Tag: Stay at home mom

  • Glossybox – J’ai tenté ma chance

    Glossybox – J’ai tenté ma chance

    J’ai vu Glossybox apparaître sur mes publicités Facebook ainsi que d’autres influenceurs passer en revue les boîtes et je n’avais jamais été tentée avant que la boîte MAC n’apparaisse. J’ai décidé que je devais l’essayer.

    J’ai opté pour l’abonnement d’un mois, j’ai donc reçu la boîte de janvier en même temps que la boîte MAC et comme j’ai acheté après le 14 du mois, j’ai pensé que je n’allais pas être facturée pour un mois supplémentaire, d’autant plus que je me suis désabonnée dès que j’ai reçu mes deux boîtes.

    Imaginez ma surprise lorsque j’ai reçu un courriel indiquant qu’ils m’avaient facturé pour le mois de février. Je n’avais pas d’abonnement actif, mais j’avais encore des informations de paiement sur le site et ils m’ont quand même facturé. Inutile de dire que je n’étais pas contente. J’ai immédiatement supprimé mes informations de paiement et j’ai dû aller sur Paypal pour supprimer Glossybox comme paiement récurrent, c’est très important à savoir si vous utilisez Paypal comme option de paiement.

    Je vais commencer par la boîte MAC qui est ce que je voulais en premier lieu.

    MAC Glossybox

    Dans la boîte MAC, j’ai reçu :

    • Rouge à Lèvres Liquide Powder Kiss
    • In Extreme Dimension 3D Black Lash Mascara
    • Mini Rouge À Lèvres Mat (Mehr)
    • Fard À Paupières
    • Pinceau Fard À Paupières 239S
    • Strobe Cream
    • Prep + Prime Fix +

    J’ai été très satisfaite de cette boîte, le rouge à lèvres liquide est un peu désordonné, il est plus épais qu’un gloss donc je dois faire très attention à la façon dont je l’applique sinon il va dépasser les lignes de mes lèvres. Le mascara allonge merveilleusement mes cils, mais je préfère les mascaras waterproof, d’autant plus que j’ai les yeux secs et que lorsque je sors et qu’il y a du vent, mes yeux ont tendance à larmoyer, ce qui entraîne des bavures. Le mini rouge à lèvres n’est pas très visible sur mon teint mais je le préfère pour un look plus naturel. La seule chose que je n’ai pas appréciée dans cette boîte est le fard à paupières, simplement parce qu’il ne ressort pas du tout sur mon teint.

    Boîte de janvier

    Voici la boîte que j’ai commandée avec ma boîte MAC, la Glossybox de janvier.

    Cette boîte contient :

    • Spa To You brosse nettoyante
    • Coco Pure Detox Coffee gommage du visage
    • Masque de nuit pour les lèvres
    • Eyeliner liquide
    • Masque fondant hydratant
    Glossybox Janvier

    Le gommage pour le visage contient des coquilles de noix, ce qui est un signal d’alarme pour moi. Je n’ai pas la peau sensible, mais je n’utilise pas non plus de gommage sur mon visage, en particulier ceux qui contiennent des ingrédients susceptibles de provoquer des abrasions.

    Je n’ai pas du tout utilisé le gommage pour le visage, je l’utilise comme gommage pour les pieds et je dois dire qu’il fonctionne à merveille, mes pieds sont si doux après.

    En ce qui concerne les autres produits, je les trouve corrects, j’adore la brosse nettoyante pour le visage, le masque à lèvres de nuit est un peu douteux pour moi parce qu’il est très collant et je n’aime pas la sensation de l’avoir sur mes lèvres quand je vais dormir. J’adore l’eyeliner liquide, j’avais l’intention d’en acheter un et j’en suis très contente. Je n’ai pas encore essayé le masque fondant hydratant parce que c’est un tout petit flacon et que mes cheveux sont plutôt épais. Au mieux, je peux mettre mes cheveux en quatre sections et l’essayer sur l’une d’elles, mais je préférerais pouvoir l’essayer sur toute ma tête.

