It’s late, the girls have long been asleep and I just can’t log off of this thing. I’ve checked my email over and over. I’ve bid and bid again on things I don’t need on eBay. I’ve checked my bank balance (yipes!). I’ve quiz after useless quiz — I’m 79% well versed in alcoholic beverages, if I were a DP, I’d be Jasmine, I’m 92% Jersey and 93% Massachusetts, I could take on 22 five year olds in a fight, and I’m about 78% likely to eat my friends if we had to resort to cannibalism as a result of some major devestation leaving us stranded without food. I’ve vistied Gymboree, BabyGap, Gap, Ann Taylor Loft, Ethan Allen, Crate & Barrel, Williams-Sonoma, just itching to buy something that I have no room for or no practical space for. I’ve searched recipes because I’m hungry, Hungry Girl and Weight Watchers because I’ve got to lose this weight, True Mom Confessions because I’m all kinds of pissed off about this, that and the other thing, and MySpace just to see what some of my friends are up to. I’ve checked the news, the weather, my checking account balance (again), I’ve ordered pictures from Snapfish, Shutterfly, and Walgreens.com. I’ve checked out books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the Norfolk public library site. I’ve put books on hold, ordered books from paperbackswap.com and discussed books on Shelfari.

I’m spending quality sleep time messing around on the computer where I’ve found a site where I can find my celebrity look-alike, morph myself into said celebrities, and generally just waste time doing nothing productive. I will say, though, I must have some Asian descendants in my family tree seeing as the majority of my celebrity look-alikes are Asian. The morph from me to Aya Matsuura is pretty freaky!

Are we related or what?

I need someone to tell me to go to bed, ’cause I’m going to be really crank-tastic in the morning.

I can’t take it any more. I am so sick of the Disney Princesses, I’m about to put out a contract on all of those broads. At first, I was all in favor of the girl power message and the emphasis on positive female role models for young girls. As time has gone by, however, their ever present faces have become the bane of my existence. Maybe it’s my own fault. Maybe it was going to happen anyway. The fact remains, I’m the queen of this here castle and I already have two princesses.

Let’s review. The DP’s, at this moment in time, consist of Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Princess Ariel from the Little Mermaid, Princess Jasmine from Aladdin, Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, Princess Pocahontas from Pocahontas, Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella from Cinderella, Mulan from Mulan, and *gasp*
Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog.

FYI people, Princess Tiana from the Princess and the Frog is Disney’s first (and only) Black Princess in an animated film. The movie, which will be released December 18th, 2009, is set in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

I’m gasping at the fact that Princess Tiana is included because:
1. The movie has not yet been released and
2. There is no indication of Princess Tiana belonging to this clique on any merchandise relating to the DP’s whatsoever.

I should even gasp that Pocahontas and Mulan are included in that group, because they are hardly making appearances on the shelves, either. They’re not even on most of the packaging! If you Google “Disney Princess”, you get about 1.27 million results in 0.03 seconds. Google “Black Disney Princess”, you get 787 results in .10 seconds.

But, back to my rant about the princesses. I know that this is just a phase, one that I will have to endure again when Coever is of age, but the pervasive nature is scary. Morgan has only seen Cinderella one time, while we drove to the peanut festival in someone else’s car. From that one exposure, she became Cinderella obsessed. She wanted me to draw Cinderella, she wanted to see the movie again and again, she would see Cinderella at the store and go into a fit of squeals and “please, please, please’s”.

Cut to YMCA childwatch where Morgan has cajoled the nursery workers to read Cinderella and the Little Mermaid stories to her — 6 times in a 45 minute period. Yikes!!

Cut to our coloring time on the floor where Morgan asks for me to draw a dress in a circle — that’s Morganese for “Please draw a princess”. Once I’ve picked up a crayon, my little Morgan requests as fast as she can, “And draw Cinderella, and draw Ariel, and draw Jasmine, and draw Sleeping Beauty. . .” though Jasmine comes out more like Jazz-man and Sleeping Beauty is Sleeping Bee-ooo-tee. Ugh, if Disney needs another animator for those DP’s, call me! I’m prolific now.

