A letter to my sweet Baby Boy

Dear Gavin,

You're just shy of 3 1/2 months and I wanted to share with you how absolutely amazing it is to have you in mommy and daddy's lives. You have brought so much joy to us and we cannot wait to see you grow up to be a polite, well mannered, talented gentlemen!! That is our goal, at least. We want you to get the best traits of both of us; your daddy's smile and sense of humor, your mommy's craftiness and social skills... But we also want you to have your own traits that people will love! You are your own person, your own individual canvas and whatever you paint, we will view and admire forever!!! Whether you are bright, colorful like a rainbow, or dark and introverted, that's okay too, we will love you for you.

When you grow up and read this, you will understand the love and appreciation we have for you as it wasn't easy to make you!! It wasn't without struggles that we desired a sweet little baby such as yourself! We tried and tried and went to doctors and took expensive medicines and finally we said enough was enough, we were leaving it in God's hands.  Two months later, we got the amazing news that mommy was pregnant.

When mommy was a little girl, she had two older brothers who helped her grow and she looked up to them. They are your uncle Sean and uncle Steven. Your mommy was also around a bunch of other babies and kids as your Nana was a babysitter for the neighborhood kids. When your daddy grew up, he had a younger brother. That's uncle Jonathan.

Mommy and daddy want you to eventually have a brother and/or a sister too. Growing up with someone is something you will treasure as you learn and grow together. You may fight and bicker as you'll always be the older one and it will come to a time when hanging with your little sibling isn't cool, then you'll look back and realize how silly that is and you'll know that every moment with your family is precious!! As a big brother, you'll see that you are a role model, someone your brother/sister will look up to and try to copy you. Imitation is the best form of flattery! There will ALWAYS be negativity though, it's how you handle it that matters.

There's a lot of hatred in this world, a lot of cruel and mean people...people are fighting and hurting each other, breaking the laws, judging and bullying people and as parents, we don't agree with that. We want you to understand right from wrong. We want you to treat people how you would want to be treated. Always turn the other way in a negative situation, who cares if it makes you appear to look like a coward to them, to us you look like the hero! There will be times when you will ask yourself if you should walk away or try harder...that will be something you have to decide for yourself. Always be a positive influence to others. Make the world a better place. Mommy and daddy will not always be around and it's up to you to help fix and transform this new generation.

We will do our best as parents to raise you to be the best person morally, we understand we will fail at things, we will not be perfect but nobody is. We will make mistakes, life doesn't come with instructions. You didn't come with instructions. We only want what is best for you. There will be times when you will have time out, be grounded or have privileges taken away but know that we do that to teach you a lesson and we aren't doing it to be mean, no matter how mad you are at us!

It's so hard to see you misbehaving in the future as I sit here writing this, looking at you in your monkey bouncer, unable to talk or walk and comprehend a lot of things in life.  To me, your my perfect little angel. There WILL come a day that I will be frustrated, unhappy, and/or disappointed. It's inevitable.It doesn't mean I will love you any less, if we don't do anything as parents to discipline, it means we don't care...and trust me, we care more than you will ever know!

Please just remember this one thing if nothing else; 

We will love you will all our hearts no matter what life choices you make! 

ALWAYS! 

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH SON,

LOVE MOMMY & DADDY

XOXO

Selfies!

Okay, so who takes selfies? Almost everyone, right? Someone out there is making millions and came out with 'selfie sticks', a stick to hold your phone out farther so you can take a picture of yourself as a whole or a bigger group to fit in the screen. I'll admit. I'm a fan! I want a selfie stick!!!

Now, being in the cosmetology industry, I think it is important for hairstylist to stay updated on their selfies...does that mean we should post one every day? NO! But I do agree that we need to stay up to par on our image and let people know that if we feel confident and beautiful, we can then make them feel confident and beautiful. If we look like crap all the time, nobody is going to have faith that we can make them feel like a million bucks!!

They say this is a selfish century because social media has made us conceited but isn't that why we get our hair done, nails done, worry about fashion and celebrities? We did it before social media became popular so to say its just now showing because of social media is silly because it's just merely amplified and at our fingertips. You know grandma was snapping Polaroid "portraits" or "glamor shots" back in the day! 😄

Some people hate selfies. They hate how people are always posting more than one pose as if we don't know what they look like.They are not posting because they think you forgot what they look like, they are posting them because they feel a certain way about themselves. They feel confident. Sexy. They like the affirmation of people 'liking' or commenting on their photos. It is in our human nature to want to be liked. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Etc. All these social media sites help us achieve that where as back in the day, these were not available and you were lucky if you got your picture in the black and white newspaper.

Should married people not post selfies because they are already married? I don't think they should be excluded. We need to feel beautiful too and my husband can tell me till I'm blue in the face how beautiful I am to him, however I still like to hear it from other people because in the end, we will ALWAYS care about what others think, whether you think you do or not. Nobody likes to hear that someone thinks they are UGLY!! Unfortunately, it's the world we live in today.

Maybe you just got a fresh new haircut. Or color. Maybe your makeup was on point more so than your profile picture...if you feel like updating that profile picture, you go on and do it because in the end, it is YOUR page, YOUR profile and don't worry about them haters because more than likely they are just jealous.

Us women only dress up and do our hair and makeup for other women, it's not for the men....they could care less if we have a brown paper bag on, no makeup and a ponytail. Shoot, some guys actually prefer that over 10 gallons of foundation and lipstick they have to cuddle with and get all over their clothes and their own faces. Nothing like sharing a drink or giving a smooch and that lipstick is all over the straw and your man/woman's lips!!

Feel beautiful, take a selfie and share away! If people don't like it, they can scroll on or delete themselves. We are all beautiful in our own ways and we need to have individualism or we would be boring and the world would be mediocre.

(T-Rex needed a selfie stick, don't we all? LOL)

My most recent Selfie! <3