my 2.5 year old son dutch has seemed to have inherited my love of photography so i’d like to introduce to you

dutchie the photog

coming to a gallery near you really, really, really soon… check out the composition of the images. is that skill or what?? all photos were taken with a blackberry pearl because my young photographer only uses the best of the best equipment.

you know, sometimes i just wanna mush my 2 and a half year old son dutchie all upside his forehead (and sometimes i do!!).

the other morning i was rushing (as usual) and just trying to get out of the house at least sorta on time. dutch grabbed his shoes so i told him he should try putting them on himself.

mama: dutch, go ahead and try to get one shoe on by yourself.

dutch: [struggles with his shoe and is nowhere even near having the thing on right. and he's also showing early signs of heavy frustration.]

mama: go ahead, buddy, you can do it. just try!

dutch: [totally frustrated by now.] i can’t do it!!

mama: yes, you can, dutchie. just try.

dutch: i can’t do it!!!!!

mama: dutch, don’t say that you can’t. just try!

dutch: i said i can’t do it, little girl!!!!

round 2 of wanting to mush the child all upside his forehead…

another morning i told dutch it was time to get dressed so that we could make our way to eva’s (his daycare).

mama: come on, dutch. it’s time to get dressed so let’s move it! come on, chop, chop!!!

dutch: i don’t want to. i wanna watch go diego.

mama: well, you’ll have to watch it when you get home because it’s time to get dressed so that we can go to eva’s.

dutch: no, i don’t want to go to eva’s.

mama: okay, well, fine. i’m going to go to eva’s by myself. see you later!!

dutch: bye, mama!! [still sitting on the bed watching television.]

so at this point i figured, i’ll fix him. i’ll leave out the front door and once he realizes that i’m gone and he’s home alone he’ll freak out!! as if i even had time to play these kinds of games in the mornings, but i did. our door closes really loudly so i made sure that the slam was ultra loud so he would know that i indeed had left. so i stood outside of the door waiting to hear the rumbling thunder sound of his feet coming towards the door.

no dice.

so then i thought, well, maybe he’s just standing there quietly at the door, you know, trying to feel me out. so i opened the door and there was no sign of dutch. and why? well, because his little butt was still content watching go diego go on the bed.

i just know that he would’ve missed me though, you know, like 15 minutes later when it was time to refill his milk cup.

round 3 of wanting to mush the child all upside his forehead…

today. i was planning on taking the day off just because daggone it, i need a day off! you know, to think, to breathe, to nap as long as i want and to watch “maury povich” and “oprah”. but my plans sorta changed once i noticed that dutch was coughing and wheezing and just overall not sounding 100%. what can i say, it’s the season for wheezin’ so that means it’s also time for allergy pill poppin’ and albuterol breathing treatments.

oh, spring is definitely upon us.

so this morning daddy noticed that dutch wasn’t feeling all that great:

daddy: you tell ms. eva if you don’t feel well and she’ll call me and i’ll come and get you, okay?

dutch: okay.

daddy: you don’t feel good?

dutch: [dutch shakes his head no as if he really knows what "feeling good" means. i dunno, maybe he does know what it means, but i'm kinda going with he doesn't.]

daddy: do you wanna go to ms. eva’s?

dutch: no, i don’t wanna go to ms. eva’s.

well, see this is the kicker. daddy leaves before us in the morning so he really doesn’t know that every morning dutch says he doesn’t want to go to ms. eva’s because he would prefer to stay home and watch his vast movie collection. i mean, sure dutch was coughing this morning (and still is), but it’s not sooooooooo bad that he couldn’t really go to daycare. especially since this isn’t a cold so it’s nothing contagious. and sure enough after daddy leaves dutch says this:

dutch: mommy, can we go to chuck e. cheese’s?? to eat pizza?? and to dance??

geez louise, the kid’s a faker already.

my office is located in a basement, but it’s actually not quite as dreary as you may imagine because we at least have windows and i was quite happy about that ’cause, i mean, gee, we all need a little sunshine. but one little problem that we have is ants. ants all along the window sills, ants gathering granules of sugar that was left by the person who was making a cup of coffee and didn’t bother to clean up behind themselves, ants dropping by to say hello… you get the picture. but my southern coworker knew just what to do about these pesky little insects.

instant grits.

yep, grits. that great breakfast treat well-loved by those in the southern region of the country. so here my coworker was with her packet of instant grits in hand going around to everyone’s cubicle and dropping grits in their window sills. so just how the heck do grits eliminate ant problems? well, apparently (and i mean, who knew this because i sure didn’t), ants love grits. but what they don’t know is that they’ll bloat up and die once they eat them.

poor ants. seems kinda cruel, eh?

but my coworker isn’t the only one hip to this idea, the old farmer’s almanac suggests putting instant grits into ant hills.

it’s been an interesting ride being a mixed chick. i’m darker than my pop and lighter than my mama so there’s always a bit of confusion going on as far as exactly who i am to these two folks.