    Boîte de février

    et maintenant ma boîte surprise de février…

    Cette boîte contient :

    • Masque pour les yeux Collagen Boosting
    • Original Skin Lotion tonique
    • Le Gel Nettoyant Visage Purifiant
    • Shampoing Revitalisant Reddition
    • Vernis à ongles Mayfair Lane
    Glossybox Février

    J’ai essayé tous les produits, à l’exception du shampooing car, une fois de plus, il est bien trop petit pour que je puisse l’essayer. J’ai apprécié la plupart des produits à l’exception du masque, qui ne m’a pas semblé relaxant ou apaisant et ma peau était un peu sèche après avoir retiré le masque. J’aime beaucoup le toner, il a un parfum agréable et j’ai eu l’impression qu’il éliminait les impuretés tout en hydratant. Le gel nettoyant est correct, rien de vraiment spécial à son sujet, il fait ce qu’il doit faire. Le vernis à ongles n’est pas vraiment ma couleur préférée mais il tient très bien après une semaine comme couleur d’ongle d’orteil.

  • Postpartum Bra Shopping

    Postpartum Bra Shopping

    Featured Photo by Uliana Kopanytsia on Unsplash

    Bra shopping used to be one of my favorite things to do when I was younger, I was a 32A from the time I hit puberty right up until I had my son at 26. I don’t normally care for shopping in general but I would browse the Junior bra section for hours finding new bras, I easily had over 10 pairs of bras, one of my biggest problems was that I thought I was too small (thanks society) all the bras I had were more aimed towards younger girls who were just getting their first bras, nothing in the women’s section was in my size. I had never even heard of Sister sizes, if you don’t know what that is stay tuned because I will talk about it further down in this post. I’ll never forget that singular day in school when I overheard two boys talking about girls’ bodies and when one asked about mine the other said “She doesn’t have a body”. That point was later solidified when I was in my mid-twenties and surfing Blackplanet, one of the most popular groups among the men was one where it said something like guys preferred “Bad Grades C, D, E, F”. There was no mistaking that they were talking about breasts and what they considered to be bigger sizes. There I was being bombarded with the idea that men didn’t care for slim women with small breasts and I had no breasts to speak of so they obviously didn’t care for me. I want to say it didn’t bother me but I would be lying, I didn’t care about attracting anyone but the thought that I was unattractive was troubling. I often wished for bigger breasts (silly, silly goose) just to be thought of as feminine. I should explain that I was very much a tomboy before this hyper-awareness of my “lack of body”, I frequently wore baggy jeans, big shirts, backward caps, I hanged out with my brothers and cousins all the time so I was essentially one of the guys, I didn’t care for skirts and dresses and all those girly things my parents said was for girls. I was happy as I was even though people often asked me what I was…

    Despite the occasional wishful thought for bigger breasts, I was fine, I began wearing dresses and skirts and cultivating a feminine side that isn’t hyper-feminine. I wore make-up but not a full face, I still don’t know how to blend eyeshadow or know what half those toners and cc creams, and serums are for but I’m fine with who I am.

    When I was pregnant with my son, I joined a few Birth Boards and one common theme was women’s breasts growing and leaking milk, I didn’t experience any of this, I guess my body was too busy trying to provide nourishment for my baby. I didn’t think it would happen to me but it did.

    One day I had my baby and the next I had my breasts. I remember it so vividly, I woke up with HUGE (in my eyes) breasts, my milk had come in and I began to leak like crazy, it’s a good thing my son was exclusively breastfed because this was crazy. It’s funny the things you learn about your body after having a baby. No one ever told me about Letdowns but up to this day, I can still remember the tingle I’d get, and then the leaking would begin. My usual 32A bras were not going to do so we quickly went shopping and I ended up with a C cup, I don’t really remember what band size it was but it was probably wrong.

