faboo mama

Ilia and Alton on the hotel bed

Ego Tripping
Nikki Giovanni (1973)

I was born in the Congo.
I walked to the Fertile Crescent and built the sphinx.
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light.

I am bad.

I sat on the throne
drinking nectar with Allah.
I got hot and sent an ice age to Europe
to cool my thirst.

I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal.
I cannot be comprehended except by my permission.
I mean…I…can fly
like a bird in the sky…

We had to see Adrian’s mother for Christmas. OMG…I’m still having nightmares from the food. I won’t go into detail here, but let’s just say we were very happy we at at Jack In The Box before we got down there. Here’s some pics from that:

Then my sister came from France with her kid and husband. Ilia and Chiana had met before, but I don’t think Ilia remembers it. On New Year’s Day, they came over. Ilia was fascinated by Chiana and they were so cute together. I went out to meet them a shopping mall later in the week and Ilia and Chiana walked the whole place holding hands. Chiana bought Ilia a pinky fuzzy pillow that Ilia just loves and she still talks about Chiana and shows us her pictures. I’m always impressed by Ilia’s vocabulary when she spends time with other kids. In the short time she spent with Chiana, she cleared up several words and added even more to her long list. Here are some pictures from their visit:

Which brings us to a very proud moment. On New Year’s Eve, I realized that Ilia was running out of diapers. I thought, enough is enough, this girl is getting potty trained. So I pulled out the big girl underwear and put them on her. She immediately piddled on the floor. Every 20 - 30 minutes I made her sit on the toilet. She faught me every time. When I asked her if she had to pee, her immediate response was ‘no’. I made her sit on the toilet, and nothing, only to have her pee on the floor 3 minutes later. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Screw this, I thought…next time she pees on the floor, she’s cleaning it up. So, naturally she peed on the floor and I made her clean it up. I think that’s when she understood I meant business. I put her down for her nap and she stayed dry. Celebration! As midnight neared I let her choose what dress she could wear. She was so excited about the holiday and her big girl underwear. She stayed dry from her naptime on. She had to show everyone her underwear, which was sort of embarassing in a cute sort of way. Since then, she’s only had 2 accidents, both overnight. We’re very proud and happy that she’s finally potty-trained. The only problem we have now is that she uses the “I have to pee” excuse whenever she wants to getout of going to bed or sitting still in a restaurant. And to think…we get to go through all of this again. Yippee!

I bought a membership to the LA Zoo because Ilia just loved the movie Madagascar and wanted to see the real deal. I thought a zoo membership would also be a great way to be educated AND get some exercise in. The membership package I got allows me to take 2 adults and all the kids I want, so hit me up if you want to go to the zoo. Here are some pictures from that day. We only got 2 shots of Alton because he was sleeping most of the time we were there.

Speaking of Alton…the boy is BIG. He’s 2 months old, as of the 12th, and he’s already wearing 3
- 6 month clothing. We have a ton of newborn stuff that he never even got to wear. My master plan is to put his stroller, infant carrier, and all this newborn stuff he’ll be grown out of by June on eBay or craigslist. We’ll see how that works out. Meanwhile, he’s just getting bigger and bigger. I swear what he weighs now is what Ilia weighed when she was 6 months old. Okay, maybe not, but the kid is huge.

At any rate, he’s still a great kid. He sleeps well enough, though the last 2 days have been rather difficult. He falls asleep, but when you put him down he wakes. Adrian learned the hard way with Ilia that just letting her sleep in your arms for hours on end, day after day, sets a routine that is hard to break. Breastfeeding is practically nonexistent. My milk supply just kept dwindling and so I’ve been pumping and taking Mother’s Milk tea. I’m hoping to relactate. I just need to keep a schedule. I’m so bad at maintaining schedules here at home, especially when one work day is different than the next. When I worked in an office, I was on a rigid schedule, but life is much different.

The other day, I had planned on taking pictures of Alton, but he and Ilia woke up at the same time and had other plans. While I fed him, Ilia took pictures of us:

Not bad, eh?