Cut to the day we went to another playgroup and lo and behold, 3 foot Ariel plush doll comes out to play. Holy mother of pearl. I had no idea that some cotton, polyester and ribbon could render a toddler girl into a sniveling, quivering, tantrum throwing nutball. Morgan had to have it during the playgroup. She wanted to take it home, she talked about it the whole way home, every time we mentioned that friend, Morgan said, “And Ariel comes too.” So what’s a mother to do? I went out and bought one for her for Christmas. Mind you, this is AUGUST!! But, being the uber-goody-goody that I am, I also got Morgan matching Ariel underpants for potty training, Ariel stickers for good behavior, and a small Ariel doll to take along so the big Ariel wouldn’t be looking at me in the rearview mirror when we went out. I was even going to give her my (yes my own) copy of The Little Mermaid on VHS — and thank goodness I changed my mind on that one.

Christmas morning comes and the first thing Morgan goes for is the Ariel doll, the small one. The big one, she loved, but she threw it in the crib. The little one became like the mouse in her pocket. Wherever Morgan went, Ariel was peeping out of Morgan’s fist. Ariel had her clothes changed more times than Heidi Klum during a Victoria Secret fashion show. It was scary. Morgan walked around like a zombie saying, “Ariel is SO beautiful. Ariel is SO pretty.” Well, Craig and I stepped in, saying, “Yes, but not as pretty as Morgan.” Went right over her head. We continue re-inforcing to her that she is beautiful, prettier than Ariel, the whole nine yards. We tell her, “Mommy is pretty. Coever is pretty. Morgan is pretty. Daddy is handsome.” And Morgan says, and I quote, “Just like Prince Eric”.

Son of a goat!!

What transpired next came out of love for my children as well as for the continued growth and development of their self-esteem and self-worth. The Disney Princesses (Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White) have been effectively removed from our home. Is that totally Mommie Dearest? Cruella DeVille? Have I, in an attempt to re-inforce my own daughters worth and beauty, made her into the oppressed princess and myself into the older women/enemy that is featured in most of the films? I doubt it.

Little girls love their dolls, I know. More to the point, little girls love dolls that look like them. To that end, I’m determined to find Black dolls for my girls, and not just princesses either. I know there is a Bessie Coleman action figure. Barbie has come out with more diverse looking dolls, as well as dolls with more career opportunities. If by some twist of fate Morgan is still in the throes of the princess phase, and Coever is, too, there is even a Barbie Princess of the Nile doll to tide them over until The Princess and the Frog is released.

December 18th,2009 seems so far away, but if I squint my eyes and look real hard, I can see that Princess Tiana making her highly anticipated walk into the Disney Princess inner circle. While I hope she will be as welcomed and revered as her fellow princesses have been and continue to be, I know she will be at our home.

And here we are into the new year, 2008. Day three, and I’ve flossed for three days in a row!! *pats on the back, pats on the back* We’ve been staying busy with playdates, arts & crafts, seeing Yia–Yia and Pop-Pop, and heading back to the gym. I’ve been told that it only takes 3 days of doing something to make it a habit. Well, I took an extended break from the gym over the holiday and believe me, not going has become a habit. It’s been hard to get back up on that treadmill, but the past couple of days, I’ve been doing it.

See, here’s the thing. I got this nasty head cold on Christmas that’s just wrapping up now. It was so bad that I couldn’t smell and couldn’t taste anything. Couldn’t taste anything!! Over the Christmas holiday! That meant the eggnog I’d been dreaming about went down without any taste at all. I received two 4-piece boxes of Godiva truffles for Christmas. I ate them both (yikes!) thinking the richness of the chocolate would shock my taste back into shape. Nope. I kept eating and drinking, but nothing happened. Well, nothing happened to my taste buds; my waistline, well that’s another blog for another day. Long story short, I just had to ride it out. Food is SO unenjoyable when you can’t taste it.

