you know that she likes to reach in and grab things from these boxes. Today’s prize was the bottle of black pepper. I dunno how she got into it, and some got on the living room floor.

We were all watching the big reveal on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and I see something dark & grainy on the floor. Jamayia was having a grand time, rubbing her hands through this “dirt”. Excpet that dirt doesn’t just manifest from thin air. So, after a lightning round of the What’s-On-The-Floor-And-How-Did-It-Get-There game, I could smell it—black pepper. Ahhhh! We did an immediate strip down and proceeded to dunk her in the tub. Out came the broom, followed by the Swiffer.

And a good time was had by all.

Who paid this child to wake up so sillilly (yes, I like to invent new words sometimes) early today?? She awoke at about 6:15 am…and proceeded to stay awake. Usually when she wakes up during the middle of the night, I feed her, then her Daddy takes her and settles her back down into her crib. But this morning, because technically that hour is morning and no longer night, she was just clinging to me beyond belief. But I wasn’t quite done sleeping yet. Furthermore, since we are bunking with people, we wanted to make sure that we kept her noise to a minimum. As tempting as it was to wake up the Aunties at that unlawful hour, it was completely unnecessary. I’ll save my early wake ups for something that’s actually vital, thank you.

The only thing that kept me going was the fact that early wake up meant guaranteed catnap during church and a regular nap at Grandma’s house later. Sure enough, that’s exactly how it played out. She just conked out on my chest during the worship service, without any effort on my part. And stayed asleep for a good 30-45 minutes. Yippee!

We went to my parents’ house for lunch, as we usually do after church. This time the Aunties came along too. And, as usual, we had great, gut-busting after dinner convos. My, how the West Indian upbringing can be quite amusing at times. One conclusion we came to was that despite the discrepancies that sometimes occur in our families, they happen even worse in other cultures.

Clocks go back tonight. I generally don’t care for this day, when we “fall back”. It just makes the Sunday drag out for me. This year, though, I actually have things to do. So maybe it won’t feel as bad.

However, it does guarantee that Jamayia will be arising early yet again, according to the clock…