Cammy and I went to Grants Farm with her classmates. My little ball of wonder fed an elephant! My kid is just so awesome. Some days I am just in awe of the people they are. Especially Cammy. She is just so full of curiousity, and is so happy. Just a well of good tidings. She is so full of confidence and is not afraid to say what she thinks and how she feels. I know her life is a work in progress but somedays I am proud of hte job our support system has done wth her as a person, and who we have all helped her become.
She went to an great birthday party last week it was just four girls and the birthday girl, and it was held so that at the end of the day so there was enough time for bath and a story then it was bed time - GENIUS! I tell you!
Bri has beena little sick lately - just a tad under the weather. The occasional fever, mostly just sluggish and not able to keep many solids down (fun times!) but all in all she has bounced back well. She’s taken to the outside and wants to spend allof her time outside - which is a mixed blessing as my kids both love being outdoor but htey are both like candy for mosquitos. So we are trying to work out a less chemically HARSH was to fight that battle.

Jerry and I went to dinner with our friends again tyesterday. Its downtown restaraunt week which we like to use to try new places, I think we found a serious contender for best place to take a group of people who you love and don’t mind sharing a fork with.

Mosaic.

It was so good it gets its own paragraph break. We tried almost everything on the menu. Thing that left a lasting impression, the Sea Bass, the Kabob, the lacquered Chicken (we had to order anything that made us think you were ordering food from HomeDepot.) It was Mojito special night and we ordered the Watermelon Mojito (cause how could we not?) and the blueberry Mojitos were AWESOME. The thing I like most about our life right now is that Jerry and I have a blended family that is truly blended. My friends and family adore his and vice versa. I love that we don’t go out with his friends on Tuesday and my friends on Thursday. That we can call them all and they are excited to get together. We had very interesting table converstaion. We watched the olympics on a 45 in flat screen near our table we made pleanty of comments about the clear violation by china if they think anybody is buying that someof those girls are 16. And while I don’t want to turn tape recorder some of the classic lines of the night were…

• Give me some of that sweet gravy! (it was soup)
• Oh.. you see how that gymnast is lookin at that other chick? Shes plugged into the Hatrix.
• (from a vegetarian) I really do remember meat! (us to the vegetarian) that meat you didn’t eat? it was awesome.
• Seriously? You can get a pole in a box? Yes, a stripper pole in a box, yes over at … they sell em, I bought one as a gift..

It was the kind of night that you think the stars have to be aligned to have happen but we have these kinds of good times everytime wehang out with our friends, so I can only count myself as extrememly blessed to have them in my life.

In photography news the “Its Intimate” portion of my work, is truly coming along. We will hopefully formally launch in the next few weeks. I am about to announce holiday session specials for cards and I am looking for Senior ambassadors, so if you know any High School Juniors who are interested in getting a great deal on their senior session please feel free to forward my information to them.   

Funny thing is I have gotten way more interest from my portrait sessions than I thought that I would. And I sincerely thank you for that. I appreciate all that you do and how forgiving you all have been as I work the kinks out of my process. Your feed back has been invaluable - good and bad, I want to hear it all, and I thank you for taking the time to tell me what you honestly think.  I am attending a seminar that I am hoping to learn more about this side of the art and will hopefully make for better experices for both you and I.

I’ll be posting more sessions in the near future, I am sort of working on finishing some of the other elements of the site and that has taken priority, so bear with me more stuff is coming soon!

moving on to my early week:
Monday Jerry took the day off to recover from the massive amounts fermented beverages he consumed. Went to lunch with his best friend then went to hang out before going to see Iron Man, and then apparently hung out after as well. I, however went to work, came home with an extra four year old and did the mom thing until 8:30 when the extra four year old got picked up and Cammy decided it was a good time to LOSE HER MIND – and throw a fit which included screaming and kicking the walls while in her bed. This would have been a perfect time to present her to all those friends who can’t wait to have kids and see how they respond. Mine went something like:

Um. Can you say ‘HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND LITTLE WOMAN?’

I think she figured out I mean business. She apparently is under the impression that throwing a fit to get what she wants is gonna work for her, and i don’t know WHERE she got that idea. Shes still has days where she wants me to put Bri back where she came from and pay attention to HER. That was the spring board for the tantrum. She wanted me to stop feeding Bri to put her to bed. But the routine is pretty basic, I feed Bri while she changes into PJ’s and brushes her teeth, and picks out a story. Bri goes to sleep I come and read to her. She was not having the ten minute cushion between finishing all of her night time stuff and Bri going to sleep. SHe tends to be extra tantrum filled after hanging out with her little friend, who is a good kid, but does melt into screaming crying fits when she doesn’t get her way. She was better about that than I expected while they played but definately melted down when it was time to go. Possibly thats a compliment coming from a four year old. Needless to say Monday was a long day.