    My son nursed for one and a half years, I originally wanted to do baby-led weaning but I ended up pregnant and in the hospital for 4 days and after that, he just lost interest in nursing. There I was fresh from the hospital without another baby and my first baby didn’t want to nurse anymore. I was sad we wouldn’t have that bond anymore and fine with it at the same time because I wouldn’t have to be nursing him all hours of the day and night.

    With the end of nursing, I found that I needed to buy new bras once again. Here was a new problem though French bras don’t use the same system as the US bras, both the cup and band sizes seem to be bigger letters and numbers, what should be a C is actually a D, and what is a 34 is actually a 90! Imagine my shock when I go from a 34D to a 95E but they are the same exact size. I think everything about the sizing system over here made me think I was bigger, fatter than I actually am. To find a good bra my husband and I looked up international size conversion charts and then I just tried on different bras until I found one that fit.

    I was content with my bras, they mostly fit but it seemed I kept having to buy a new one as soon as I got used to my newer bigger size. Sometimes I ended up with a really good fitting bra and buy two different colors but one of them doesn’t fit, right? I don’t understand how that happens but it did several times. Some of my biggest bra issues in the last year were falling straps, too tight band, and gaps at the top of the bra where it should have been flush against my skin. I thought I was at the biggest reasonable size but boy was I wrong. One day in my mom group one of the other moms posted about a Reddit group called A Bra That Fits and there was a calculator you could use to find the right-sized bra for your body. You can find the Calculator here. I don’t remember what the calculator said was the ideal size for me but I remember thinking they were joking because it was a smaller band than I was currently wearing but a bigger cup, I decided to do some more reading on the group and learned all kinds of interesting things. Your size it seems isn’t the most important aspect of finding a bra that fits it’s the shape of your breasts. It’s a lot to get into and if you want to read more I suggest heading over to the subreddit and reading the beginners guide. This is my most recent results from the calculator: 28FF/G in the UK, 75H in French sizes, and 28F in the US.

    These are not full charts they are aimed mostly at showing how I found my French and European size from the US or UK size. If you are interested in seeing a full chart I suggest Googling International Size charts, there are lots of different charts available.

    75H is not a very common size to find here in France, most if not all the common stores only go up to Cup size E, and if you’re lucky you can find band size 110. Here is where knowing your Sister sizes come in handy. A sister size is a bra that is either a larger or smaller band but the same cup volume, for instance, I can’t find a 75H here but I can usually find a 90E, 95D, or 100C, these are all Sister sizes meaning they might fit me just as well or better than my original size. You’ll notice I omitted 80G and 85F, well that’s because they are not readily available which I had the pleasure of finding out when I needed a new bra after starting to breastfeed my daughter and I couldn’t go into the store to try on any bras during the pandemic so my poor husband had to go in and try to find one of the numbers I tell him. I sent him to find a 75H, no, 80G? no, 85F? no, what about 90F? it looks like it would fit. Fine, and it was for like a few months until I looked at the calculator again and realized it was not the correct size!

    This is not a full chart, I focused mostly on the Sister sizes of my own results, to find a chart suitable for you I recommend Googling Sister Sizes with your Country name on the end. I also limited the sizes to what I found was mostly available at the sites I frequent.

    Now I have the right Sister sizes I ordered bras more suitable for my shape and fullness, I’m hopeful that I have finally found my bra that fits!

  • Getting Ready for my OPI Rainbow Voxbox

    *Includes Affiliate links

    Hey guys!

    So it’s been almost three weeks since I posted about looking forward to September, usually, I would have had my OPI Rainbow Voxbox at least two days after receiving the You’re In! email but…Covid.

    The days were passing without a box and everyone was getting worried because Influenster doesn’t provide International tracking so the tracker never moved past this:

    This campaign is active in the US, UK, and France and it seems the US got their boxes but the UK and French boxes were nowhere to be seen. I sent a message asking if the boxes had been shipped yet since no one in the UK or France received their boxes and afterward I received this email:

    Basically, the email is saying they just learned that I hadn’t received my box yet and they were experiencing shipping delays and I should expect my Voxbox in one to two weeks.

