Knock Knock...Who's There?

It's me! I am back! I took a little hiatus from blogging to focus on some other things but haven't stopped recording and taking pictures of my precious little girl. I will say that me and the blackberry have been going through this love-hate relationship for the past few weeks ever since I downloaded the latest update on my phone. All my contacts were deleted in the process and my camera quality has decreased. I am going by Verizon this weekend to get these issues evaluated before Josh, Zakiah, and I head off to New Jersey this coming week to visit Josh's family for Thanksgiving. This will be Zakiah's first long road trip ever...so nervous but excited. I will discuss that in another post...

WELL, there is SO much I can update on. I have several videos I need to post and topics I want to discuss. I guess in this post I will touch base on some things I want to mention off the top of my head:

• Pre-teens and the Hazards of Huffing??? I watched this story on the today show this morning and am in disbelief what CHILDREN are doing these days. Not too long ago I learned about the choking game. I never heard of such things during my pre-teen or teen days and just can't even imagine what kids will be doing when Zakiah gets around that age. That is why it is IMPORTANT to talk to your children and have that open line of communication. It is so easy for them to feel like we as parents can't possibly understand what they are going through and therefore turn to peers for comfort, which can in turn take them down the wrong road. Children are dying from things that can easily be prevented. This is a serious issue.

• Shaynia Davis' death last week. Read up on her story here. What drives parents to harm or even torture and kill young children? I just don't understand. The mother offered her sweet 5 year old up for prostitution and the last footage of her seen was in the arms of a guy waiting to get on the elevator in a hotel. What possess you to want to do anything with a BABY who is innocent and not able to understand what's going on. And to find her little body dumped on the side of a country road...sighs. This story breaks my heart.

• My coupon adventure so far. Josh loves me even more because I am now saving us over 65-80% in groceries. I rarely buy things over $1 because there are just too many coupons available out there to just waste money like that. Coupons are money and the key is to match coupons with sales. Doing so can land you some pretty great deals to stock up on. Timing of using your coupons can even get you free items such as toothpaste, razors, trial size items, and so on. So glad I got into the program. I will post a video slide show of the groceries I have gotten in separate trips and how much I spent on each shopping trip.

• Anticipation on our upcoming trip to New Jersey. Still have to find a pack and play for Zakiah to sleep in while we are up there. My biggest anticipation is that she will be all out of whack once we come back. She naps pretty well and sleeps 10-11 hours at night now, which is beautiful. I feed her 4-5 times a day and am still exclusively breastfeeding. Yay, go me!!! No bottles either. Hopefully I will be able to transition straight to cup from breast without that extra step of the bottle.The trip is about 8 hours straight from where I live, but with a baby, who knows how long it will take.
  

• Zakiah's milestones. She is my rollie pollie. I can't keep her on her back for nothing. She rolls in a split second. No more high counters! She loves reaching for ANYTHING she can get her hands on within reach. She scoots like crazy. She poops like every few days with her latest stretch being 5 days. Her hair is starting to grow in because she is sleeping on her tummy at night and during her naps. She enjoys looking at pictures in books and rubbing her fingers across the pictures. Going out with her has been so much better since she is eating every four hours and can stay awake between 1 hour 50 minutes-2 and a half hours before having a "I need to go to sleep" meltdown. She doesn't fuss too much when putting her into the car seat unless she is really tired. Then she tries to roll her way out of it. She is in size 2 diapers day and night and wears 3-6 month clothes. She doesn't spit up as often anymore and drools like crazy.
  

• Zakiah and her fear of the singing toy of her play yard. I still haven't posted the video of this when I mentioned of this several weeks ago. I need to get that up because clearly she still doesn't like that toy. Yesterday, I pulled it out of her toy bag to see how she felt about it. I pulled the string to the toy and almost immediately, she frowned her lips and started crying. I chuckled because it is so cute but funny how simple things can upset children. I guess that is how I should look at it when adults get upset over simple things too. lol
  

• I am no longer counting her age in weeks, FINALLY! Like now, I would say she is almost 5 months since she will be 5 months on Sunday. Oh my GEE, she will be 5 months already??? Ugh, slow down girl!!! But yeah, I lost count of her weeks. I think she is 22 weeks though but like I said, no more counting weeks. I will now label posts in terms of months.

• I am hopefully going to get into making her own hair bows and head bands. The ones at the stores are not big enough for me or colorful enough. Soooooo, I have ordered some CUTE ribbon from ebay and can't wait to make some beautiful boutique type bows.

Ok, this is what is on the top of my head for now. I will feel in the blanks with subsequent posts. I hope all is well with all of you! Thanks for coming back and reading up on me and Zakiah. We are doing well!