Hair Growth

Lucky you...this is not the unwanted hair growth blog post.  I just got to thinking about how much has changed in our routine in the past year and I wanted to see the difference it's made.  If any...

This past week while detangling Sadie's hair I spotted a nice set of curls about 2 inches long in my hand...my heart sunk.  I just broke out in a sweat.  It takes so much to keep Sadie's hair growing and healthy.  And it just breaks my heart when we lose some.  So the next day I went out and purchased two swim caps, one Lycra and one the typical waterproof cap.  Put the Lycra on first to keep from pulling at her hair, and then the waterproof silicone one on top. 

So to encourage myself I decided to start looking through pics a year ago to see how Sadie's head was doing.  Sorry that some of these are great pics of Sadie herself, but they show growth in length and thickening of her hair.  Yahoo! 

 This was exactly a year ago!  These are double rope twists with beads.  I am guessing she has grown at least 4 inches in her hair. 

 Here is Emery a year ago!  Now her hair grows like crazy, and because of it...I don't get so nervous when I see shed hair...nor when I detangle.  We'll get there Sadie, one day!!! 

 Notice on these two, above and below, you can see Sadie's scalp through her teeny weeny afro.  Wow!

 This one too!  This was late March!  UNREAL!!!! 

 And this is where we are now!  I am just amazed.  Here is what we have changed:

• She wears a sleep cap religiously when sleeping, napping and wrestling or tumbling.
• Satin in car seat back
• Apple Cider Vinegar in place of shampoo (we never really shampooed passed about age 18m)
• Detangling-I am embarrassed to say I wasn't really even detangling.  Her hair just wasn't long enough or thick enough...or so I thought.  We love our Tangle Teezer (yes even more than the Denman!)
• Coconut oil-I didn't know about coconut oil until last February people!!!  Wha?
• Protective styling-I didn't realize how hard it was on the hair to daily maintain an afro or puffs
• Homemade detangler as spritzer instead of just water to dampen
• And this is the first year we will wear a swim cap! 

I think the only things I was doing right were adding moisture daily, attempting a sleep cap and no shampoo. 

 This one shows great growth because she can actually wear a twist out! 

 This is going back 2 years since it was Emme's coming home picture!!! 

 And here is a good pic for showing Emery's growth!  It was this time last year Sadie loving cut Emery's hair!  I will never forget the heart attack I had this day.  Yowzers! I can't even tell where her hair was cut now!

Loving Summer

We have had so much fun over the last week.

I have been busy doing stuff around the house to get ready to sell. We had a garage sale, my first ever, and it was so great to get rid of stuff we weren't using and didn't want to have to move it!

So the sale of "extras" led to rearranging the furniture to open up the house...you know, that's what my realtor sister tells me helps sell homes. Please note the cute blue chair that I snagged and painted. When I say snag, I really do mean snag. It was on my neighbors lawn labeled "free stuff" and I seriously took it home and painted it blue. You know you've hit a new low when you take furniture off other's lawns that was to be trashed! You can't say I am not frugal.

Sister has been trying to climb out of her bed, not a ton...but we've never had one do this before, so we went ahead and got her a twin bed. I found a steal on craigslist and painted it pink! So fun! We love it! We tried it for the first time a few nights ago, and she did great! Only problem was this... Sadie showing us her bed...and below she fell asleep so peacefully.

When I checked on her the next morning, she was in her crib!!! I ran and asked Blake if he had moved her in the middle of the night. Nope. We never heard a peep on the monitor! Guess she got out and climbed in her crib sometime after we checked on her when we went to bed!!!!

Other than that, we've just spent a ton of time at the pool. Man are we blessed to have a pool!

This pic was taken by Cooper! I had to crop my booty out of it! It never is a good idea to give a little boy at booty level the camera! But he really wanted to take a picture of us!

On Tuesday night Sadie and I had an ice cream date with her birth mom. It was so fun and we feel so blessed to live so close to her so that we can do stuff like that!

Summer fun

It's been so stinking hot that all we have really known to do around here is stay in the water.

Here Cooper is showing off his swimming skills.

I have yet to get a good video of it, but Owen is now swimming without his jacket and doing great. He can swim really well under water. We are so proud of you Owen! He told me yesterday, "Mom I really, really want to be 4. I am so frustrated that I am not 4 yet." It was so cute. As close as his birthday seems to me (6 weeks), to an almost 4 year old...that's an eternity!

Last week we had some end of the year stuff for Blake and it was nice to get to go out just the two of us, even if we weren't on a date! It was still free food, wine and fun people! Congrats honey for finishing yet another year of residency. Only 2 left!

On Saturday my family all went out for my 30th birthday. It was so much fun to just be with all 10 of the adults and to have some good uninterrupted conversation for once!

It looks as if we ate at some country place with the wood paneling behind us in the above picture. Seems as if they thought we were going to be a loud bunch and they kindly put us in a closed off room! Such a wonderful time guys! Thanks for making me feel so loved!

Last night we had our monthly Kaleidoscope Kids playgroup. This is our transracial playgroup that we have been loving being a part of. What a blessing to live in a place where there are so many families like ours. We met M last night, what a pumpkin she is!

Notice how I taught my daughter to sit like a lady? Real nice, huh? We'll work on it, but it is kind of funny how long those legs look!That's Sadie, M and Holden. We had so much fun at the spray grounds, the kids loved it and all of us parents were SO hot we wanted to lay down in the water with them!
Sadie and Holden loving on each other. So cute that Holden knows how to kiss and that Sadie wanted some lovin' from him!

Please read

I have to share something that happened this week.

As much as I don't want to believe this happened to me...

As much as I am embarrassed and ashamed that it did...

I have to share, because this post could have been so different.

The lifeguard at our neighborhood pool had to jump in a get Cooper on Sunday.

Just so you know, Cooper is fine now and was never completely under the water.

He was struggling though, and it was too close.

You might have noticed in my last post I talked about our lovely yellow life jackets.

The boys have been great at putting them on and keeping them on, no questions asked.

But this day was different. Since both Blake and I were there, they wanted to try to swim without them.

Owen has been doing really well.

Cooper was really not even trying, he was just enjoying hopping in the water and feeling free.

He was between the 2-3 ft markings and they were playing together. Both Blake and I were (or thought we were) watching them.

I was in the water with them holding Sadie.

A lady behind me asked me a question about Sadie and I turned to answer her.

It happened that quickly. Cooper had hopped just far enough that he could no longer touch. And I had turned to answer this lady.

I happened to be facing the lifeguard and saw him run and jump in the water.

When I turned I saw my baby struggling to keep his mouth above water.

I was about 10 feet from him.

My legs were Jello and useless.

I had Sadie and there was no way I could get to him faster than the lifeguard.

Cooper was fine but scared. I was beyond shaken.

Please when you read this don't think this could never happen to you.

I know there were things we should have done differently.

I know that we have learned from this. But I beg you, please learn from my mistake.

If you have multiple kids, keep them in life jackets until they can safely swim on their own.

Drownings happen when we let our guard down because we think there are more eyes watching and in reality we are not watching as closely.

It's more like me to be prideful and not share that I totally screwed up here and could have lost my Cooper. But, I just pray that someone will read this and think twice about life jackets.

I know you may have to fight them on wearing them, but do it!