    My nails are jacked and I said I would look for some falsies to do the campaign. I honestly didn’t know what brand to get so I searched Amazon France for one with the best reviews. I found these by a brand called Vixi.

    https://amzn.to/3774v4M

    This set includes 600 nails of 10 different sizes. My hands are small, size 2.5 ring! With all these different sizes I know I will find a good match (I hope so anyway).

    The set comes with a little tube of glue but I’m not overly fond of the glues that come with false nails, they have a habit of being very weak. My nails will pop off the very next day if I don’t continuously reapply glue.

    I decided to buy a pack of glue made especially for false nails.

    https://amzn.to/3x8t6ks

    The pack includes 5 bottles of glue and a nail file. The set of nails also comes with a nail file and I have a few of my own already. You can never have enough nail files.

    It’s been about 5 days since the email about the delays so now it’s just a waiting game. I’m guessing I’ll get it around the same time as the package from Le Lab.

    Maybe I should say “What’s up, October?” or maybe not. I might jinx it again.

  • Why September Will Be An Exciting Month

    September is looking like it will be a very interesting month for me. I have a lot of new products coming my way to test out and I am excited!

    On August 6, I received a survey about a Voxbox from Influenster, I’ve spoken about them before, it’s a review site where you have the chance of getting a box of products to review. There’s a wide range of things you might be chosen for, food, clothing, beauty products, I haven’t seen any for books, video games, or toys but you never know. I’ve been with the site since 2014 and to my knowledge, they never sent boxes to the Virgin Islands but when I moved here to France I forgot about the site. They didn’t ship here and I had other things on my mind but I decided to go back to it and review stuff just because. In 2018 they sent their first VoxBox to France and I got it!

    The Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara Volume Spectaculaire VoxBox was my very first Voxbox and I really enjoyed the product. You can read my review about it here Finding happiness in the little things. When you complete the campaign you earn a neat little badge that you can display on your profile.

    In 2019 I got into another VoxBox, I got into the OPI Tokyo Collection VoxBox, I spoke about it here New Voxbox! and here New OPI Tokyo Collection Voxbox. I wasn’t really expecting to get this box because France seems to get two surveys a year and I hadn’t gotten into the last one for 2018 or the first one for 2019. I really loved this box because I almost always seem to pick up purple nail polish and this allowed me to venture out a bit.

    If the trend stays the same the survey I got from Influenster on August 6 is either the first or last survey of the year. I’m unsure because I received a survey on April 14 about Rexona deodorant but nobody even mentioned receiving it on Instagram or online anywhere. Usually, you can see what everyone has received if you follow the right hashtag on Instagram but there has been no real activity on the French Influenster hashtag since last year.

    This survey that I received was about a product from OPI, I’m going to be really honest even though I opted in I kind of hoped I wouldn’t get it because my nails are really terrible right now. I picked and peeled them until there is nothing. I’m going to have to get some falsies to do this campaign. While I was hoping not to and hoping to get the VoxBox, it showed up on my profile but I haven’t received a You’re In! email yet. I’ve heard of this happening to people before but this was the first time it has happened to me. With my first campaign, I got the email and it took a while for it to show up on my profile and I was worried it had been a mistake.

    The other products I’m waiting for are from Le Lab by Doctissimo. On August 5, I received an invite to apply for their Garnier Bio à l’huile de Chanvre Bio (Hemp Oil) campaign. I’ve never been accepted to any of the previous campaigns I applied to so I wasn’t really hopeful but on August 14, I was accepted!

    I will be receiving the Hemp Multi-Restore Gel Cream and the Hemp Multi-Restore Facial Sleeping Oil. I was supposed to receive the package very soon but there were unforeseen delays and I won’t get it until late September. I’m not really a fan of the Hemp smell but Garnier makes really good products so I’ll just have to wait and see about it.

    There’s one other thing I’m hoping to hear about but I can’t say whether or not I’ll be reviewing it yet. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t so I’ll wait until I hear if I’m actually getting it before I say “I’m going to be reviewing this!”