And the rest of the week, looks like its pretty well full up too. Tuesday I had the little boys (ages 13 and 9) from next door over for dinner as it was the nine year olds birthday and he asked and I said yes before I could even think to say no. They take good care of Cammy when she plays outside, I feel comfortable leaving her outside and watching from the window if they are out there with her, and sometimes just seem like they could use the extra attention. The thirteen year old was excited to see that Jerry has an XBOX and hte newest lastest mature rated game, which I let him play since he has like all the other games in the series. Seemed a little pointless to be all, “That game is for grown up mister! Now teach me how to shoot a rocket launcher before you go upstairs!”

Sigh.

NaNa came over had dinner with us, when she walked in I told her I was pregnant again and had a 9 year old and a thirteen year old. She said - ‘Man, that had to be painful for you.’ Did I mention that all weekend people kept asking me if I was pregnant? They heard we were expecting again. I wanted to be like, ‘I’d show you my IUD if I could.’
Bad transition, speaking of IUD’s I’m weaning Bri right now and does it seem odd that sex is SO much better when you don’t view your body as a vending machine? See I need a married friend I can say those types of things to and not freak them out.
Anyway NaNa brought Cammy some coloring boards, and markers, and sat with Bri while I cooked. Jerry left after dinner to hang with the fellas again for burger night and video games and promptly fell asleep on the couch at ‘Boras house. And now its Wedesday. I’m hoping we can set our next date night up soon I have a few places I want to try out. I like dating my husband its really really necessary for my sanity. Besides, I love dating him and I like him alot.

Best thing I have read today (sorry Dwight you got bumped)

Fatherhood is not unlike the Special Olympics. Sometimes you get a medal just for showing up - http://www.sweet-juniper.com Gotta love that guy

Last week did have a few bumps and bruises.

Pardon me if my transition into this is less than eloquent. My grandmothers best friend, my Aunt Lil, the woman I wanted to name Bria after – like straight up no middle names wanted her name to be Lillian – got a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and was told 6 months hopefully. With exploratory surgery maybe two years. If things go the right way.

I thought Aunt Lil was awesome when I was a little girl. We went to her house a handful of times and I thought she reminded me of Lena Horne. I loved old movies and always thought she should have been in a few herself. She was always so warm and calm. And Her and my granny always had the BEST time together. I always wanted to have a friend like that (Hi Spoken) to hang with and grow old with.

And now her body is betraying her, and my grandmother. My granny is too much like me. We fight for those we love, bend over backwards, move mountains, or mole hills. We are do’ers. And when she told me it hung silent between us, ‘So, how do I fight for my friend?’ I don’t know grandma.

I want to tell my granny to go and live it out her – go on a trip, find a beach and lounge, do everything you would want to do with her now, while you can. If it were me and Spoken, I would make sure we went to the ‘bayo classic this year, and the Bahamas, and Disney World, and New York for a show, Kansas City for a strip steak, Chicago for a pizza, Philly for a cheese steak, Seattle for a coffee and some sushi. I would go somewhere every month until she couldn’t anymore. Maybe follow the Roots or Jill Scott on tour, anything, everything. And after that I would stay with her until she couldn’t stay with me anymore.

Sigh again.

Alrighty. Hopefully, I’ll have my computer back for the weekend and I can get some pictures up.

We spend a good thrity minutes mixing and pouring while I pretend I do see her sneaking cookie dough. we wear matching blue aprons. And all is right with her world for a few days. I don’t know what she id gonna do when Bri is big enough that hse wants to help. She looked so put out when I suggested that one day she would have to SHARE the sppon or the paddle from mixing hte dough with her sister. as if I had suggested she cut of her ARM or something!
We have made oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies this week, although most of the oatmeal went to J’s job and most of the chocolate chip we served up at the blogger meet up - post coming soon. I am trying to decide if I should post recipes on the blog - there are soo many bloggers who do the recipe thing better and more regularly than I do so I’m taking votes in the comments. To post recipes or not?
It is offically spring time and Bris is just as much an outdoor baby as her sister was. We have taken to putting her swing in the door so she can see the outside. Or putting on the porch while we watch Cam play with the neighborhood kids.

