In a New York state of mind

 So last Saturday the hubby and I decided to take a day trip to NYC. It was such a great idea, my mom watched T-man for us while we took our first trip alone without him since he was born (I guess it only took us 16 months).

We left at the butt crack of dawn (so painful for me I am really not a morning person) so that we can take advantage of having more time in the city.

We got to NYC just in time for a late breakfast or early lunch. We opted for an early lunch that way we could go go go until dinner. We went to the Brooklyn Diner on Time Square (I was secretly hoping that they would still be serving breakfast but alas). I enjoyed a scrumptious lobster roll and hubby's just got a boring club sandwich.
We played with the mirror effect (we are such kids)

After lunch we went in tourist mode and checked out all the sights that we had in mind stopping at Starbucks along the way to warm up.

The largest Macy's in the world (hehehehehe)

Time Square of course

Some Christmas decoration on the way to Rockefeller (I thought it was really neat)

The Christmas tree at Rockefeller center

Then we went down 5th avenue (I just love this street) with the hopes of going to FAO Schwartz and pick up a nice toy for our little man. The line was ridiculously long so we voted against waiting plus it was so freaking cold.

We then headed to Grand Central, that place was so freaking busy. Hell the whole entire city was busy.

We then got on the metro and headed to bleecker street. My hubby loves record stores and always manages to find one whenever we travel anywhere. There were some sort of Santa event going on because there were all these crazy people dressed in Santa's outfit running around.

And this is the reason why I would never live in NYC

Who wants to pay more than $10 to park for 1/2 an hour. That is just ridiculous. I do enjoy taking in the sights and getting that city feel once in a while.

After bleeker street we were getting hungry for dinner so we went back to Times Square because we wanted to check out the M&M store. This place is awesome, maybe if we had the baby with us we would have taken a pic with the M&M. A picture of the front of the store will suffice :).

We walked down Broadway and found a nice little Asian restaurant where we relaxed, warmed up, and enjoyed a nice diner before we headed home.

This was a great trip and a nice change. It was nice to spend time with my hubby without the baby but I missed him terribly. I am glad we didn't bring that poor little guy tho, it was just way to cold to have him out there like that. So long NYC, we will see you soon and definitely when it's warmer.

My regimen

So I actually have readers who want to know about my regimen (so cool).
When I started, I actually just copied Sunshyne's regimen from hairlicious.inc. I tweaked it a bit from there on  from reading other blogs and seeing how my hair responded to some of the stuff. I am trying not to buy too many product (this is hard) and actually try a product for a couple of months before discounting it.

So here are my products:
Moisturizer - Wave Nouveau moisturizer finishing lotion
Sealant - Hollywood beauty castor oil or hot six oil
Shampoo - Creme of Nature ultra moisturizing shampoo
Prepoo - Coconut Oil (nature's way organic)
Edges/Scalp oil - Castor oil (Jamaican Black Castor Oil (JBCO))
Conditioner - Silk Element Megasilk Treatment
Edges - ORS Edge Control

My Regimen:
- Moisturize and seal twice a day with Wave Nouveau and Castor Oil (usually in the morning and again before bed)
- I baggy everyday, I just love baggying (I basically add some wave nouveau and put a plastic cap over my head for about 3 hours when I get home from work, when I take the plastic cap off, I seal with some castor oil)
- I wear a bun everyday except on wash day when I let my hair air dry.
- I put JBCO on my edges and my scalp twice a week (usually after a wash) - this really helped with my edges
- The night before a wash (usually Friday) I put coconut oil on my hair and put a plastic cap on it. I sleep with it until the morning
- I wash my hair with the creme of nature shampoo (usually Saturday), then I condition for 30 to 45 min with a heat cap.
- I air dry my hair, adding some moisturizer half way thru. Once it's somewhat dry, I seal with some castor oil
- I sleep with a satin scarf every night.

I am still experimenting with my regimen, so I might add things here and there. I want to keep it as simple as possible. I think I need to find a good leave in conditioner.

The things that I have done that truly made a difference are:
- Stop relaxing so often (6 weeks or less is just too soon). I relax at least 10 weeks in, I am trying to go for 12 or 13 weeks
- Stop using so much heat. I use heat on my hair only on relaxer days. Once I get to BSL and will be more inclined to wear my hair out, I might work on figuring out some fun styles that I can wear.
- Deep conditioning every week really made my hair softer.

I recently added Wen from Chaz Dean to my regimen. I have added one wash day during the week so that I can use this. I have only used it for a month but I definitely love the way it makes my hair feel. I am going to continue with this for at least another two months before I decide if it's a definite keeper or not. By the way this doesn't work so well when I wash after a prepoo of coconut oil so I will probably keep a regular shampoo and use this more like a cowash (kind of expensive but we'll see).

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Hair Journey

So let me tell you about my hair journey thus far. Growing up I only had natural hair, my mom was anti relaxer until I was old enough to take care of my own hair. Got my first relaxer when I was 16 and it was good. My hair was APL (Armpit lenght) and I was feeling pretty good. I was one of those people that believe that black people's hair could never grow past that length unless they were mixed with something (I know how ludicrous that is now). I was pretty content with my hair, relaxed often (6 to 8 weeks), flat ironed often (2 to 3 times a week). My hair was fluctuating between neck/shoulder length and APL.

