Move over Cesar Millan! There’s a new canine charmer in town, and his name is Stone Grant. There is only one thing my son loves more than the outdoors, and that’s putting the outdoors in his mouth. Previously I would merely grimace when he put bits of pinecone and rose petals in his mouth, […]
Caroline says I have a permanent scowl on my face. “I never see you smiling,” she burst one day. I looked up from the diaper I was changing/floor I was sweeping/laundry I was washing/child I was chastising (I don’t recall, but surely I was doing one of these many things) and met her concerned gaze. […]
I haven’t spent much time blogging these last few days because I’ve been dealing with an issue at my daughter’s school: specifically, her attitude in class. Nadjah has had a difficult kindergarten experience, to say the least. She spent 2 months of the first semester in Ghana where she was behind her peers, finished up […]
Two weekends ago I abducted The Fabulous Akuba Sheen(!) and Caroline and drove off to the Natural Hair Expo on Camp Creek Rd. I’ve heard about the pomp and pageantry that takes place at this even year after year, but work or child care has always prevented me from attending. This year, I was not […]
Human beings are (usually) born with five senses: smell, touch, sight, taste and hearing. (Had to list them out, in case any geniuses out there didn’t know what they were.) But the on the day that your first child is born- the very day you become a parent – you develop a sixth sense, and […]
It started with a sudden moan that progressively got loader and loader that culminated with him screaming my name. As I pulled him closer to me, he wrapped his legs tighter around my waist, burying his face into my breasts. He would be denied neither attention nor affection. As we rocked and swayed together in […]
Nadjah will be turning 7 in 6 months, which means I have to start gearing up for a chat about sex, and now that it’s 2011, sexuality. 40 years ago, this conversation could have been postponed until she was at least 14 or 15, but with more and more elementary school children engaging in sexual […]
I’ve been mothering for what seems like an eternity, and I have an eternity still to go. One of the good things about having this many kids is that nothing the newest child does comes as a surprise – unless, as Aya did last night, its fishing out a used baby wipe from the toilet […]
Yesterday I was getting the kids ready for church, which was pretty much a catastrophe because it was daylight savings time (and not the good one where we gain an hour) and Marshall had to go to church to do sound, leaving me alone with all the kids. All the same, I managed to press […]
It’s International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the accomplishments of women everywhere…I think. I haven’t actually researched the holiday (is this actually a “holiday”?). As my contribution to this day to celebrate women, I offer you some advice that I have received from other women that have aided me tremendously thus far: Don’t wear […]
This has been a hard week for two of my mom friends – and indirectly been a hard week on me because I worry about them so much. Their lives are drastically different from one another’s, like some remixed urban version of Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” centered around two African-American women connected by […]
What do drugs, whores, pimps and violence have to do with the circus? Generally nothing, unless it’s the UniverSoul Circus. No really…the grand finale – the climax of the show – circles around the tale of a redeemed hooker. What ever happened to plain old dancing ponies and tigers that leap through circles of fire? […]
One of the best things a woman can do for herself is to surround herself with other women. Conventional belief will dispute this assertion, but I think it’s a fundamental need for female survival, and always had been. Just as important as it is for a woman must surround herself with other women, it is […]
I am well qualified to teach Black history…although I probably shouldn’t. One’s ability to do a thing and whether it’s proper to do said thing are two completely different camels in the same shed. I am far too honest and blatant in my delivery to teach a subject as touchy and emotional as my peoples’ […]
Only a person with children can comprehend the level of exhaustion of which I am about to speak. When I was single, I thought I had no time, and I thought that I was tired. Then I had my first child in December 2004, and I have not had a decent night’s sleep since. It’s […]
Whoever is head of marketing at Chick-fil-a is a genius. This weekend Chick-fil-a’s across the region had a Daddy Daughter Date night in their restaurants. To provide an air of exclusivity, you had to sign up online to get your reservation. My girls, being the divas in training that they are, decided that they wanted […]
Konkonsa: translation – to gossip; a gossiper Konkonsa is the act of eavesdropping, rearranging the gathered data, and disseminating it to an unintended audience. Most children are not konkonsa…but many are masters of lapore , meaning they love to tell on other children (and in exceptional instances, tell on adults. If you’re an adult given […]
My daughter Nadjah is overly obsessed with comparisons. “Mommy? Who crawled the fastest when they were babies?” she often asks. “I dunno, sweetie.” “Mommy? Who cried the loudest?” “I’d have to say Liya,” I generally reply. “Mommy? Who was the messiest eater? Who pooped the most?” God if I even care! You were all messy […]
Last week the whole e-Parenting world was abuzz and ablaze after an excerpt of Amy Chau’s book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother was printed by the WSJ under the title “Why Chinese Mothers Superior.” In it, Ms. Chua describes how she would make her children practice piano and violin for hours on end every […]
About a month ago, my daughter joined the ubiquitous Girl Scouts organization as a Daisy. I’ve always wanted to be a scout. I was a Girl Guide in Junior Secondary School (JSS), but that’s analogous to comparing the Beatles to Corky and the Juice Pigs [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwO33oUawM8]. Same genre, just way (way!) less cool. When Nadjah first joined the […]
Our house must’ve been one of the few homes in America that did not have a gaming system. Well, that’s not entirely true. Last Christmas, my husband gleefully brought home his circa 1992 Nintendo gaming console (complete with a vintage Street Fighter cartridge) that had been holed up in his parents’ basement in Ohio for […]