    So, yeah, I’m really looking forward to September.

    I’ll obviously be reviewing these products so keep an eye out for those posts next month. Since I’m supposed to receive the Garnier one in late September it will probably end up being posted in October.

  • Trip to Correns and more

    Welcome back or if you’re visiting for the first time hello.

    The last time I posted “The Last of them” my grandfather had just passed away and I was not in a good frame of mind. I’m doing better now, not 100% but I don’t feel like closing myself up in a deep dark hole, I got the space I needed to grieve and I’m thankful for that.

    One of my nieces went on vacation to the beach and my son wanted so badly to join her but the closest beach to us is almost 5 hours away! There’s no way we’d travel that far to go to the beach. Or so I thought…

    On Monday, all smug like, my son said to me “we’re going to the beach tomorrow”, Yeah right, I thought, we’re not going anywhere but his father didn’t say anything to me, then again his father waits until the very last minute to tell me anything. I’m sitting there contemplating this information and whether or not I can trust it when Marvin comes home and asks Naveen if he told me.

    Told me?

    Told me what?

    Naveen said “yes, I tell Mama”, you mean it’s true? We’re going to the beach tomorrow?

    Apparently.

    I had a rough night, Oyanie kept waking up even though she was sleeping for a good six hours, this night she decided four hours was good enough. So there I was on Tuesday morning, tired as hell and have to get up to start packing and making sure we don’t forget anything.

    Everything checked and double-checked, we were on our way, on our to where? I didn’t know. I just knew we were going to the beach. I mentioned before that my husband doesn’t tell me anything until the last minute? Well for trips he doesn’t tell me where we are going at all… I think he works under the misinformation that I like surprises, nothing could be further from the truth, after 10 years I’ve just accepted that he likes surprising me. I’ve never hated any of his surprises so I’ll allow it.

    First, we stopped to get gas, can’t drive for so long on an empty tank eh, that done we started our long drive to the beach, at first I was admiring the scenery as we drove but that quickly turned to fatigue as we continued driving, we’d been driving for almost two hours when I felt the car slowing down, I didn’t see it ok, I fell asleep, it was a very long drive. We took a little break so we could stretch our legs, eat and drink, and just rest for a bit. We still had about two hours left of driving to go. I was curious about what kind of hotel we would be staying in this time and anticipating just dropping onto the bed and staying there for however long I would need. Sitting in the car for so long had made my back ache like there was no tomorrow.

    With our little break over we were back on the road again, this passed by like a blur, I remember a lot of trees and buildings and then water, some of the water was greenish colored but the closer we got to our destination the bluer the color became.

    Finally, we arrived at our destination, this wasn’t like any hotel I’d ever seen before because it wasn’t, we were staying in someone’s air b&b?

    It was an apartment of sorts, the door was one of those really old European doors, an ancient wooden panel with a round knob that looks like it might fall off at any moment, it didn’t though, these doors are pretty strong despite their appearance. Inside was a kitchen slash dining slash living area. Kind of like what we have at home, there’s no definition of space in the homes I’ve visited here in France. There was an upstairs, where I assume were the bedrooms and bathroom but there was one problem.

    The stairs looked like something out of my worst nightmare…

    Apparently, Naveen felt the same because he refused to climb the stairs, we had no choice though, the beds were upstairs and the toilet which we would need sooner or later. His father helped him climb the ladder, I refuse to call it stairs, I followed behind gingerly placing my feet on each rung and holding onto the railing as my life depended on it. If you think going up that monstrosity was bad, going down it was worse, each rung was so narrow I had to try to climb down sideways so my feet could find purchase on each slender step. The worse thing about this was when I had to go up or down with Oyanie in my arms, There I was with my tiny baby held tightly in one arm and the other wrapped around the railing and trying to gauge how far down each step was from the other.

    Naveen became a pro at the stairs, he went up and down like they were nothing, me? No such thing, I took the stairs only if I really needed to otherwise I was fine to stay upstairs or downstairs wherever I was at the moment.

