Aidan was so exhausting this weekend…Omw the terrible twos are hitting so hard!!! He just moans about every little thing – it’s infuriating!!!
I don’t want that cup, I don’t like that juice,   I don’t want to sleep , I don’t want to bath,  I want to cry ahhhhhh. … but other times he is sweet and I chose to share those pics instead 🙂

Self portrait out of play dough – he looks like humpty dumpty

some love

Aidan tracing letters

he only wants to do A’s

Caleb hung out with us the weekend

Caleb is so gansta

Here they are attempting a obstacle course

obstacle course

They did some crafting

messy crafting

messy messy

caleb playing dr

answering the phone

the “non messy paint” thing didn’t go down too well with them

caleb wrote on my floor

Today’s curly hair countdown comes courtesy of one of my closest friends growing up, Evangeline 🙂
Neither of us wore our hair  curly back then (high school) so I was pleasantly surprised to see her rocking her natural curls!!! she is def one of my hair crushes 🙂

This weekends #pennysparrow drama has me heart broken…
I know many black people don’t feel like coloured people share their pain. Fair enough.
I have only been coloured so only really know my own story.
The story of knowing people look at our little boys like mini gangsters in training and that comments like “she’s coloured but bright” has been used to describe me way more than it should.
Penny Sparrow’s words hit me hard this weekend.  I remember growing up, every year end my dad would round up people who would ordinarily never have access to the beach and organise a bus to take them on a day out (also how my parents met but that’s another story)
It was around 1995, I was 9ish and playing on the beach with my brother who was 5ish at the time.
Playing with our “big Christmas gift” a set of “walkie talkies” he wandered into the path of two white ladies coming out of the Kings beach toilets, I grabbed his sandy hands and smiled as a way of apology.
The one woman pulled her bag close and looked at the two kids with curly hair matted from the sea water and sun tans begging for after sun lotion and said in exaspirated Afrikaans… “I guess we better get used to these monkeys everywhere” and it broke me!
I bundled up my brother and wanted to go home but instead hid away while the other kids played, so I wouldn’t spoil their fun.
Up till that point I never thought of myself as less than.
I grew up and went to school in a coloured area but never saw any race as different to me (mostly due to my family and to all the Christian camps I attended)… I knew we looked different but that’s the case at every family function anyway so it didn’t effect how I saw people.
That day I hated what I looked like I felt unworthy and it took me quite a while to trust again. After that a little part of me hated older white women who would ask to touch my hair and would clap and point me out to their friends because I was just so smart and spoke so beautifully…
I don’t hate anymore. I understand how people are victims of their circumstances and I usually just feel sorry for racist people and their shallow little minds.
But Penny Sparrow’s comments hurt me… I could just imagine kids hearing it!!! Their outing spoilt because people like Penny see them as unworthy.
I hate littering but I’m very sure I’ve seen many a place be littered and many a race do the littering.
The point is too many people say shiz without thinking.
Like can you hear yourself?!?
Do you realise your skin is an accident of fate? You could easily have been anyone else and then you Penny (and people like you) would have to explain to your crying child why that auntie is calling him and his loved ones monkeys (cute and playful my foot) think about that over your store bought latte on route to yoga which sorry to say all of us can do now too. (Not me so much cause I’m unfit but loads of us darker ppl do)
My problem is that I’m naive I think of a world where we are all just PEOPLE and that seems feasible to me… I hate when I stand corrected on this point 🙁

I’ve decided to ask some curly curls to share their secrets in a “curly countdown”
So to get things started I’m doing the first in the series 🙂

Curl count down

5 random facts about you and your hair

–          This is my blog so you probably know too much about me already

–          I used to wish I was a mermaid because my hair looks better wet

–          My hair grows fast but you cant really tell because it shrinks when drying

–          My son has awesome curls, I’m slightly jealous of him

–          I like rose flavoured things way more than I like the actual flower

4 products or activities you can’t live without

–          My mini hairdryer set on cold to shape my hair in the mornings

–           Coconut oil!!!

–          Hair pins glorious hair pins

–          Conditioner!!!

3 Tips for other curly curls

–          Embrace your pattern, everyone is different and that is okay

–          Look for natural products, your hair will thank you later

–          Satin/Silk scarves and bonnets are your friend

2 misconceptions about curly hair

–          People see it as a lazy girls way out – believe me it’s not

–          That you can detangle dry NEVER DO THAT!!!

1 curly pic

See above

So last weekend I went to the first annual curls in the city event. A get together of like minded people (curly girls/naturals/bos kop people )  to chat, get tips and bond over our hair triumphs and struggles. I didn’t get pics (crazy right) so stole this one from fellow blogger Ruth.

I just know the second one will be even better and I’m booking my seat now already.

As we chatted I made some mental notes from the naturals to share with you all…Some you know, some you might not 🙂

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