One Hot Mama - or in other words, Adjoa created a mixed-media portrait of me at school yesterday

So Adjoa brought this sexy number home from school and proudly {and very excitedly} informed me that it was... wait for it... mommy!

I was touched. I was honored. I was impressed with her natural talent {and very pleased she endowed me with killer long legs instead of the short stubs I walk around on}.

Did you notice the highlights? Love it! Did you noticed she made sure to give me shoes? Did you pick up on the crazed googly eyes? She totally nailed it.

Of course, I don't look particularly "happy" in the picture - my smile is a tad on the straight side. Is she sending me some kind of message that I need to be a happier mommy???

Oh well, at least it's a big mouth, which is also quite accurate.

Cute Hair and a Sure Fire Way to Put Your Child to Sleep

Adjoa's hair is finally getting longer {actually, it's grown about an inch every month but when you start with practically nothing, it still takes a while}. I have started experimenting with it.

It's fun, but kind of a lot of pressure. I always do it at night with a movie on. She sits longer, and then if it doesn't turn out, I can just take it out in the morning. I typically end up changing my mind when I start. I've tried to cornrow a couple different times, but I really think I need the hair longer because I'm inexperienced. I'm sure it's long enough to cornrow, but it's not long enough for me to cornrow.

I learned to braid crossing over the top - when you cornrow you bring the hair behind the back. So I pretty much have to re-train my hands. I have to change how I hold the hair and everything. So yeah, I need more hair for that.... Maybe I should practice on one of Adjoa's dolls or something....

I've been doing flat twists instead. It's way easier and has a cornrow-type look.

Anyway, here are some pictures of recent endeavors.

Just some little braids in the front with butterfly beads and clips. I left the back in an afro puff. I really love that look for Adjoa. This is what I ended up doing after one of my failed cornrow attempts. I had done flat twists several times recently and really wanted to try something different and use these new beads I bought. Turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. And I do.


Finger curls. I liked this look and it held for about a week. All I did was twist and twist and twist the little locs around my finger. It's important to get the twist pretty close to the head so the curls stay in longer. The twists I was lazy about started looked a little sloppy after a couple days. This took FOREVER. Like nearly 3 hours. It's all that twisting. Super easy, but very time consuming. That's why I left them in for a week.

Here's what the twist-out looks like. After the finger curls started to look a little tired, I just split the big curls into about 5 or 6 sections. The spirals stayed intact and looked super cute. This is a great way to naturally relax the curl. Braids work well as natural relaxers of curl too. Robert loves this look. Adjoa grew tired of it after about a day because so many people were touching her hair. By the end of the day she'd had it. It lasted about 3 days, and then the back was looking seriously nappy. It washed out really easily.


Ok. Now as promised, my sure-fire way of putting Adjoa to sleep. Wait for it... NPR. LOL. I'm not kidding. As soon as I turn it on {in the car or at home} she's out in a matter of minutes. It's probably not surprising or original in any way, but if you are longing for your kids to sleep and you want to catch up on some news, flick the radio on and it's as good as done!


P.S. I'm having some technical difficulties with blogger right now, so I hope this post looks right.

Swim Lessons, New Fridge, Blub and a bit of Glee

Adjoa's swim teacher gave us a cute little certificate outlining all Adjoa learned to do in her second swim class this summer.

Just so you all know, Adjoa has successfully completed the following swim skills:

• Jump off diving board with assistance
• Back Float with assistance
• Superman (Streamline)
• Blowing bubbles under water
• Circle Arms
• Flutter Kick
• Spiderman
  

And in case you were wondering how cute she looks doing those things, here's a picture to give you an idea. She's so brave! She loves jumping off the diving board, as you can tell. She can even swim unassisted for a little bit.

In other news, our house is determined to destroy us. The garbage disposal went out in the apartment downstairs a little bit ago and the refrigerator died a rather untimely death. Without any warning. So we also had to buy a new fridge. Ugh. If we make it through the fall without a single unexpected expense, it will be a huge blessing.

Our sod was installed (the same day our fridge died) and it's starting to look less soddish and more like grass. Pictures will be posted shortly. I'd like to wait a bit so it's more healthy-looking and not in shock before I show the world our latest landscape development.


There are a couple cute Adjoa sayings I want to make sure I get written down so I don't forget. She used to say "l" for "r" so FROG would be FLOG. As in, "Ma! Look! A Gleen Flog!" It was so cute and endearing. She doesn't do that anymore and sometimes it makes me a little sad. {She also used to call me Ma instead of Mom. I miss that too. Which is a surprise to me because I felt like an old pioneer grandmother when she would say "Ma"}

Right now she says BLUB instead of BLOOD. She bites her lip or tongue several times a week, poor girl, and inevitably, she will stick her tongue out and ask,

Mom! Do I have BLUB?

The blub carries over and she conjugates it well. "Mom, are you blubbing?" lol. We get a kick out of it on a daily basis.

She also seems to think slobbery and strawberry are interchangeable. It makes for some interesting dinner conversations.


On a personal note. I can't believe I haven't posted yet about Glee. Have any of you seen this? I was super excited when we saw the pilot in the spring. I thought for sure it was going to be a summer show. I think the pilot was so popular they decided to wait until fall. Well, it about killed me to wait all summer for this new show. It's on tonight and I'm in 7th heaven.

Perfect line-up. So You Think You Can Dance {yes, I watched that all spring and never once blogged about it. My how things change when you have kids!} and Glee. I think Wednesdays are perfect.