Anyway, fast forward to having a baby, 3 months post partum and the crazy hair loss that followed, I mean ridiculous. I loss thickness and all the hair in the front (almost an inch away from my forehead). I felt bald. I didn't know what to do. So I became a weave/wig girl. I also got on the internet and started looking for hair growth ideas and tips and found several awesome blogs and sites. Dani from Ok Dani was my favorite natural hair blogger and Sunshyne from Hairlicious inc was my favorite relaxed hair blogger. Seeing their beautiful locks of hair just gave me the motivation I needed to start my own journey. If you are in need of inspiration, check them out, you will be impressed.

I was still bald in the front and too ashamed to show my hair so I kept it in wigs until my relaxer in May 2011. The hair loss was still noticeable but not as bad (I wish I took pictures of my front completely bald). My hair was growing. So in June 2011 I decided to start my journey to healthy, beautiful, long relaxed hair. I also started document things. The next pictures show my sides (that were f***** up beyond belief).

The next 3 pics show what my sides looked like  in June, August and November. As you can see the growth is very noticeable

I just love the next two pictures of my hair from September and October 2011, you can see how filled in the sides are and the hair is thickening up. On one pic the hair is flat ironed and the other pic the hair is air dried. Loving it.

This is me in July 2010, 2 weeks before I gave birth to my son. My hair was neck length

Fast forward to June 2011 as I start my hair journey, my hair is shoulder length and not so even

Fast forward to end of August 2011, I made it to APL and my hair looks healthy. (I have always made it to APL no problem but this time it feels really good :))

Fast forward to November 2011 (5 months into my journey) and the hair is growing. I am only a couple of inches from BSL (Bra Strap Length).

I am so excited about this hair journey. I love that my hair is growing and I am doing right by it. I can't wait to make it to my ultimate goal of healthy relaxed waist length.I am only about 5 inches away, bring it 2012, I am ready for you.

The tree is up

 We finally put our Christmas tree up. YAY. I took a whole week to get it there (we are so slow around here sometimes). I had my little helper giving me things and trying to put things on the tree. He was so funny. He loves the balls. So far he has not tried to take them off the tree. We will see. I really feel like Christmas is around the corner now that it's up. I can't believe this is my baby's 2nd Christmas. Where did time go?

 

                                  My little helper

 and the final result. We are very happy with how things turned out. Just because I love watching them sleep together, a pic of the hubby and the baby taking a quick nap on the couch.

Christmas Picture FAIL

 We decided to get some pictures done for our Christmas cards this weekend. Last year we paid a professional photographer a lot of money and ended up with some amazing pictures. It was my baby's first Xmas and I was sparing no expense. Well this year we decided to go on the cheap, my cousin came over and was going to take a couple of pictures of us.


T-man was not feeling his best since he was just getting over being sick but I was hoping that he will at least smile for some of the pictures. He was not having any of it. I gave him a lollipop to help and it was king of working but not really.

 He was ok as long as he had the lollipop, there was still no smile but at least he wasn't crying. Then we took the lollipop away

Big mistake, T-man started throwing a fit

 Full on upset over this whole ordeal. We calmed him down for about 20 minutes then tried again

He was not happy at all. This could have been an ok picture but my poor baby was not even looking

 He is really really mad in this picture

 Look at his face, he is not a happy camper

 Someone is really pissed off

 Look at his face in this one

 This could have been a good picture if he was looking

Oh well, this was not meant to be. I do love this picture tho

Well, luckily we didn't pay some photographer to take these pics, I would have been really upset. We'll try again this weekend if T-man is feeling up to it. If not I guess we'll just have to work with one of these not so great pics. Ah kids, they are so unpredictable. At least my hair looked somewhat decent. I will have to tell you more about my hair in another post.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Hope you had a great day with your family and loved ones. We had a great time with our family. This year we have lots to be thankful for. Most importantly we are thankful for health, family, and great friends.

My sister is engaged again :).  Technically her and the fiance have been engaged for years then they had a baby, bought a house and of course put the wedding on hold. Well, yesterday during thanksgiving dinner, he proposed again and this time he said she has a year to become his Mrs. Now, that's what I am talking about. Woohooo, we can now go on wedding planning mode. I love weddings, I wish I could go back and do my wedding all over again (ok, let't not get crazy, just the wedding day with none of the planning.)

The husband and the baby have been sick for the last couple of days :(.  They both went to the hospital and everything. The baby has an ear infection and the husband had food poisoning. They are both finally feeling better and I am one happy mama. We are spending the long weekend chilling and relaxing at home so that they can both recuperate. Here are a couple of pictures of my two favorites men, when they were much better, having a grand old time. They are so funny together :).

My family

My hubby and I met almost 7 years ago (wow where does time go). We got engaged on April fools in 2008, leave it to my husband to think that it's funny to throw everyone for a loop. No one believed for a whole week that we were engaged until they actually saw the ring.



We were married on 25 July 2009. You see 7 is my husband's favorite number so we made sure that somehow it worked out to be the 7th month of the year (I know we thought we were clever like that). If you like to play with numbers you will notice that 2+5 = 7, I know I know and we got married exactly 25 months to the day that we moved in together. Ok enough with my numbers game. What a great day it was, I sometimes watch my wedding video just so I can replay that day in my mind.





After our wedding we jetted off to Hawaii where we had an awesome honeymoon. I want to go back.


Right after the wedding we started trying for a baby and were blessed to find out not long after that we were expecting a little one. It was such a great pregnancy, no morning sickness and nothing crazy. I was such a happy camper and I truly enjoyed being pregnant.





Our baby boy T-man graced us with his presence on 21 July 2010. We are so blessed. You see, 7 is truly a lucky number in our family. T-man is the most precious and amazing baby (I know every parent says that about their little one).



Now we are a family of three and we look forward to expanding in the future.