Thursday, February 14, 2013

BIG Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The day when all lovers express their love to each other by giving flowers, candy and in some cases something more personal.

My husband and I always include our children during this celebration of "love", for us is not just about "us", is about teaching our children how to give, receive and share.

We started our day by having heart shape pancakes, strawberries and juice. Who doesn't like pancakes? My little man.. for him I made his special "dinosaur" oatmeal, a couple of strawberries and a glass of juice with his special "straw".

You can easily make this by using pancake shapers but a heart shape cookie cutter works just as well, just make sure you use a pair of small tongs to lift the cookie cuter once the pancakes have taken shape, you don't want to burn yourself.... all done!

The teachers are special too!

These were the gifts for Ms. Bree's teacher. Mrs. P is the best, she has helped Ms. Bree so much and we cannot thank her enough for the wonderful job she has done and continues to do with Ms. Bree.

Ms. Bree chose to wear her hair straight. It took her several days to tell me how she wanted her hair done. Ms. Bree is getting older and I want her to feel that mami listens to what she has to say, now, I'm not saying I will agree to cut or color her hair purple!

Her hair was washed and banded for almost two days before it was flat ironed. Since her birthday party is this Saturday I will be using curlformers for the first time to create some nice curls.

Once Ms. Bree saw mami wearing a red dress, she also wanted to wear her red dress, although in the picture looks pink... The necklace is actually part of the dress... isn't that beautiful??

These were the treat bags created by Mrs. P for all the children, each student/parents created their own bags for the "Big Exchange", I will be posting those tomorrow along with Little Man's Valentine Photos.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Where Are The Curlz?!

Yes, her hair is straight! and NO, I did not relaxed her hair.

I know many parents have concerns or are afraid of using flat irons or blow dryers on their children's hair.

I am going to share the one thing my Husband said to me almost two years ago: "Buying cheap things will give you poor results". Investing in a good quality tool will probably due less damage than an inexpensive hair tool.

After a long discussion my husband convinced me to buy a good quality flat iron. Yes, I did pay a good amount of money for it but to be honest it was totally worth it.

I believe this is the third time I flat iron my daughter's hair and I believe that the process has not damaged her hair because of the following reasons:

1. I don't do it often; Ms. Bree is about to turn four and I've flat iron her hair maybe a total of three times in the last three years.

2. I make sure I wash, condition, moisturize and stretch her hair before flat ironing it. I don't use the blow dryer to dry her hair. I rather band Ms. Bree's hair in order to stretch her curl pattern.

*Why do this? If you stretch the hair before you flat iron it then you will spend less time going over the curls repeatedly. (See What is Banding? Post)

3. Once the hair is stretched, I apply a heat protector. I personally use Paul Mitchell Smoothing Gloss Drops.

4. I DO NOT let the flat iron sit on one spot for a long time. In fact, I recommend you divide the hair into small sections, and gently flat iron the hair. Smaller sections are easy to do and will prevent you from having to go over the sections repeatedly.

5. My flat iron has different settings: 240, 280, 320, 350 and 400.
I use the 320 setting to do Ms. Bree's hair since her hair is more delicate.

The important thing to remember is to prep the hair before you flat iron it, to moisturize the hair, and then follow with a protective style.

I will be doing cornrows on Ms. Bree's hair as the next protective style.