Whitney Houston

Coming back from Long Island errands Saturday night, we were informed by the Throgs Neck Bridge Toll Booth Lady that Whitney Houston had died.  As she handed Josh a receipt, she said "Did you hear about Whitney Houston?" after saying no and shaking our heads, she said "She died!" and then we drove off.  I was keeping the boy entertained in the back seat the rest of the way home, so I didn't think about the news that much. When I got home and settled, I started thinking about Whitney and her place in my life.

When Michael Jackson died, I was indifferent.  I think I was a tad too young to really appreciate the height of his career.  I had the BAD cassette and listened to it on occasion but to me he was just a weird guy who was incredibly talented and wounded.  Whitney's death is a little different.

Her death has not personally effected me, and my heart and prayers go out to her family and friends who may be sad and grieving at this time. Her death has made me look back on my life as a little girl and realize that her voice will forever be part of the sound track of my life.

Whitney Houston was BIG in the 80's. She was beautiful, talented, could dance and HAD CURLY HAIR!  I loved her.  I loved wearing leggings with leg warmers and a headband in my hair and dancing around the living room to her voice.  Those days in my living room, I was this:

Between the ages of 6 - 10 there wasn't a slumber party or gather of girls where we didn't sing and dance our heart out to Whitney Houston songs.  Hairbrushes, remote controls and pens were our loyal microphones and friends and stuffed animals were our audience.  We rocked out to Whitney Houston.

When I was 11 and more mature, the Bodyguard movie came out and I had to watch it. I loved it. I was a member of BMG (12 tapes/cd's for $0.1) and bought the soundtrack on cassette as soon as possible. I would listen to the tape front and back and then rewind it and listen again. When I was feeling sad from a playground break-up, I would play I Will Always Love You and cry.  I remember the tape and the cracks the case had from taking it everywhere with me.

When her personal affairs and problems were made public and her private battles were national news, I felt bad for her. My days of singing and dancing to her were long gone (unless driving in the car when a song of hers would come on), but I still felt bad for her and wished she would recover.

So when I heard she had passed away, I reflected on my childhood and smiled thanking her for the countless hours of song and dance and for being a part of my life.

Duh.

I had three very brain dead things happen to me recently that I'd like to share.


1) I have been doing a photo challenge on Instagram where you post a photo a day. I started it in January and on the blog where this originated, it said to tag it #janphotoaday... So for all my January postings, I did this thinking her name was Jan. It wasn't until the February challenge was published and it said to tag them #febphotoaday that I realized this wasn't the case.


2)  Every Saturday morning Josh makes us pancakes for breakfast.  Sometimes they take a lot of time so he decided he would make HUGE ones that fill up the whole pan.  He said they were "Man Cakes".  I said "OH! you should call them...PAN CAKES!" As soon as it left my mouth, I shook my head.

3)  We were at Ikea yesterday and as we were leaving Josh went and bought us one of the $1 ice-cream cones.  I had it in my hand as I was getting my coat on.  I looked down at my left hand and saw my arm was already through my coat sleeve AND that I was holding the ice-cream cone in that same hand. Time stood still for a second, and I thought I was definitely magical for putting my coat sleeve on while holding an ice-cream without messing either up! But then, I realized I must have just switched hands. DOH!

A Few things to Share

this has nothing to do with this post. just like this picture.

You probably already know how important I think natural/organic/safe products are.  Here are some quick tips I feel like sharing.


Plastics - I try to avoid buying plastics when possible, but I am not ready to live a plastic free life. If you do use plastics, pay attention to the numbers found on the bottom of the plastic item. #2, #4, and #5 are considered the safer options because they are least toxic and can be recycled easier.  Never microwave plastics and avoid storing fatty or acidic foods in plastic containers.

Food- Eat less meat and more whole grains. Obviously eat more homemade food and avoid canned food **especially canned tomato products - even organic**  they can be lined with BPA.  If you can afford to buy some organic produce, aim for celery, spinach (ALL leafy greens), ALL BERRIES, peaches, nectarines, apples, potatoes and grapes. Be careful of the fish you eat. Try to AVOID: Tuna (bigeye and Ahi), Shark, Mackerel, Orange Roughy, Tilefish and Marlin.
Look at labels!  Avoid the following ingredients: Artificial Colors - anything beginning with FD&C, Chemical Preservatives: BHA, sodium nitrate, sodium benzoate. Artificial Sweeteners: aspartame, acesulfame-k, saccharin. Added Sugars: High frustose corn syrup, dextrose, etc)

Gemetically Modified fruit and veggies are all over the place.  It is hard to avoid them these days (heck, i even read that they may be releasing GM mosquitoes in the keys soon) but here are some tips to avoid them: Buy Organic, Look for Non-GMO certified seals, Avoid at-risk ingredients including
soybeans, canola, cottonseed, corn, and sugar from sugarbeets, Get a Non-GMO shopping app on your smart phone. I have this one: Shop No GMO and The Non GMO Project.  Both are free and easy to use.

