I absolutely love Hillsong and this song is one of my favorites. They'll be at the Manhattan Center on March 10. I would LOVE to go, but it's not quite in our budget right now. I hope to visit one of their services though at their newly launched NYC location. Read more about it here. At last we put up black out curtains in Nia's "nursery." They were $13/panel from Target. Her nursery is actually an office with a huge window looking into the yucky, abandoned building next door, and while she loves watching the pigeons go in an out of the windows, the view is quite unsightly as it's the first room guests see upon entering our apartment. It doesn't have a door, but it does have a huge closet. The nursery is more like an alcove actually. I had actually been in discussions with the Nate Berkus Show to do a room makeover, but alas it didn't work out. BTW, Nate is giving away framed maps on his site today! Doesn't this look divine?: Photo Credit: The Nate Show For the doorless entry I'm thinking of getting these $20 sound and light reduction panels from Ikea:

They're a tad short at 98" but close enough and because Nia doesn't have a vent and the window doesn't open a bit of clearance will  be good for air. I'd like to get her a little fan too for her dresser. I'm taking inspiration from Young House Love's fan on their daughter's dresser: Photo Credit: Young House Love So yes, a trip to Ikea is in order! Also, I'm a bit bummed that the Hemnes queen bed is now $100 less than last year. We have the Malm, but Hemnes is the one I really wanted, however it wasn't on sale when we got the entire series in 2009. I love it because it has room for underbed storage. Photo Credit: The New York Times This billboard just went up in Soho near Planned Parenthood and boy, is it causing a stir. Read more about it here. My lil cuddlebug breastfeeding at 6 months! Kelly Mom was (and still is!) such a great resource for me during those tough first six weeks and while everyone said it would get easier, at the time it seemed so hard to believe, but suddenly it did.

Keeping Nia focused while breastfeeding - she especially likes to stop eating to stare at Uka when he enters the room or talks to me while she's eating. She also tries to suck her thumb while simultaneously breastfeeding (weird, I know!). Still wanting to eat in the middle of the nightkennerton green curtains As a black mom it's been important to me to breastfeed Nia especially when 40% of black babies never received breastmilk at all. elston curtains rubyFor the general population the CDC reports while 75% of U.S. babies start out breastfeeding, only 13% are exclusively breastfed at the end of six months.silver star curtains mooloolaba I'm very proud to be part of that 13%!kirstie allsopp curtains lydia

Why is it so important to delay solids? Here are a few reasons as shared on Kelly Mom: (Nia has not ever been sick!) Delaying solids give baby's digestive system time to mature Delaying solids decreases the risk of food allergies Now that the major greeting card holidays have passed, I'm left with a stack of greeting cards. zellers blackout curtainsI definitely prefer the surprise of a mailed greeting card over and e-card, but after years of collecting them I'm not quite sure what to do with them. studiotm shifting stripe grommet-top curtain panelWhen I was a child my mom would make placemats out of my leftover greeting cards using contact paper. While I think this is a clever idea I don't think this would be appropriate at my dinner table now! One of the blogs I follow, Small Notebook, suggested creating stacks of cards from those most important in your life and filing them away.

Photo Credit: Small Notebook Darling Nia on her Dedication Day I think Nia was looking at my dad in this pic! Nia wanted the mic! My sister gave us this book from our Amazon registry, and I followed the homemade rice cereal recipe. This is what we used to make Nia's food (a gift from my cousin, Aminah) I made it quite watery the first time around; subsequently I made it thicker Uka fed her, and she loved it! Baby's Weight: As of Nia's 6 month appointment on February 15 she's 16lbs and 7oz; at her last on December 8 she was 15lbs and 3oz. We're seeing a new pediatrician now who has a much better bedside manner than her old one; Nia took to her immediately and didn't cry like she did before. The new dr. told us her percentiles, which I never bothered with anyway, but for her weight she's 75%-tile. She said she's doing excellent on breastmilk and my solids plan is sound. Baby's Height: She was 25" at her last appointment and now she's 26." (About 55%-tile; the dr. was shocked to learn how tall Uka was!).

What size of clothing does baby wear? 6-9 months is definitely tighter length wise but she still has width room although her Pooh-bear tummy is taking shape Any milestones baby reached during the month: She can dance on command; we say "Go Nia! Go Nia!" and she starts bouncing. (I HAVE to get this on camera!) She's sitting longer and is less likely to topple; the dr. said she's quite a good sitter for 6 months since she doesn't use her hands as a tripod (and of course Nia toppled over at the dr.'s office and hit her head on the wall - ouch!) She's sleeping in her crib for naps and bedtime, but still wakes at night for a feeding (I think this might get better as solids progress, but so far it hasn't kicked in yet) Special outings baby had during the month: Just out to Long Island on the LIRR for a Knottie get together (she loves riding the train) What are your thoughts about the past month? Nia just keeps getting cuter and cuter. I love how curious and passionate she is about everything.

Her voice and sense of humor are definitely getting stronger. What was baby's routine? We're getting Nia down for the night now earlier! She's down most nights before 9p.m. and I find when we get up by 6a.m. with Uka for work the days goes much better. If we can both get up that early she naps earlier and subsequently goes to bed earlier. We get lots of playtime in, especially books and songs/dance. With the high likelihood that I'll be working outside the home soon, I'm trying to get a routine set as much as possible and am starting to write it down. Reflect about the highlights of the month: Solids! I'll keep Nia on mostly breastmilk but I'll welcome the decreased feedings for sure. I plan to wean her at 1 year old. Did any big changes occur, such as baby started daycare, stopped nursing, slept through the night, etc... No big changes this month; minor change was adjusting her cloth diaper to the next largest size cause of her chubbzy tummy! What are baby's favorites - toy, food, person, etc...

She still likes Cookie Kisses and we introduced new musical toys for her 6 month birthday; she would see them in the hanging caddy during diaper changes and I would jingle them and she'd start panting like a puppy and kicking! I finally gave them to her on her birthday and here she is playing with them: She was mad I took the tulle out of her mouth! Uka and I are heading to dinner tonight at Melba's (thanks Groupon!) while my lovely sister Ariane watches Nia. It's a balmy 58 degress in NYC and the sky's blue. Uka and I are fine renting in NYC for now, but we've been thinking about purchasing a brownstone. We've gone to one open house in our neighborhood and often check out StreetEasy and Harlem Bespoke just for fun to see what's out there. Apartment Therapy frequently features NYC apartment tours and sometimes they include a Harlem apartment. One of the Harlem apartments I bookmarked belongs to designer Nicole Gibbons, an interior designer who owns So Haute. {You can see the full tour here.}

Swaddled Nia, 8 days old I've posted before about how we let Nia sleep on her tummy and that it works fine with us. Since then I've been packing up some of her outgrown items and came across her swaddling blanket. It worked for all of two weeks then Nia wouldn't have anything to do with it. Perhaps we'll use the swaddle blanket with baby #2 (again, not happening for a REALLY long time!), but I came across this article which questioned whether babies actually like swaddling or if it simply causes them to shut down. The author's main point is that skin to skin is best for a newborn as often as possible and while I agree I do think each baby is an individual and what works for some babies doesn't work for all. This is why I get so annoyed when people say if my baby doesn't like swaddling then I'm doing it wrong. My baby truly does not like being swaddled. I know my baby! {A note on the pic: I know sleep positioners have been in the news a lot due to infant deaths, but Nia slept well with hers during the first couple months and then we stopped using it not necessarily because of the warnings.