Guess who's one...

Taking a dip in the pool on a hot summer day

Naja loves water...almost as much as food

On the run and saying "me, me, me" - this girl loves herself

A picture of the birthday girl on her actual birthday :)

Yes, my little bundle of joy Naja Simone is one year old today!!! I can't believe that one year ago today, on July 19, I called out of a morning conference call for work due to contractions which bred baby Naja a few hours later (yes - my labor was only a few hours - thank God!).

I hosted a party for her last weekend, but didn't take any pictures, however I did post a pic of Naja smashing her cupcake ;). I feel awful about not taking more pictures, but this is the kicker with taking pictures: it's really tough to experience the moment, when you're always snapping away. It's like I'm there, but I'm not "in it", I'm just observing. Since it's just Naja and me most of the time, I'd rather experience the moment than observe the moment.  Nonetheless, I do like to capture these moments to share with friends.

The party had a loose theme of "ombre everything" based on this picture. I prepared the food and kept the menu simple: sliders: buffalo chicken, ginger turkey burger, beef burger & eggplant, pasta salad, chips, corn and watermelon. Thanks to Libby, I offered my guests flavored water as a beverage. I ordered four dozen cupcakes from Sprinkles, and I gave everyone colored assorted candies in the ombre white-to-red theme as a gift.

Naja was surrounded by lots of friends and family at the party. There were no kids at the party -- I have yet to vibe with any parents with kids around Naja's age. Still there were a handful of my friends - Naja's "aunts" and "uncles" - who came out to support her. Naja's family was also there to celebrate. I seriously am so blessed to have the family and friends I have - they're awesome.  It was a good time!!!

As for other life updates...
We finished my sorority chartering, now we're back to our regular scheduled programs
I'm still training for the marathon, my furthest distance thus far has been 10 miles straight. I need to kick up my training, which requires a good amount of time, but I'm not quite sure how I'll balance it just yet...
Naja and I are moving out and getting our own space in a few weeks (we've been living with my parents since she was born), I'm mostly packed and ready for the move
I'll be wearing this little number as the MOH in my cousin's wedding in September, and will be planning the bridal shower soon
I may be locking my hair now - I installed a set of finger coils 2 weeks ago, I don't love it, but few people love these beginning stages of locking
I'll be 26 in 15 days and I have no plans for my birthday right now, but I'm kind of ok with that (if you wonder why -- see above)

New Beginnings with Locs

In my last hair post, I stated that I planned on locking my hair. I two-strand twisted my hair on wet hair, with the intentions of starting my loc process from the twists. I'm 3 weeks into my locking process and I stumbled across a video from one of my favorite youTubers who happens to have locs. After watching her video, I've decided to take down my twists, and start over. I've started locs before, but never on my own. Additionally, I didn't find any of the tips below in my quasi-research before I started my locks.

BronzeGoddess01 really hit the nail on the head with some important starter loc tips for those folks who are doing it all on their own (click here to see the video). Watching her video led me to summarize a couple of tips that may help those who are considering starting locs on their own. These are things I wish I had thought about in detail prior to doing my twists...

1. Make neat, practical parts. When you venture on a loc journey, you are setting your hair style for years to come. Thus if you like to style your hair with a certain look/goal, it's important to keep parting in mind. Make sure all of the parts you make work with any type of style you may want to try (flat twists, side part, middle part, etc.). I used a triangle method for my parts, when I should have just done straight box parts. This is the main reason I plan on restarting.
2. Make all of your twists in the same direction. This is a big help down the road, and will help the locking process with the added consistency. Coming from 2 years of free-strand naturalness, I didn't even think about this. When I went to re-twist my hair, I realized that some were twisted clockwise, while others were counter-clockwise! When I restart my locs, I will choose one direction and stick to it!
3. Know what size you want your locs to be. Understand that this is not necessarily a one-size fits all kind of thing. Parts of your hair that may be thin (Ex. edges) may have more hair at the root, while thicker parts may have less. Overall, I'm pleased with the part sizes I chose in the front, however I think I did them a little too big in certain parts of the back.
4. Take your time when starting your locs. Be sure to set aside a reasonable amount of time to start your locks. I started my locs out of frustration, AND after I did a friends' hair, at about 1 am. CLEARLY, I was tired when I started them.

Those are the main points I would have really benefited from knowing in starting my own locs a couple of weeks ago. I kind of did it on a whim, but this time I'll be ready to start and not look back. Completing my first re-twist this past weekend, confirmed that locs are the style for me. I washed and re-twisted my hair in ~1.5 hours. I then sat under a dryer for 30 minutes, and let the rest air dry overnight. This means I'm looking at a bi-weekly routine of 2 hours, AND I don't have to worry about styling my hair every time I wash it. Pure awesomeness.

I plan on re-twisting my hair with every wash until my hair is at the teenage loc stage. Due to my active lifestyle - I can't go more than two weeks without washing my hair, and I doubt that I will like the look of my twist/locs without a re-twist. I'll be sure to be gentle on my edges. Once I'm at the teenage stage, I will move to monthly re-twisting, and wash my hair as needed. I can already tell from week 3 that my hair will loc fairly quickly with the two-strand twists. I didn't run into any issues of my twists unraveling or coming undone after a thorough wash. In fact, I'm a little worried about this take-down, but I'm sure it will all work out just fine!