Back in the beginning of December we went on a little family getaway. To Niagara Falls. It was a sort of last minute trip. Cousins of my hubby moved about two hours from us and four hours from the Falls. They wanted to make the trip up there and invited us. I wasn't too sure that it would happen so I didn't even bother packing till the last minute. Everyone with children can say that that was a big mistake because you tend to forget things.
In my experience, a trip is not a trip unless we forget a few things. This time we, hubby would argue that it was my fault, forgot the baby's bottle and soap. It was our first time traveling with our cloth diapers and the place we were staying at had washer and drier so I had plan to take my CD detergent but thanks to my last minute packing that too was forgotten. I say it could have been worse.
Friday we drove to our cousins. It took approximately two hours. It was late in the evening and when we got there we had a late dinner, a little bit of chatting then we hit the covers because we had an early start the next day.
Plan was to leave the house at 6am. That did not happen. We left 1.5 hours later. The drive wasn't bad at all and it took exactly 4 hours. Once we arrived we were upgraded to a newer unit that had been updated. This place was so spacious. It was perfect for the kids and the adults. More than enough space for everyone to not feel crowed. It was just perfect. This was on the American side. The kids didn't haven't have passports and since the trip was last minute we decided not to even bother getting them this time around.
After we settled in we went out for lunch.
Nothing fancy just TGIFridays. Then we headed the Aquarium were we saw a seal show followed by a trip to the outlets. We had arrived to our home away from home at 11am and when we were coming back after the outlets it was only 6pm. It felt so much later thought. We ate some lasagna with garlic bread and this tomatoes and mozzarella mix that my cousin brought for dinner. It was delicious, and let's not forget the wine.
After dinner the kids were in the living room watching TV and the adults sat around the table drinking more wine and talking. The perfect ending to our first day there.
Saturday we drove five miles to see the Falls. It was freezing out. I joked that the walk to the Falls was longer then what we lasted there. #Truth. I was bundled up pretty good with scarf, gloves, and a heavy duty coat and even with that my hands and face felt frozen. After taking a few pictures I just wanted to get out of there.
We stopped at a pizza shop for lunch and the owner told us of a few place to check out that were kid friendly. We ended up going to see the gingerbread house competition and life size house. It was super neat. We all got to decorate our own cookie too :) the kids had a great time and got to see Santa.
We then headed back to the house to decide where we should go for dinner. We ended up staying in and ordering Chinese, which was pretty good.
We were planning to do one more activity on Sunday before heading back home but they called for snow and we cancelled that. We wanted to get home before it got real bad out and luckily we did. About an hour after being home the roads and sidewalks were covered on snow. Thank god we got home when we did.
AJ did very well with the six hour drive back home. In the morning we stopped for breakfast and he felt asleep about 1-1.5 hrs later until about an hour before we got home. I'd say he slept about 4 hours. And he didn't whine much either after waking up. I just fedhim some milk and he was good to go. My baby is a great kid to travel with :) Steven Jr behaved very well too. He spent most of the ride watching movies and playing the iPad. The last hour he entertained his brother. He takes his big bro job very seriously.
Overall it was a nice getaway. It seemed that we didn't do much due to the time of year it was but nothing beats great times with great company. The drive was totally worth it and I hope to do more weekends getaway this year. Great Wolf Logde is on the talks for our next getaway. I'm looking forward to that like you wouldn't believe :)
I cannot believe how long it has taken me to post this! Soon we'll be making the switch to a big boys room and here I am, a year after his birth, talking about his nursery. Shame on me.
I started the planning of this nursery since the moment I found out we were expecting. I was super excited about it because he was going to have his own room and I was free to decorate as I wished. I knew a wanted a modern style crib but they were all so expensive. So when I found this crib at Walmart.com I didn't hesitate to order it. Which then turned into a gift from my brother (I love you Peter!)
