The most beautiful boy lives in my house

I gave birth to the most beautiful boy. He's got the most beautiful smile and makes the most beautiful sound when he laughs. His hair is the most beautiful golden hair I've ever seen. His toes are still the most beautiful boy toes to ever get stuck up my nose. He says his words in the most beautiful way. He throws his toys with his beautiful skinny arms and swats his sister with his beautiful chubby hands. He kisses me with his beautiful lips and sleeps curled up or sprawled out like a beautiful little peaceful, snorting lamb. He runs with a beautiful little short leg wobble. He sings his beautiful Twinkle, Twinkle and screams with his beautiful cries for La Bamba. His skin, his nose, his ears, his eyelashes... all beautiful.

What's Noah up to?

She's up to a lot, always. She's into everything, asks about everything and wants to have and do everything. She's up to picking her nose and eating it. She's up to getting up in the middle of the night and coming in bed with us to cuddle. She's up to tap and ballet and practicing her performance of "Hard Knock Life." She's up to watching cartoons in Chinese on Youtube. She's up to missing her daddy when he's gone. She's up to rollerskating (previously pronounced roller-skapping) with the helmet and knee pads Nana & Papa gave her for Christmas. She's up to telling me she's bored, something she picked up from a friend's daughter (which I don't like one bit.) She's up to requesting "The Ring Song" (Beyonce's Single Ladies.) She's up to sneaking out of her bed and reading books in her closet. She's up telling Isaiah and everyone else what to do. She's up to wearing her hair "wild." She's up to being tall enough to ride Splash Mountain and telling you about it. She's up to puzzles, drawing, painting, dancing, hiding, running, talking, talking and talking. She's up to too much to tell it all.

The BIG DAY - Obama takes over

Spike Lee is a JERK

As is Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, I don't care enough about them to see if I spelled their names right. Oh, and Demi looks every bit 45. I wouldn't say this had they not been jerks - but they were. Where was Lee on Essence's List... definitely wasn't #3!!!

Manifesting Hope - Georgetown

Sheppard Farley had a show at a gallery in Georgetown. The show was a collection of peices from artists from all over the counry. All the work was inspired by Obama's movement of change fueled by hope. It was nothing less than amazing. I bought a piece for Broderick, which I didn't show because he's getting it on his birthday at the end of Feb. We also got to meet some of the artists and get signed postcards.

Inauguration Week - Sunday - We Are One concert

I thought this was more amazing then the actual Inauguration. Bono gave a shout out to the Palestians, at least somebody cares. Mary J. Blidge looked amazing. Gartha Brooks (who knew) rocked it! DC was alive!!

Neighborhood Ball

My janky camera is broke so the majority of my DC - inauguration pictures are blurry. Plus, all my pictures of Obama are from afar so I'm waiting for someone to publish a book on the week's events. The Balls were pretty dang boring, but I admit, living in LA has spoiled me. We attended the Illinois State Society Ball along with 7,000 other hot sweaty people - they had bags of free Kraft products and tractors to pose by. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. As soon as we were able to drive up the building and I wasn't given a pat down, I knew the Obama wouldn't be attending. That ball was the night before the Inauguration. The Neighborhood Ball was the one they televised and was AMAZING. A bunch of folks performed and Beyonce sang, "At Last" as the Obamas danced the first dance of the evening (or one of the first.) We finished with the Mid-Atlantic Ball and I think The Grateful Dead was performing, I was almost dead with boredom and fatigue by tha point. We did meet Cory Booker and made plans to help him out in LA. We waited for the Obamas to dance and saw Barack hold Michelle up and dance for a few minutes and leave - they looked exhausted. I will skip the balls next time, unless they have something like the Neighborhood Ball.

Happy Luv Day!

This was taken on Noah's way to school on Valentine's Day. We spent the morning making her Valentine's Day cards (at the last minute, of course.) Noah asked then and is still asking to wear her hair wild - she is so my flower child...full of questions aimed at authority (me,) pleads of love (telling me, "I need your love.")