I have a lot of other tips to pass your way next week. In the meantime, watch this funny video.  I know they are a little played out, but this one - It's like they were following me. :)

Stats - Short for Statistics

 

For some reason, my blog is big in the Ukraine.  So I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to all my Ukrainian readers.  I hope you stick around.

Also, big on people looking up baby poop. especially banana baby poop.

It should be big on people looking up "super cute toddler". I wrote baby, but had to erase it, cause he's really not even a baby anymore! He is like a 6 year old.

He is a complete copy cat.  Monkey see, monkey do. Monkey hear, monkey say (try to say).  I love it.
This week he has added a few new words to his vocabulary.  So far this is his arsenal:
hot, water, ball, balloon, bubbles, broom, blueberry, pineapple, banana, egg, more, bye, hi, bed, unt unt unt (while shaking his finger at you when he shouldn't be doing something i.e. pointing at an outlet), door, Israel (his friend - not the country), Paolo (again, his friend), Momma, Dadda.  Those are his standard words and he tries new ones everyday. Granted, pineapple and broom don't exactly sound right, but we know what he means. He is still signing milk, please, thank you, more, all done and has his own sign for help.

We do this thing where he puts boxes on his arms and makes robot sounds (b/c we do it and say "I AM ROBOT ARM" in a robot voice) so he does it too.

He is now covering his mouth when he coughs and blowing and picking his nose. He LOVES dancing, spinning, jumping, cleaning, cooking and riding the broom like a witch. 

Yesterday was his 15 month check-up.  He is of average height, thin and has a small head.

Height: 52%
Weight: 13%
Head: 10%


Oh and we took him sledding and he loved that too. 


Photo dump.








Coughing - He looks a little sick. Poor guy

 

Maybe that's a sucker in his mouth at the Dr. office. BUT he did have to get blood drawn.

Out on the Field

Remember the cotton field pictures from last Christmas?  If you don't, then hit that link and you will see them.  Well, this year the cotton field was a corn field.  It's neat to see a years growth (both in the boy and the field)!  Here are a few selects josh took while at Grandma's.  If I can, I will post some more later.

These Next two are from this past week, He was happy and then sad cause he wanted Josh's camera so badly.



Another NC Christmas



Our Tree



Yep. Christmas came and went as expected.  I didn't feel a lot of Christmas spirit this year AND I even listened to Christmas music during work BY CHOICE!  I dunno, it just comes and goes so quickly. Maybe when the boy is older it will be more Christmasy.  NC was great though.  As always I had a wonderful time with Josh's family.  There were a lot of cousins for Sonny to play with and he loved it.  We all loved it.

Josh's Mom planned a live nativity with all the cousins, it was hilarious:

Every little girl needs a round brush stuck in their hair at least once

What's Christmas without a fruit cake?

Grandma's famous bicuits

Maybe Inappropriate - but whatever

It's cold in NYC right now.  After work I usually walk one mile to catch my train but today I decided to take the cross town train to save me from the blistering wind.  While speed walking through Grand Central Terminal, up and down stairs to get the subway, I was reminded of a couple things.  They are probably not even 1% politically correct to admit but I've felt this way for a long time.

Sometimes I think it would be really cool to be a big fat black lady. Here are my reasons why:

• Infectious Laughter
• Get to call people sweetheart or hun without sounding demeaning
• Culturally considered sexy even when above average sized
• Proud of Ethnicity and the features it gives them
• Can dress and accessorize outrageously
• Just don't seem to give a hoot about crap that doesn't matter
• Give good solid hugs
• Seem Jolly

Now, I have nothing to base the above on except my own observations.  While on the subject; i think it would also be cool to be an older skinny black man.  Here are my reasons why:

• Get to call people sweetheart or hun without sounding demeaning
• Dress sharp
• Can pull off a suit and hat just going to the corner store - like no other
• STEREOTYPE ALERT - Maybe be a great harmonica player or jazz musician
• STEREOTYPE ALERT - Can dance

 I really hope that no one is offended by this. And don't get me wrong, I am happy being me, but if I could just fora  day be someone else to see what it was like, I would try the above people first.
Then I would be a subway driver next.  I think that would be an awesome job - for a day.

So instead of this:

I get to be this:

and I like that.