From there I moved on to bedding. I wanted something along the lines of gender neutral. Nothing too bluish or boyish. I found this website while looking at other beddings in nursery ideas and right away I ordered that too. After our baby shower we had recieved so much cash and lots of gift cards that I decided to finish buying what I needed for the nursery. I took a trip to ikea with my mother and returned home with the dresser, frames, basket for dirty clothes, and bookshelf. Then I order a 9 cube cubby stand from Walmart as well and got the monkey basket from target the same day I went into labor.
I had seen some saying in frames on etsy and google that I wanted so I decided to DIY it myself. I had that saved up for months before finally printing it.
My mom bought us the rocking chair and I put it together myself in no time. It was so easy and has served its purpose well the past year.
I used things from our baby shower and Steven's old toys we had saved away to place around the room to fill up space but one thing was getting to me. The blank wall behind the dresser. I wasn't sure if I just wanted a frame wall or a few canvases. I still haven't decided that's why it's still semi blank and the main reason why it took me so long to take pictures for the reveal. What I did do was place a wall decal with one of my favorite bible verse.
After getting this wall decal I'm thinking I will be going with canvases but since I haven't purchase anything yet that's not set on stone.
Other special little details around the room are things like this personalized little blanket made with lots of love by a dear friend. A piggy bank given to us by one of the nurses at the hospital. She wasn't my nurse personally but she had great affection toward me and I'll forever cherish this gift. Another blanket made with love by another dear friend which I used for his monthly pictures. Lots of stuffed animals he got from other friends and loved ones. I keep a set of small speakers in the nursery to plug in the iPod or iPhones while AJ is in there.
So there you have it. Adrian's Nursery Reveal in all it's glory. I have gotten many compliments when friends come over so that makes me happy. That even if it's not "fully" finished it looks like it is :) not to mention that my baby loves being in his room. Whether is for naps, overnight, feeding and diaper changes, or just to push the books off the shelves and pull the toys out of their cubby.
I've been getting relaxers on my hair for years. I want to say from some point since 13-14 years old. That's a very long time of adding chemicals to my hair to make it straight. I don't recall why my mom decided to start giving me relaxers and she honestly doesn't know herself. Maybe peer pressure? Or for easier manageable hair?
As a baby I had nice soft curly hair. Even at 3 years old I still had the same texture. Fast forward to 5 years old. Then 11 years old and I have no idea what happened to that nice soft curly head of hair I once had. I want to blame it on the Caribbean sun but yea, that doesn't fly easily with most people. Hahaha. A very vivid memory I have of the first time I ever blow-dried my hair was at 10 years old. My cousin did it for me while my mom was working and oh boy did we get in trouble. My mom was not having it. Yet I loved it! My hair was so long. If my memory serves me right it was half way down my back. I felt in love with straight hair ever since then.
When it comes to relaxing my hair I also like to think that the reason why my mom did it was because she couldn't handle my hair. I do remember it being extra puffy when air dried. But I don't recall ever having seen a curl on my head. So I never paid much attention to why I would get relaxers. What I do remember is loving the look afterward.
All through middle school and high school I struggled with styling my hair. If it wasn't relaxed I never knew what to do to it. My go to hair style was the low messy bun. Sometimes I'd do it high too. Do you remember that hair-do? Did you ever try it? In high school I also learned how to crunch up my hair to make it curly. Thank God for friends! And ever since then the only way I knew how to make my hair really nice in curls was after a relaxer. Which makes no sense because relaxers are meant to straighten your hair not curl it. But anyways. After high school I continued with relaxers and as the years passed the time in between relaxers got less and less. It started with six months apart (when I first started getting them) to two months apart after high school.
About 24 months ago I changed hair stylist and she would ask why I got relaxers. She said that I didn't need them. But I was so hooked on them that I was on denial. Nine months later I decided to try her method of no relaxers and see how it went. Worse case scenario I didn't like my natural texture and I would go back on getting relaxers. Since then it has been 15 months since I got my last relaxer and guess what I found out guys??? I have curly hair!!!!
Notice how straight my ends are
Ignore my super tiny ear in this picture. It's really not that little in real life.
Yes. Curly hair. Can you believe it!