BFFs like nobody's business

Need i say more about these two. They are crazy soul mates who live to see each other. If you've spent more than five minutes with Noah or her Nana then you know they talk about each other nonstop. They sit on the phone with each other like 2 teenagers and just say, "I love you" back and forth until I have to step in and get one of them to hang up because the phone battery is about to run out. Most of my conversations with my mom is a blow by blow replay of the day's events no matter how boring or to schedule a trip for her to travel out here to see us.

More Wedding Pictures

Jonathan purposey sat on the other side of he table so that no one (all the single ladies) would not assume he was Isaiah's dad. They do look an awful lot alike. All the guys, even the married ones, used Isaiah to lure the dancing ladies to them. Isaiah didn't mind. And Noah and her cake.. another thing she will loose her mind to get!

Dancing Queen

Noah was in heaven at my cousin's wedding. She thought the bride's maids were princess and stalked them. She would stand and just watch them and finally worked up the courage to ask them to dance - which took about 5 minutes. She danced with them ALL night and then she moved from the bride to the bride's maids to just any girl in a pretty dress. She really believed they were princesses. After hours of chasing her around the wedding when she refused to leave the women alone, I had to woe her with the her DVD player. Movies or TV work in every situation - it's Noah crack - she's addicted.

Girl of the birds

Noah and Aunite June's birds. Both Noah and Isaiah have a thing for animals. They recently saw Bolt and have become very concerned with the welfare of our two exiled to the backyard dogs. That's a good thing, because I carry such guilt for them not having the TYPE of lavish attention they used to. Ever since our visit to Rhode Island, Noah has been asking about us getting her a deer that doesn't bite and birds. We were at the pier this weekend and there was a homeless man (no shortage in Santa Monica) feeding the pigeons and sea gulls. Noah walked over and stood right beside him and his 10 birds and put her arm straight out and told the birds to come sit with her. She also wanted to know why we didn't bring tortillas and cheetos for the birds. Next time, I'll remember.

Noah in Rhode Island

In November we were in Rhode Island for my cousin's wedding. My brother and mom stayed with us and helped with the kids, which is always a treat. Noah (like most first born daughter - like you-know-who) takes the lead on everything. She mothers Isaiah and bosses him around in all the good and bad ways too. This is here leading him on the elevator. His bog thing is buttons and will love you forever if you let him push the elevator's call button on the any button for that matter. The other picture if a photo of Noah on a shuttle at the airport - bit sure if it's from the Rhode Island trip - we travel ALOT, maybe once every month or two. Might have been to Georgia... but I thought she looked so cute in her pjs and boots.

New Year's Eve

Ever since Obama announced his run for the White House our house has been a hub of activity. We got comfortable opening our doors to our closest 30 to 60 friends and figured since the election was over, New Years was another great night to bring everyone together. Plus, we had a lot to celebrate, Dick and Bush were on their way out, a beautiful family who represents anyone who has ever felt anything but rich, white and privileged was moving in AND Broderick is probably going to shoot 3 or more movies this year. Not to mention we are happy with each other, Isaiah sleeps through the night, Noah dresses herself and our home is pretty much finished - other than me reaching for perfection and having the handy man out here every other week to paint scuffed walls and hang new pictures (yes, I'm one of those West LA Women - who just happens to live off Crenshaw.) Anyway, the party, Broderick deep fried 3 turkeys and made ALL the fixings (his mom's dressing.) Merc created a play list and we cleared out the living room like it was a club - and we danced ALL of us to Guy, Biggie and Beyonce - it was one of the best parties I've ever been to. Only problem is that when Broderick asked me to fix him a drink I also was telling someone where to find more ice and didn't notice how much vodka I put in his screw driver. Moments later I found Broderick outside trying to get some fresh air and then watched as he crawled, yes crawled, up our stairs to sleep until 5pm the next day. The party raged until about 4am with people staying until noon the next day. We are blessed with a home that works nicely for parties and friends that know how to party! Our neighbors Janine and Lyndon (we like totally love them and Markhum - who ran Santa Monica's Obama office.)