everday when I get home from work Bri and I go on a little walk of our block, we look at the flowers and all the colors in the yards (not mine I need to garden soooo bad) and we get to see how the street is changing and getting better. Most posting to come…

cookies a comin

oatmeal cranberry apple cookies

cookie batter

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angel on our walk

fresh from the oven

ball of fun

chocolate chip goodness

super chef

ramen fun

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mommy cutters

I just read the most interesting article about moms and babies and bars. which is funny cause in my last post I was talking about how my mom had her birthday party at the Ritz in the lobby which - has a bar in it. A full, honest to goodness bar mind you, with kick butt mojitos, and a sushi bar in another area. So when I read this article I had to laugh.

It never occured to me to not take my girls with me to wish their grandmother a happy birthday. Cammy was excited to get dressed up in her party dress (she looked way better than me mind you) and I don’t think any less of my parenting because they went and stayed up rediculously late and had a really good time. We didn’t ply them with tequilla shots, and I didn’t drink either. But Cam did help with passing out cake slices and danced with her Granny and followed uncle Erskin around till well after her normal bed time. SHe learned seh couldn’t drink grown up drinks, but learned the joy of a shirley temple. It was a non smoking hotel so we had no issues in our party really.

I don’t take my kids when I want to hang with my girls and really have a drink. I don’t want my kids to watch me get saucy. I don’t take my girls unless I know we are going to be among a group of people who are child friendly, I am usually not concerned about the venue, and I have no intention of drinking. But I have taken my kids to pubs like Llywellens, and Ice and something or other. And I will again, I’m sure.

I beleive if my kids are well behaved and enjoying themselves they can go anywhere I want them to. I don’t allow my girls to throw tantrums - at all - in public places. Cam knows that is a sure fire way to get taken home ever so quickly you might for get you ever left.SO I am always confident about taking my kids where ever I want them to be.

do you guys take your kids to places typically not concidered kid friendly?

side note- Randy Pauch is going to be on ABC News on wed. I watch his lecture once a week. I’ve been watching it since the week after he gave it- when I first saw it - it wasn’t on youtube yet, you had to go down load it from somebody at the school. It helps me remember who I want to be and how I want my kids to be. I would strongly recommend you watch it if you can.

This is so awesome.

Not that she didn’t get in last year, but this year I was on my game and she can actually GO this time! SWEET!

I have never been more grateful for anything outside of their births and my marriage.

You know when people say they just want to give their kids the things they didn’t have - it sounds cheesy. I admit that. And I had a good childhood. I can’t think of very many things I just didn’t have as a kid. I got a car when I was seventeen, went to disney world, wasn’t beaten or abandoned, had typical little brother and little sister annoy the crap out of me things. I had a good childhood. But the funny thing is the things that worked just fine for me - don’t seem like they are the basic good anymore. We live in ST. Louis City and public school (which was barely holdin on when I was a kid) is SUCH a non option in my area. this is the first very major area of my a parenting where I felt a serious pressure to give my kids better than I had, to provide her with the best spring board to begin her walk into formal education. I don’t believe I am patient enough for home school. And Some of the local private schools while providing the excellent education I know Cammy would thrive in, would in my opinion stifle her development as a adult. We were very diligent in checking out the recommendations of parents who raised kids we liked and were the type of parents we admired, as well and double and triple checking the schools for academic and social atmosphere that fit our family as well as Cam as an individual. SO we are ecstatic to join this school family and hope Jerry and I get as much out of Cammy’s education there as she does.

Gab is now a beautiful six months old. Shes a bouncy thriving beautiful little girl. SHes so much differnt than I expected her to be. She is much more like her father than CAmmy ever was, CAmmy is way more like me - way more outgoing, more social. Bri likes to sit back in the cut and observe. Shes, been sitting up on her own for a while now, SHes well on the solids, we have video of hte first bowl of solids - we’ll have to post that soon. I just gotta get my cut and splice on..

She’s got the hand thing goin on - they are the most fascinating things ever - her hands and the cat. Cat can do no wrong. She likes the decals on T-shirts she always wants to take them off. Shes into self service feeding, and tries to remove my shirt when she gets an urge.

She refuses to crawl, she, I think , is aware they being carried moves her along faster. and she now motions for us to pick her up - instead of this grand look of entitlement she normally had when she wanted to be lifted. She can roll over and does, she just does not really care for time on her belly. She moves like shes crawling gets annoyed and quits.