Earlier this year I made the decision to officially transition my hair from relaxed hair to my natural texture. From what I've seen it looks like I have curly hair. Right?. I don't know for sure what type of curls I have. It'll take some time for that. But since my BIG chop (about 3in of hair) four weeks ago I've noticed a big change in my curls. Meaning there's more bounce to it. I guess since I had so much dead ends it was weighing down my curls and by cutting a chunk of that hair it gave my curls room to breath and a bit of a break from all the pulling down.
I've also made the decision to not apply heat to my hair while I'm transitioning, unless absolutely necessary (like wedding events). I think that's the hardest part of all because my hair is not quite how I would like to see it. It's still damaged from the relaxer chemicals and all the heat over the years. The only reason I decided not to apply heat is because I want to keep my hair as healthy as possible and to help it transition better. I'm not using gels, mousse, or hairspray either, again personal preference. Also when I went for the big chop I was so worried of how I would look with short hair that I think my hair stylist got a bit scared and she didn't cut off all of my relaxed ends. There's still about 1-1.5" of relaxed ends. I'm thinking on going back and chopping off the rest and just worry about getting my hair healthy from this point on. The length will come in due time, there's nothing I can do about that but be patient and cut my ends regularly.
For now I'm focusing on finding ways that I like to style my hair. I've tried curling my hair using the Bantu Knots method. I recently did two side braids and after taking it out the next day it didn't look bad at all, it gave my hair a wavy look. I'm thinking of doing more braid outs. I'm dying to try the curl formers method but haven't yet because that's a bit more pricier. Since I'm in the no heat challenge and Afros are not my thing I'm finding it hard to style my hair. But using heatless curls are not as bad and it's getting my hair used to having an S shape I guess.
This is one wild journey and I cannot wait to see real results. I read that even after getting a big chop you won't see your natural texture of hair for about another 6-9 months. I'm thinking if everything goes well by the end of the year I'll have a decent length and my natural curl texture. Eeeeekk!
I plan on documenting this journey so stay tune for product reviews, hairstyles, and updates. Also, If there's anyone out there going through the same journey or who have dealt with transitioning their hair whether is from relaxers, perms, colors, etc I'd love to hear your story, what worked for you, and what products and style you tried.
I haven't mentioned it but this is one of those memories that will probably fade with time or may stick around for years on end.
When my Steven was born he had the pointiest lips. It reminded me of the movie chicken little. At some point during his newborn days I started to call him "chicken little". Is it just me or do we as parents tend to call our brand new baby tons of sweet name until one just so happens to stick with him/her?
Well this one stuck. And almost 8 years later it's still around.
Months later chicken little was translated to pollito. Which means the same thing but in Spanish. We would call him our pollito for everything and would even incorporate it into rhymes and songs. I'm almost positive grandma Zori started that trend. I never thought anything of it till the last year or so when I called him that in a public place and someone asked me "Did you just called him chicken little?" I answered yes, we laughed about it and that was the end. Later that day I thought about what had happened earlier. It was no big deal but did I really want my son to be known as or called chicken little for the rest of his life? I didn't think it was a big deal back in 2006 but today is a different story.
Over the years as Steven grew his nickname also evolved and grew with him. No one called him Steven, it was always pollito. He knew what his name was but he liked to be call pollo. I remember times when we would be places and someone would ask him what his name was and he would flat out say pollito. Around 4 years old he gave himself the name Pollo because according to him pollito meant that he was little and now he was a big boy so he requested that we all call him Pollo. Within the same year the name evolved to Pollo Loco, crazy chicken. I don't know why he came up with that or how but it stuck. We'd come home from work etc and say "Hi pollo loco, how was your day?"
This little part has nothing to do with the title of this post but I want to record it somewhere and what better place then here. Also around age 4 he had an obsession with Spider-man and all things superhero. For sometime he was known as pollolocospidermanbatmansupermanironman (insert last name here), did you catch all that? And I'm not exaggerating. To everyone that is anyone that's what my beloved son would say his name was. It's so funny the things kids come up with.
Now he's more obsessed with Wolf and Vampires and likes to be called Stephen Salvatore. But that's a story for another day.
Oh Steven. If you only knew how much better you have made my life. I love you son!
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