You’d think I’ve got a wooden leg or something the way I’ve been eating to try and get my taste back. There’s that 3 day habit rule. Now that it is back, I’m still eating like it’s gone. I’m just “hongry“. Yes, not just “hungry”, HONGRY. When I’m having breakfast, I’m thinking about what I’m going to have for lunch. When I’m having lunch, I’m thinking about what I’m going to have for dinner. At dinner, I’m thinking about dessert and at dessert, I’m thinking, “Man, you know what would taste good for breakfast tomorrow?” What is that all about?

I’d like to think I have a pretty cultured palate. I like sushi, roti, channa masala, lo mein, samosas. Still, I’ll take a well seasoned rib-eye and my all time favorite side — potatoes. If you are what you eat, I’m a big ol‘ potato. I could give up bread, rice, corn, all that starchy stuff, but come between me and my potato and we’re fixin‘ to fight. French fries, potato wedges, scalloped potatoes, duchess potatoes, pomme dauphine, potato latkes, pierogies, new potatoes, baked, boiled, smashed, mashed, pretty much any kind of way. Yum.

My taste buds aren’t back to fighting shape, but they’re getting there. In the meantime, I’m continuing to plot out what I’m going to eat next. I paid a visit to Godiva today, but alas they were out of the very truffle that I wanted to taste — eggnog, quelle suprise. They did have gingerbread and I’m looking forward to seeing how it tastes. I got a couple, too, just in case it takes a while for the taste buds to catch up.

Sadly, I don’t have any pithy pearls of wisdom with which to ring in the new year, but I will put forth a few things, dare I say, resolutions, that I plan to incorporate into the daily routine for 2008.

1. Floss. This is my resolution for 2007 and it was a lot harder that I thought it was going to be. Seriously, flossin’ ain’t easy. And I was just going for flossing period, not twice a day or after every meal. Just picking up the floss whenever you see it and doing it. Yeah, that went the way of the dodo about April. So, we’re going to give flossing a try. Again. Here’s to my dental health!

2. Putting myself on the list. Far too often, I’ve got a to-do list several pages long filled with things that I’ve got to do, need to do, want to do and have to do — for everyone else in my life. I’ve got to put Hilary on the list and make sure the things that are important to me get done, too.

3. Be a better woman, wife and mother, in that order. That’s the order in which I assumed these roles, that’s the order in which I need to focus my attention.

4. Forgiveness, and I don’t mean a la Samantha James. I’m totally stealing this from LibbY because her message is so potent and something I didn’t know I needed to do for myself and others.

So with that, peace out, 2007. It’s 10:35pm and I’m not even going to stay up to see you out properly. I’m on my way to bed, but I’ve got to floss first.

Christmas may be over, but my two little angels keep the season going for me. We took a lot of pictures over the holiday — a lot — but this one is my absolute favorite. My MIL made both the dresses and the hats for Morgan and Coever.

When I see Morgan and Coever together, I am struck at how easily they get along, how excited Morgan is to show her little sister her dolls and her Little People. Coever is always smiling and cooing at her big sister, trying to roll over towards her to better see what’s going on. I had always wanted a sister when I was growing up and to some degree, I’m living vicariously through my girls. I’m looking forward to watching them grow into independent young ladies, the best of friends, and the strongest of sisters.

So, I’ve been working out a lot lately. Mostly cardio on the treadmill or elliptical, but I’ve been throwing in step aerobics on occasion. That’s been awesome and surprisingly difficult. I thought I had coordination. I thought I had rhythm, but when the instructors start calling out the steps, the more I think about it, the more my feet have a mind of my own. Best practice is to just move, move, move. The feet do what they are supposed to.

I’ve been told that in addition to cardio, I should supplement my work-outs by lifting weights. No problem; I like it, actually. I’ve done the Nautilus circuit and free weights on occasion and have seen good results. One thing I noticed that happens when I do the free weights, especially when I’m doing an upright row, the left side of my upper lip curls up like Elvis. Ummm, what’s that all about? I’ve tried biting my lip while I row, I’ve tried opening my mouth wide while I row, I’ve even tried singing while I row. I’m starting to wonder if my trapezius muscle is somehow connected extra tightly to my face, hence causing the lip curl. I mean, is this normal? Am I the only Elvis impersonator in the weight room?