She can sit up with out support, puts everything in her mouth. She wants to feed herself so bad, and takes the spoon all the time.And she and her sister SHREEK at each other all the time. like I can see the stock in Advil I will need when they have sleep overs.

we did the easter bunny at a basic egg hunt,. Photos with pseudo rabbit were interesting. We took Cammys best friend who is on the opposite spectrum of affection than Cammy as shown in this picture. Cammys like “WHEE!! its a good time with the Easter bunny!” her friend is like ” dude - there is some chick dressed up in a rabbit suit, I feel sorry for you.”

We also hit the science enter although we only stayed for an hour and a half they are open late on Friday nights but the thing that makes me want to take them isn’t so we’ll need to schedule another trip soon so we can get the most of out our local attractions. Spoken came over that night to hang out while I put the girls down for the night and while I was feeding Bri sat on teh foot of my bed while across the hall in a dark bedroom the two girls giggled and laughed while trying to convince me that they were going to sleep, you know classic girl sleep over stuff. And spoken mentioned she couldn’t remember giggling in the dark with her girlfriends at that age. I hope Cammy and Syd both remember how much fun they had together all the time. I hope Cammy remembers that Syd is the person she always thought of when she got to do something cool. She always asks for another (fill in the blank) for Syd when shes getting a treat, and always tries to save some of her dessert, candy anything and everything for her. and if she doesn’t I hope I do so I can tell her how great her first friendship was for her.

Lastly as a Christian and avid book reader I when I found this book in my weekly bag of cheese I had a good and hearty laugh.  Anybody who doesn’t see the funny in this needs good hearty shake..

you guys have a great day!

then I saw this and as I watched with clenched fists and anger, I deleted the post.

we need to get farther. I have daughters. Girls who will become black women. We need to get farther. We clearly have not come far enough. Potential Presidents be damned,we have not.

This is all I can say with out it turning into a soapbox I don’t particularly want to get on.

Somedays I feel like I harp on race too much, others I don’t feel like I say or do enough. I don’t know what to do.. which way to go.

I’ve deleted paragraphs, over and over again.

I’m sorry I just…can’t unclench my fists to say this properly.

Cammy has certainly started to come into her own. She is dominating the puzzle world. She loves puzzles as much as I do. And I loves me some puzzles. She started off blowing through 24 piece puzzles like “Seriously, can I get a little challenge?” a few weeks ago so I upped the ante and brought home some 63 piece puzzles. She burned through those like whatever so next time I went out I grabbed some 100 piece numbers from the dollar store.
Can I just say I love the dollar store. It’s a toddlers parents best friend.

Now these are a bit more challenging for her. And she likes to work them with you only not really, the whole ‘help me mommy!’ is followed quickly with ‘you are in my way’. So I’m in a no win situation. Anywho she is doing wonderfully with those. We had our second meeting with New City school. I will be turning in the final handful of paperwork so we can make this school thing happen.
I think that is going to go well for us.
Shes a little clingy lately but we are doing well, I had my first major parenting fau pax over the weekend. J

ust for future parenting sake lets just note to self – cute toddlers should not stay up til 2 am with the party just because. Cute toddler will wake up as soon as party is over and be very, very grumpy and moody. I remember staying up with my mom and her friends during her house parties. Its how I learned to play spades and the like, although I don’t think I could hang as well as Cammy. We kept expecting to see her asleep on the couch, but no – we had to physically put her to bed. She was not just gonna fall asleep. However once in the bed she was asleep before I could get her clothes off. So new we know, bed time on party nights - ten o’clock.

This is your daily dose of Bri cute.
Shes is an amazing baby. Just as sweet and calm as she can be.

