Homegirl Quel (kel) in Austin

Happy Friday!

My paul bunyan baby boy is 4 months old now. His hair is growing back, his eczema is improving and I love him exponentially more everyday than I did the day before. He refuses to lay down and play on his activity mat like a normal baby. I tried laying him down on it a few days ago when I got it and he wasn't having it. He's very nosey curious about his surroundings and is more comfortable if he can look around and find me when he wants to. He loves to play on his back, but only if I'm looking down at him. Today when we got back from his first playdate (he was the youngest there, but had a blast watching the other kids play and screamed and laughed right along with them and I enjoyed the company of adults during daytime hours which was great), he was wired up so I tried laying him down again to see how he'd do--no ma'am. So, our compromise was to put him in his infant seat so he could play with the toys at eye level. As you can see, that made him very happy...for about an hour!  Score!

Sometimes...

At the end of the day
I want to go some place dark and very quiet
And drink something very strong and smooth
And smoke.

I don't smoke, but it always looks relaxing when I see other people do it. Instead of drinking and smoking, I settle for a long shower and coffee and sometimes a late trip to Barnes and Noble to relax--it works. My son is sleeping all night now, which means he naps less during the day, which means I better be rested, bright and shiny when he wakes up in the mornings. So far so good. 

Random Song Outburst

"So hoooooow
do youu expect mee
to liiive alooone with juust mee
when my woorld revolves aaaround you it's so haard for me to breeeath."

I saw this video the other day and now I can't stop singing that line. I don't know any of the other lyrics yet so I just sing that line and the chorus over and over again. My son finds the "no aaaya aaaya" particularly amusing.

Jordin Sparks ft Chris Brown - No Air

"She only drinks coffee at midnight when the moment is not right...

...Her timing is quite unusual."  Train wrote those lyrics about Virginia, but that line sounds a lot like Raquel these days.

I feel like my day starts at 9 o'clock at night and there's no real "night" for me. Around 9, my son goes down for the night. Once he's out, I take a good, longer than necessary shower. Then, if Billy hasn't cooked, I'll make a quick dinner, which is usually something like a breakfast--the favorite this week was an okra, onion and egg omelet with smashed potatoes. Then I'll clean the kitchen while the coffee pot is brewing. When the kitchen's done or the coffee is ready, whichever comes first, I have a seat on the sofa next to Billy and log on to the Internet to catch up on emails, blogs, celeb gossip and political happenings while I have my coffee. Then if I'm not in the mood to read, I watch old episodes of my favorite shows on the network websites. I watch online because Billy's usually watching the playoffs or nothing interesting is on tv at that time of night. These days I'm re-watching Lipstick Jungle on abc.com. It's like Sex and the City except better. Then around midnight we lock the house down, settle the dogs in and then settle ourselves in. The boy usually wakes up around 2:30 am to eat so from midnight to about that time, while Billy's asleep, I'm lying in bed resting and listening to talk radio over Billy's sleep-breathing and the low hum of the baby monitor waiting for my son's call. On a good night, I'll fall asleep and he won't call until much later if at all like this morning when I had to wake him up at 7 am only because my boobs were about to pop.Then it's me and my boy, playing nursing and napping until my day starts again around 9 at night. Almost three and a half months into this motherhood thing and I think I'm starting to feel like I'm catching a rhythm.

It's 10:55 pm now. The Laker game just ended and I'm finishing my coffee and this post.

Goodnight and Good morning. 

This is really happening!

In 1808, slave trade was banned in the U.S.

In 2008, the U.S. Democrat nominee for president and quite possibly the next president of the United States is the son of an African.

I feel so excited and proud and nervous. And happy for all the minority children witnessing this. If they didn't believe it before, after today they have a reason to believe that the sky is the limit for them to be whatever they want to be.

Awesome.

Two Tuesday Randoms

As of yesterday I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight! After 3 months, it feels good to bid farewell to those 44 pounds. 

Also, I got to see the late show of  Sex and the City at our neighborhood theater. I waited until my boy was good and sleep and skipped out for a couple of hours after 10. As a fan of every single season, I'm thoroughly pleased with the film. I feel total closure--the series wrapped up perfectly. I hope there's a Sopranos movie coming. That series finale was wack as  hell! The Sopranos folks SO owe us a movie.

To Do:Read or listen to Barack Obama's books.

Aw shucks :)

Last weekend a guy who looked like he was in his early twenties knocked on our door to promote a new company that opened in our neighborhood. Our conversation started out like this:

I answered the door...

Me: "Yes?"
Him:"Hi. Um. Are your parents home, errr...?"
Me: (looking over my shoulder into the house as if to make sure he's actually addressing me, then turning back around, smiling) " Oh! No, this is my house."
Him: (looking taken aback and confused) "Oh?! (then smiling and nodding) awesome...."

I do live in a grown-up neighborhood, so that fact that he seemed impressed it was my house is not a big deal. What was frickin' awesome was that to him, I looked like I had PARENTS!