    We didn’t end up going to the beach the first day because it would take another hour and we had reacher too late to go to the beach. We did visit an old wash station where there was a river flowing through. Naveen told his father he didn’t want to go to the beach anymore, he was content to stay here and enjoy the river, we didn’t come all this way for the river though. We were going to drive to the beach the next day.

    A semi-good night’s sleep, Ms. Oyanie was up every four hours again, we had breakfast and relaxed a bit before heading to the beach around noon. The drive was interesting, we followed a canal of water along a very small road, you literally had to ride the wall to let another car pass, at the end of the canal was the beach.

    I’ll be completely honest, being from the Caribbean I grew up with white sand, blue waters, literally beaches of your dreams, this, was not it. First things first, the sand, more like dirt was speckled with something gold that felt like dust on your skin if it touched you. The water was not beckoning at all, add in that there were so many people there, my anxiety went sky high and I was content to stay on the bench we scored under the very shady tree. Marvin asked me if I wanted to go in the water and it was a big no. I’m fine love.

    We spent about two hours there, Naveen enjoyed himself immensely, Oyanie stayed with me most, and Marvin went in the water with Naveen, everybody enjoyed themself and it was time to drive back to the apartment.

    Had an okay night, it was time to head back home which meant another long drive, strangely, going up and down those horrifying stairs gave me muscle aches in my legs, I will not miss them at all. And because I completely forgot that Oyanie made five months yesterday I decided to take some pictures, she was not cooperating at all so I got many many very similar pictures lol. I thought I had settled on the best picture but I felt like the background was too busy and you couldn’t see her face well enough so I moved locations and voilà, the month 5 picture.

    This drive I did better, I didn’t fall asleep so I saw some cool things like this church? on top of the hill, not sure you can really see it in the picture.

    Also saw this really cute tiny castle on a roundabout.

    Finally, we were back home!

    This trip wasn’t the only thing I was up to, I also found this really interesting app on the app store, you upload a picture and people try to guess where you are from, it said to input the furthest back your ancestry went so I entered France and Nigeria. Trying out the app I realized that I really can’t tell where people are from, I get lucky sometimes but for the most part, I guess very wrongly.

    Here’s what people guessed for me:

    The last interesting thing I have to talk about is a secret campaign I was selected for. I can’t say what I’m supposed to review yet but when the package arrived I’ll write a post about it. Stay tuned for that!

    Alright, that’s all, for now, see you guys later!

  • My Weekend in Annecy

    My Weekend in Annecy

    Annecy, a city found in the Haute-Savoie department of France. It’s located in the southeastern part of France, where Lake Annecy feeds into the Thiou River, this city has been on my bucket list for a few years.

    I especially wanted to see Lake Annecy, La Vieille Ville, Pont des Amours, and Palais de l’Ile.

    We left on Saturday around 12 pm, the drive took around 2hrs, the weather was not the best, it was overcast and pretty chilly, yes, chilly in June! We’ve been having temperatures in the 50s which are about 12° Celsius.

    As we were driving my son would get really excited seeing the clouds covering the mountains and driving through mist.

    The most exciting thing though was driving through the mountains! I don’t mean over the mountains either, we drive through tunnels that went through the belly of the mountains, twice, and each time it was crazy.

    Yeah, yeah, you might have don’t this before, probably many times, for us especially coming from an island without any mountains it was something really special to see and experience. I only wish I had taken a picture.

    We reached the hotel about 2:55 or so, it was raining a bit and my husband realized we had forgotten the baby carrier, so there we were sans stroller and carrier so my husband had to heft the bag with our stuff and the little miss.

    We hurried into the hotel and quickly got our room key, strangely enough, there was only one key so we either had to all go out at the same time or some go and others stay behind. It was an ok hotel from the little I saw on our way to the room, there was a game room where Naveen wanted to spend some time. The elevator ride was terrible, it was so jerky, and I got bad motion sickness.