On a serious note I want to talk about something I believe is very basic
I believe in basic humanity. I believe in the golden rule. I believe that God really meant, don’t be judgmental, a’la Matthew 7:1a: “Judge not, that ye be not judged”. And not some hard core “get right before you do it, but please go ahead and pass judgement” kind of Christianity.
No. I just can’t do it, can’t live that way. I am not God, and would not want to be. I live as full a life as I can. If you want to know why I do the things I do, I can tell you. I am honest about my walk with God, and I am going through it everyday. But I believe in free will. I believe God didn’t give it to us to have it taken away by our fellow man. I believe in the separation of church and state, and I believe that people who are evaga-governing are doing a disservice to all of society. I believe in everyones right to marry, be them gay, lesbian, transgender or straight. I believe in a couples right to chose if they are ready to bring a life into this world. I believe in a committed healthy couples right to adopt children, no matter if that couple is same sex or not.
I believe we has humans have a basic right to be exactly who we are.
We live in historic times my friends. We live in a time when the political climate is prepared for more change now, than we have possibly seen since our country’s birth. And these changes are coming. And I welcome them so.
I say this for two reasons, one today the California supreme court is hearing arguments on the gay marriage issue. I am voicing my support and hope that the right to be married is won today for those who want that right. Want to stand and be committed with their partners. And Two I want to send my condolences to the family of Lawrence King, the fifteen year old who was shot because he asked a boy in his class to be his valentine. It is truly a sad, sad day that such an innocent act of love was given such a hateful response.
My brother is gay. And when I saw Lawrence Kings face I couldn’t help but remember my brother at that age, how sweet and fun he was. And how truly hurt I am that someone thought killing Larry for caring was the best response to have. I grieve for his family and his mother whose child was just trying to come into who he was. And I grieve for his killer Brandon, who is too young….
He changed so many lives, just changed forever.
We have a responsibility as parents to keep this from happening where we can. In our children.
Tolerance is not an affront to faith. Acceptance is not blasphemous. Understanding is not disrespectful to God.
Sometimes the dreams we have for our kids should just be simply be a good human beings.

Saturday morning we woke and dressed and made our way to have a family portrait taken. Yes I could have done it myself but for the cost of the framed picture I don’t think I could have. And its easier to have someone take the picture of you instead of trying to take on of yourself, although I’m gonna try it soon… Anyway, mostly it’s the frame that I haven’t found at a low, low wholesale cost. The prints themselves - yes. The framing - not so much on the cheap.

After we finished with the photo and made our trip through Sam’s to try all the samples we went home to baby sit Jerry’s godson, Elijah. He is the cutest little guy ever. And Jerry is thrilled to be a godfather and is always looking for opportunities to spend time with the little man. So, his mom got to run some errands sans child, and Jerry got to spend some time with him, a win-win for all.

I have a uncle serving in the Army who shipped of to Korea a few weeks back, so I decided to bake cookies to send him, I don’t even know if you can send cookies to Korea, but I guess we’ll find out. I made Mint chocolate chip cookies, regular chocolate chip cookie (which for me consists of dark chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips), peanut butter & milk chocolate chip cookies, and My Quad chocolate chip cookie, (which is a chocolate dough, with every type of chocolate chip I can think of in it.)

So I’ll be putting a variety box in the mail to both him and my sister, who could use a taste of home, which for my family, is me going over boarding the kitchen. I (meaning me and my grandmother) also boxed up all of the things Mrs. Bri has already out grown.

Did I tell you all she is already twelve pounds? Twelve pounds! She was 7lb 10oz when she was born and she gained like half her body weight in a little more than a month. She’s six weeks old and looks and acts like a six month old. She holds her head up and pushes up when laying on her tummy, she wants to crawl, she moves those legs like little pistons.

Cammy loves Creme Brule - Who knew?
Cammy is a bit needy lately. Wants to kiss and hug all the time. So I’ve been trying to spend extra time with her where I can, in the morning, before we leave, we talk and sit together, Before we come down from the bedrooms. She seems happy that its just me and her, and she and I talk about how she feels about the baby all the time. It seems to be helping a little bit.

She has taken to mimicking her father and I when we kiss, which we have discouraged, cause she shouldn’t be kissing people the way we kiss. Cause I likes me a good kiss. Her friends at school are all very affectionate, the all hug very, very hard, but Cammy is a hug and kiss kid, and we are trying to at least if we can’t break the hug and kiss combo at least get the kiss moved to the cheek, with no hold on that kiss. The problem, if you wanna call it that, is that all of my friends and relatives kiss when we greet. So its what she sees - my parents and I have all ways kissed when greeting, my mom by far is the most “Let me kiss you relative” Cammy has, and has kissed her full on for ever. But Cammy hasn’t quite gotten the idea that Kisses are for family members not for friends.

Any body got any ideas on how to accomplish this with out making her feel ashamed of affection or how she feels?

I am also at Jury duty as I write this, I’ve been Juror 784 all morning. I cannot say much about that - how ever the fact that I am Juror 784 is saying enough isn’t it?