create a life that will nurture all of me and provide my daughter with an environment that stimulates, supports, teaches and encourages!

I can’t really mark this as done, because it is a constant. This is something that I do on a daily basis and will continue to do. My daughter deserves to feel as if she can do/be whatever she wants and it is my job to encourage, support and nurture her.

Yesterday, my baby started preschool. That in itself was not so bad. She has been going to daycare around the corner since she was 15 months. What I was nervous about was the bus ride. My itty bitty takes the little yellow bus to school.

We have been preparing her for this for the entire summer. We have counted down the days, pointed out busses on the street and generally told her that she was starting “big girl school.”

She was really excited on Tuesday night. She woke up early on Wednesday and smiled as we got her ready. When waiting outside in front of our building, a bus came and went. She was so disappointed. “Aw man!” she shrieked. When her bus came, she got on, waved to us and was put into the car seat and strapped in.

I am so proud of her. Of course, I pouted fr the next half an hour. She is so well adjusted and open to life. Last night, I asked her about school and she told me “I like it!” she is getting to be such a big girl.

We have some snails for our environment. Yeah!

I have been hard-pressed to get my daughter out into nature, well, dirt. We go to the park and look at and talk about the trees, leaves, and the small stream that runs through it. We go to the botanical garden and learn about all types of flora, frogs, fish, birds, etc. But we don’t have any dirt for her to dig in at home. Why? Because we live in a small Brooklyn apartment.

Other than my couple of plants and our tiny windowsill herb garden, we leave the wildlife outside—until now. We are using an empty 3 liter bottle to make a living environment that will have some snails, worms and the like. I have never done anything like this, but I want my big city baby to get really up close with nature. I mean, mommy goes hiking, whitewater rafting and the like, so she needs to to get moving on learning to appreciate the natural world, right? The Greenbelt

I have been reading a lot of critical/literary/race theory lately and one thing that has been slapping me upside my head is something written by bell hooks about being the revolution that you speak about. Basically, I can write and talk about it, but it really doesn’t matter unless my ideas are lived out and actualized.

My brain hurts.

My baby is starting preschool on September 5th. In fact, she will be taking the bus all by herself. The kicker is that her day ends at 1:30 and she will be home a bit after 2pm.

Instead of sending her to an after school program, I am hiring someone to take care of her. She needs special attention and I have even found a fun curriculum that will be followed so that what goes on in school will be reinforced.

I am glad that daycare is going to be over. I will have better control over what she eats and does.

Does playing hooky for two straight days in order to play, play, play count toward this goal?

I hope so ‘cuz it has been a lot of fun.

My baby is such a girly-girl. She loves fashion and hair and all things pretty. She is who she is and I enjoy it—even the weekly makeovers I get which require a lot of scrubbing. While I want her to be well-rounded, I don’t fight the whole girly thing. It is what it is.

Last weekend, we were at a wonderful space for children (which happens to be where I am employed) and she couldn’t wait to get to the greenhouse. There was an activity set up which consisted of a tray with dirt, twigs and a worm; a beaker of water with a dropper; tweezers; and a microscope.

I thought she would run like the dickens when she saw the dirt. NOPE! She mushed her fingers in the dirt, put water in it and turned it into a little mud patch, rubbed the worm AND put dirt under the microscope and looked at it.

Of course, her dainty pinky was in the air the entire time, but I really enjoyed watching her investigate, explore, examine and get dirty.

As the mama of a little brown girl (and I say brown because she is brown - light brown - and people seem to question her racial/ethnic makeup), I began subscribing to some interesting cultural ideals, particularly concerning her hair.

I made sure that it was braided or in neat ponytails—basically looking like every other bown hued girl in the ‘hood. But I realized that I was putting her into a box. Mre importantly, I was doing this because I was subconsciously worried about what other mama’s would think of her curly ‘fro.

I have stopped doing that. I and my baby love the freedom of her ‘fro and the afro puffs she sometimes sports. In order to be supporting and nurturing, we must be free—free to do what we want, how we want, when we want.

No more spending 2-3 hours on a hairdo.

I must be the example for my daughter. In order for her to be able to make positive choices and experience growth, she must see her mommy doing this too.

Mamahood is the toughest job ever. I have no idea how people manage several children. God bless them.

It is summertime and luckily, in NYC, there are tons of outdoor activities. I love taking her to parks, concerts, outdoor films, etc. I love seeing her learn and grow. I still remember the first time she sat on grass and the amazement on her face as she turned this one blade over and over again in her tiny had.

I am just going to keep on going and hope that we will grow together.