Cherish My Daughter

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Mocha Baby is potty trained! Be sure to watch my YouTube video above on the subject. I won't repeat in detail what I shared there, but wanted to focus on my step by step approach of getting Mocha Baby to understand the steps. In the past, I followed the model from the book Potty Training in Less than a Day by Nathan H. Azrin and Richard M. Foxx. When I bought the book for training our son, I imagined he'd be a master at going potty and never have any accidents once we were done. Despite the clever title, the book lets the reader know up front that accidents will happen, but it does a good job of laying out a step by step method of communicating to your child what is expected and helping parents to have realistic expectations of what their child may be able to do. I still recommend it. In following that book, we would set aside a day for potty training and select one parent to stay with the potty training child while the other parents leaves the house with the siblings for as lo...

Happy Birthday! We've finally realized that babies really DO grow up really fast and you'd better enjoy every moment. With this one, we really haven't spent most of the time wishing she'd get through this stage or that stage...realizing that every stage is an adventure. We've tried really hard to trap time and learned we can't, but are enjoying every moment.

Sometimes you can't. At least, that's what I've discovered with Mocha Baby. She communicates much better than her siblings did at her age. I'll credit that to the fact that she's constantly stimulated by four other siblings who find whatever she expresses to be fascinating. When it's time to do Mocha Baby's hair, she says, "No hair! All done!" Before scampering away. I've only got so much time to chase her around and present a convincing argument that a new style is important in her busy little world. Sometimes I just give up and try again later or wait for another day. When it's not practical to wait, the following has worked for me: 1. I try to keep it simple. Diva sessions are coming soon enough but for now, Mocha Baby will be two years old in October, and her attention span is very short. I try to plan styles I know will only take me twenty minutes or less to complete. This includes detangling. 2. My goal of 20 minutes or les...

...in the kitchen sink! We video taped it to share with you here .

So I ran into some problems taking down MG3's hair....I share it all here --along with some valuable lessons. As bad as it looked, MG3's hair felt so good, I was determined to work harder on my technique to improve this method for her. Time will tell. Stay tuned for round 2!

Here's what I did: 1. I mainly kept her hair in a baby 99.9% of the time for almost the entire first year of her life. I used an occasional head band for special occasions, making sure it wasn't too tight around her head. 2. I washed her hair as needed with a mild SLS free shampoo and followed up with a moisturizing conditioner. Sometimes I rinsed her hair with plain water and followed up with a moisturizing conditioner. I allowed her hair to get wet as she splashed in her bath. Nappy hair loves water. While all the moisture will probably wreak fuzzy havoc on our carefully designed styles, the resulting suppleness means more growth retention. 3. When MB's fro got long enough in the back that it was constantly flattened whenever she rested her head on a surface, I began styling her hair in about 6 loose puffs. I used tiny rubber bands LOOSELY to secure the puff and removed them carefully with a seam ripper to wash and re-style. I braid up the puffs in the back becaus...

She's such a blessing AND thank God for all I've learned to keep all this hair on her head!

I styled Mocha Baby's (MB) hair as she sat in the exersaucer pictured above. I used a spritzed bottle of plain water with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar as an acidifier to help lay down her shingles for detangling. It DOES smell strongly of vinegar but if you can stand it, the smell fades away completely once the hair is dry. I prefer using the Aloe acidifying mix I mention here , because it's odorless. I tried the ACV, because I'm out of aloe. I think it worked just as well. I secured her puffs with small elastic rubber bands, found in any beauty supply store. I wound the rubber band around 3 times for most of the puffs, making sure I could slide a finger easily under the rubber band to her scalp. I want to avoid pulling the hair tight enough to cause tiny bumps and breakage. When it is time to take down the puffs in a couple of days, I will use scissors to carefully cut away the rubber bands.

Mocha baby's hair has just had a dramatic growth spurt--over the past week. As you know, I've been twisting and coiling it to expose her scalp for coolness in the hot weather. The temperature dropped over the pass couple of days and I've returned to the fro. I can't believe how big her fro is now. My first thought was maybe the twists stretched her coils out--but I've been rinsing the fro daily and letting it do what it does. I fluff it out with my fingers as always. I'm scratching my head. In the past I've noticed growth once I started styling my babies' hair but I've experienced breakage too--with my too tight and over the top methods. The twists/coils were very gentle....I'm wondering if we're on to something here.....time will tell, and I will keep you posted.

It's been so hot and Mocha Baby has been sweating profusely. Her hair is dense on top and my husband suggested trying a style to expose her scalp. I was reluctant to bother her fro, because I've been keeping myself on a tight leash as far as bothering her hair. See my post here for the details. Clearly the time has come to move in a different direction. First, I tried finger coils, which I thought were very pretty but they rubbed right out any time she rested a portion of her hair somewhere. I'm not interested in using heavy product on her hair for hold at this time. While playing around with one of the coils that came loose, I discovered that I could twist Mocha Baby's hair and it stayed much better. The twist kept curling over until they looked like little bantu knots--loved it! To twist I spritzed her hair damp with water and topped it with a very small amount of my shea butter mix. I think plain castor oil, coconut or any oil your daughter's hair likes wi...

I haven't been doing much with Mocha Baby's hair. I will occasionally run a super soft brush through it to loosen what little cradle cap she has. When she takes her evening bath she loves for me to slowly pour water over her head. The plain water is enough to rinse away sweat and even spit up. I'm careful to keep her face dry. I always have my face buried in her hair. If I don't like the smell I may do a gentle shampoo with diluted castille soap. Otherwise, I leave her hair alone. The other day, I noticed some dryness and tried the following: 1. Wash with diluted castille soap. Try 1 tbsp castille soap to 8 oz water (you'll have plenty left over to use many times). 2. Rinse profusely. 3. Pat dry with soft towel. 4. Dime size Trader Joe's Refresh Conditioner (suave natural tropical coconut may be another good choice). Massage through hair and leave in. 5. Dime size drop of Grapeseed oil (may also try jojoba,unrefined coconut, or other light oil). 6. All...