naija roll call: stacie turner

i'm loving the dc edition of bravo's real housewives series (rhodc for those in the know).  during last night's episode, which i actually got to watch on the day it aired (a rare occurrence since my babylove arrived), we found out some interesting tidbits about stacie turner, one of the housewives.

stacie has the distinction of being the only african-american housewife on the show.  like our lovely michelle, she has a graduate degree from harvard, a successful career, and two young kids.

we already knew from past episodes that stacie was adopted as an infant. but in last night's episode, we found out that she also has something in common with michelle's husband. it turns out that she is the bi-racial daughter of a caucasian mother and african father- a nigerian to be exact.

i would have never guessed that she was one of my people. no wonder i like her so much. :)

hill country wedding

this past weekend we went to austin for the wedding of a good friend of mine.  it was my babylove's first official road trip (not counting the trip to my hometown when she was a couple of months old). 

despite missing the actual ceremony :( due to the chronic lateness of my darling husband unforseen issues, we had a great time and got to bear witness to the beginning of their journey as a family.being nigerian, i'm used to weddings being a huge event with hundreds of guests partying all night.  this couple was american, so it was kind of nice to enjoy ourselves, drink a little wine, cupid shuffle a little and be back in our hotel room by 11 that night. 

the trip was also part business.  the bride hired me to create the programs for the event.

black tie affair.  p.s. isn't that pillow gorgeous?!

i love everything relating to entertaining and decorating.  i originally decided to design my own pieces when i realized that everything that i liked was a) friggin' expensive and b) things that i could do myself.  i ended up creating the save the dates, reply cards and programs for my own wedding.  since i'm totally a "champagne taste on a beer budget" kind of girl, i really like to keep costs reasonable for all of my designs.

in the etsy version of my fantasy life, i would turn this hobby into a full blown operation and joyfully spend all my days matching paper samples to wedding themes.  in the meantime, i have had the chance to play a small part in some very big days.

baby steps

last night i was able to get our daughter off to sleep in her own room and crib. at just under 5 months, she's at that stage where catch phrases like "self-soothe" and "cry it out" start cropping up in conversations.

although she started out in her bassinet each night, i would usually bring her into bed with me to nurse. from there, we would usually end up falling asleep (until recently when i started to make a point of putting her back in the bassinet afterward). we have a queen-sized bed, so you can imagine how comfy i am with my husband on one side taking up half the bed and my wild little sleeper kicking and stretching on the other side. it’s hard to believe that she was once so small that the fear of rolling over and squashing her in my sleep used to keep me up nights.

back to last night: with a few disastrous attempts at sleep training under my belt, i felt a growing sense of dread as we got closer to bedtime. i was pretty much convinced that this time would be just as difficult. but to my surprise, instead of being met with the crying and squirming of past attempts (including the night before last when i decided to try a mish-mash of popular sleep training methods), she laid there quietly for about 5 minutes and then drifted off without so much as a whimper.

i expected to be ecstatic that we were able to reach this milestone, especially after only a handful of attempts. instead, it was a quiet moment that was more than a little bittersweet.

i already miss seeing that sweet little face and having the security of hearing her every minute breath and movement during the night. she’s only a few months old and already needs me less.