    When we arrived at the room I noticed it was kind of small, there were two full-size beds, one fairly close to the door and the other closer to the opposite wall, Naveen was only too happy to have such a big bed all to himself. I think miss lady believed the other one was for her.

    We took a little rest, change Oyanie’s diaper and feed her then we were off!

    First, we stopped at Burger King so that the bigger people could eat then we visited the lake, the rain was still coming down because we were closer to the lake the wind was really strong and those two things made it pretty cold.

    Without the carrier, Oyanie ended up wrapped in her father’s coat, we tried to keep her as warm as possible while taking in the sights.

    The Pont des Amours wasn’t far from the lake, just had to keep walking and there we were, a little ways from the bridge I spotted a giant bow and arrow. I haven’t been able to find any information on it yet but I probably am not searching for the right terms.

    Pont des Amours
    Giant Bow and Arrow

    Naveen was only too happy to have space to run around and explore. He wanted to keep walking but it was still raining and Oyanie was getting tired. We decided to head back to the hotel.

    For dinner we had pizza from Domino’s, it’s been many years since I’ve had a pizza from there, I found the pizzas to be pretty small, we ordered two and had really tiny containers of ice cream and some kind of dessert with chocolate. I didn’t eat the chocolate dessert. The ice cream was enough for me.

    It was a bit difficult to get Oyanie to sleep and after trying and trying she finally went to sleep but I ended up not being able to fall asleep, I don’t know if I was too hot or if I was just too wired to sleep, whatever it was I ended up just laying there twisting and turning the whole night.

    My phone was charging in Marvin’s side of the bed and I didn’t want to wake anyone up trying to reach so I tried to wait patiently until everyone woke up. Thankfully Marvin woke up long enough to hand me my phone.

    Finally, everyone was up and it was time to check out of the hotel but first Oyanie got a bottle.

    I hadn’t noticed it before when we arrived but downstairs in the lobby, there’s a statue of a red cow.

    Everyone was hungry so we decided to go to the bakery, unfortunately, the bakery had a long line as they only allowed one customer in at a time, we were too hungry to wait in line so we took a walk looking for other places to eat.

    Every so often Marvin would stop to look at menus or Naveen would watch stalls with people selling toys.

    Finally, after walking for what seemed like forever, we went into French Coffee Shop, Marvin asked me what I wanted and I looked over the offerings. There were lots of muffins and some other things but what caught my attention was the cheesecake. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it before but I love cheesecake, if I see it I will always want it, so when Marvin asked me again what I wanted without hesitation I said cheesecake.

    Now, things could have gone either good or bad because not everyone can make cheesecake.

    Thankfully, this was not the case, nope, this cheesecake was delicious, it was utterly divine like if anyone would have tried to ask me to taste some I’d stuff the whole thing in my mouth or lick it.

    I had to restrain myself from licking the cardboard but I sure did lick the spoon. Breakfast over with, we walked back to the car and began the drive to go home.

    Now, we’re home, I’m very tired so will probably end this here.

  • New 23andMe Neanderthal Report Update

    Recently 23andMe updated their Neanderthal Report, you get this Report when you take their DNA test and it tells you how many Neanderthal variants you inherited from your ancestors.

    If you don’t know what a Neanderthal is, 23andMe defines it as:

    Neanderthals were prehistoric humans who interbred with modern humans before disappearing around 40,000 years ago.

    I wish I had taken a screenshot of my variants before the update but I knew it was 102 variants, here is my updated Report:

    From 102 to 68!

    Not all of the variants I agree with, for instance, I have a terrible fear of heights, I can’t look out the windows or go into balconies of very tall buildings, I just can’t do it.

    I do agree with the others, I do indeed have a hard time parting with rarely used possessions, I got that from my father. I have a terrible sense of direction, I can get lost very easily which is why I don’t go out walking by myself.

    I can’t really say if I agree or disagree with the salty over sweet one, they both have a place in my heart and sometimes I will eat something salty with something sweet like I love popcorn with chocolate, it’s delicious.

    While this was a nice little update I’m interested in seeing if they will ever update the haplogroups.