for instance, while my mama was sitting in the hospital bed after giving birth to me she was waiting for the nurse to bring me back from the nursery when she noticed that the nurse stopped right at her door with a newborn in tow. the nurse then slowly moved on after taking one look at my brown mama, and then one look at little white ol’ me. my mama yelled for the nurse to come back and after a few wristband checks, it was determined that this little white baby, did indeed belong to this brown woman.

the second case of confusion happened when my pop decided to take a crew of 8- and 9-year-old girls (me, my cousins and girlfriends) to an amusement park called king’s dominion that’s located right outside of the dc metropolitan area. just imagine a cool white guy with a band of brown little girls in every hue. i’m sure all kinds of assumptions were made that day. my pop told me years later that when we stopped for a quick bathroom break a woman walked over to him and said how wonderful she thought it was that he would pick up children from an orphanage and take them out for a day at king’s dominion. oh, the nerve… well, naturally my pop set her straight on that one.

then there was the time when i was 11 or 12 and i entered a community beauty pageant. my pop and uncle jay (my pop’s best buddy who’s also white) came through to show their support. but of course, the pageant’s organizers didn’t assume that one of them could actually be a parent of one of the girls. oh no. the organizers thought my pop and uncle jay were there to report on the event for a local newspaper.

as if.

when i was in my late teens my pop and i were at the mall when we were mistaken by a coworker of his as being a couple. the comment to my pop was along the lines of, “hey, nice going…”

then there was the time my pop went with me to get my car repaired (you know, to make sure i didn’t get ganked and taken for every little penny i owned) and the mechanic thought we were married.

my mother and i have even been mistaken as a lesbian couple. twice!

i find all of this stuff pretty interesting and funny to say the least. people always jump to conclusions about other people, but you never really know what’s going on in people’s lives unless you know them.

but i’m not going to sit here and play innocent when it comes to guessing about folks. i remember when my son was about five or six months old and my husband and i heard an unexpected knock at the door. my husband went to the door and after i asked him who it was he responded, “i dunno…some white chick.”

indeed, it was our blond, light eyed neighbor who lives in the next building. after i went over to open the door for her she laughed and said, “i heard him say, ’some white chick.’” i kinda cringed from embarrassment, but she took it all in stride as she handed us a few things for our new baby that had been gently used by her own son who is just a few months older than dutch.

over time my neighbor and i have become closer. our sons play together while our husbands sit back and talk smack about which football team is the best. one day my son and i were visiting their place when she pulled out a picture of her dad and i was in total shock.

her dad was a full-blood native american with warm brown skin.

so hey, you just never really know, do you?

dang, i love shoes!!! here’s part two of my summer shoe wardrobe dream.

don’t pinch me, please.

these are sooooooo hot!!! like “solid gold,” hot!! do you remember “solid gold”? am i aging myself here?
intermix
giuseppe zanotti, mirrored platform sandals, $695

of course black and white is very classic, but these are classic turned red hot sexy, honey!
intermix
giuseppe zanotti, patent spectator open toe pumps, $550

these are just so cute and i’m such a silver girl.
shopbop.com
philosophy di alberta ferretti, peep toe cork pump, $495

one of my girlfriends had some heels like these by candie’s years ago and they were just so sexy. i always secretly wanted a pair, but you can’t just go out and buy the same thing your girl has. it breaks the girlfriend code.
shopbop.com
tashkent by cheyenne, the schevchenko distressed pump, $495

i don’t own a darn yellow thing, but that’s why i love these. it’s like a little sunshine in your closet.
shopbop.com
report signature shoes, dita three strap peep toe pump, $195

cute flats (’cause you can’t always wear heels, right?)

these just look so comfy! comfy is a good thing.
shopbop.com
pure dkny claire ankle strap flat, $95

mary jane’s are just fun. i’m really diggin’ these ’cause they’re super cute. did i just say that? anyway… on to the next…
shopbop.com
frye, vintage kat mary jane flat, $138

there’s something rebellious about wearing snake, don’t you think? plus, i love how the color fades. cool stuff.
shopbop.com
twelfth st. by cynthia vincent shoes, judy ombre snake ballet flat, $240

these are just plain ol’ different. and i dig different. plus, you know red’s my color this year. you did read that post didn’t you?
shopbop.com
charlotte ronson shoes, kidada flat, $134

listen up, dmv!!!

udc is holding its literature live event march 27 - 29th. it’s a three-day book festival jam packed with all kinds of goodies like book signings & sales, poetry readings, a poetry slam contest and prizes, and book readings. there will also be panel discussions on writing memoirs, biographies, fiction, childrens’ books, self-publishing, how to get published and electronic media.

come out and meet agents, editors, authors, new black male writers and international fiction writers.

for a complete schedule of events log onto www.hurstonwright.org or www.udc.edu