    Only time will tell.

  • Oyanie Made Two Months!

    Yes guys, just like that Oyanie made two months!

    She actually made two months yesterday and I forgot to post it.

    my bad

    Madame Oyanie can roll from her belly onto her back but has yet to master rolling from her back to her belly. She smiles occasionally and never when I have my camera. I’ll get a picture one day…

    She is starting to”talk” to us but she prefers to stare with those big beautiful eyes.

    I honestly can’t believe it’s been two months already, it feels like she’s been here forever.

  • Growth spurts are fun

    It’s almost 3 am and my one-month-old is still fighting sleep, we’ve been battling for a good two hours, she’s been fed, burped, and has a clean diaper. I rock her and her eyes close but as soon as I put her down she cries so I have to start again. I want to cry. I’m running on empty and trying my hardest but it doesn’t seem to be enough.

    Finally, after what seems like forever she settles down and falls asleep.

    It’s 6 am, my husband is getting up to get ready to go to work, and because I’m a light sleeper I’m awake. I’m fatigued and hope I can get back to sleep. It takes a while but I manage it.

    It’s 8 am and my son is waking up, he opens his bedroom door which makes a sound, and wakes me up. I’m bleary-eyed and tired but I know he’ll watch TV and he has everything he needs to make a sandwich so I stay in bed.

    I can’t fall back asleep, I want to so badly but it’s not happening, I pick up my phone and check my notifications, I scroll through Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and my various genealogy and social sites. The baby is squirming I know she’ll be up soon.

    My son is playing a video game and he’s not winning, I can tell from his anguished screams, my nerves start to fray. It’s 10 am, I think about my life choices and how I ended up here.

    Time passes and the baby is now awake and looking for food.

    It’s time to get up and start our day.

  • Confinement In France With A New Baby

    Hey! Welcome back!

    Today I’m going to talk about being in confinement after giving birth. While I was in the hospital Naveen was on break from school and Marvin was home from work so I didn’t have to worry about who would watch him.

    When I got out of the hospital it was time for Naveen to go back to school but he had a cold so he went one day and was sent home the next and stayed home on Friday. We thought he’ll be fine to go on Monday but then the schools were closed and Naveen never got to go back to school.

    We could still go out at that point so we would go for walks which were important for me since I had to walk for my recovery from the C-section. It was good to be outside feeling the cool air and not being cooped inside the house or stuck in the hospital. I stayed there for a whole week!

    Everything was ok and then we went into confinement, stay home unless you absolutely need to go out, have your attestation of you will be fined, we stayed inside. Naveen didn’t understand why he wasn’t going to school and why we couldn’t go to the park or see his grandparents.

    I tried to explain to him in a way he would understand and I think he got it.

    My husband is still working during the pandemic so it’s just me, Naveen, and Oyanie. Due to Oyanie waking up every two hours at night to eat we usually stay in bed until the afternoon. I try to get a little extra sleep but I’m still so very tired when we get up to go downstairs. Sometimes Naveen comes into the room and lays in the bed with Oyanie and me but he’s mostly up early and downstairs. I try to make sure that he has something to eat and occupy himself with.

    While I’m taking care of the baby I sometimes wonder if I’m neglecting Naveen and try to include him or I’ll put the baby down to give him extra attention. It’s hard having two kids especially now when the baby is so small and needs so much more of my attention.

    Naveen has been a good big brother though, he always asks me if I need help and will bring bottles upstairs for me, reach diapers and wipes, he kisses his sister and wants to hold her.

    He will sometimes feed her so I can make myself something to eat or when I need to do something else.

    I think I’m adjusting well to having two children, especially in these strange times. If I’m being honest I’ve been suffering a bit from being stuck at home, given how my pregnancy went where I was stuck at home with only doctor visits as my time outside it’s only a given that I’d go stir crazy without a reason to go outside. I miss the air and the sun and I wish things go back to normal soon.

    Before I forget to mention it Oyanie made one month on March 22, one month already it seemed like I just had her. Time is going by so fast.