CELEBRATING MY FIRST YEAR, 2009!!

YES! I know I am sleeping, but I am celebrating..with my dearest dearest mother. I or she is the love of my life...ok. we both share this line. I am overjoyed!! My maama is here...and I am resting so beautiful.

It's been a year of wonders, twists and turns. Oh! just heard someone on BBC Africa Have Your Say talk about Joseph Kony...that notorious goon who continues terrorizing people in Northern Uganda, Eastern Congo and Southern Sudan. Oh! I hope (and my maama agrees) they catch him..dead.

Anyway, this is my first new year --and I am 5 months into this world. It's beautiful! I look forward to many more like these, obviously better ones. I have plenty of wishes and resolutions to make to my mother and myself. So help me y'all.

1) I need to start sitting all by myself by the end of this month, January 2009 -I can't even believe I am saying Jan 2009.

2) Continue my smart progress, charming face and peaceful nature. I want to carry these all the way into my adulthood. Already, maama says I am a genius. I can talk, laugh, giggle (oh! I have my maama's stingy laugh), listen attentively, play, and express myself. Oh! did I tell you that I can even type on the computer. Well, that's me, Mr. Genius

well, I am taking after my mother. don't blame me for being too ambitious.

Oh! did I tell you about my learning-to-sit" box? Apparently my mother thought it was a smart idea to put me in this box....so, I can learn to sit...and there I am, learning to sit...and sometimes feel really caged-in. But

But I guess I love it...look at me... and I am enjoying...learning to sit...Next time you see me, I'll be walking.




3) That my mother finds work to earn money. She's currently not earning an income but she wants to get back into "the earning business". I love her and I love that she takes care of me. But I also want her to get paid for taking care of me. Right now, that's not happening. And she's a very enterprising person. I want her to reclaim her inner strength, imaginative and achieving spirit. I want her to achieve so so much!! She's a wonderful person. Did I say she's the love of my life? Ok, perhaps I've overused that. Anyway, this is my advertising contribution for her. As you can see, she's also got a picture-taking talent. She took all these pics..so, perhaps she has a career in photography. But I know she wants to "save the world" and argue politics, especially African International Politics. You know what, she can do all this through photography.

I want my mother and I to move (back) to New York City, because she says it's the best city to live in. Everybody is "theoretically" equal because they all take the subway. Also, everyone can speak their own language and not feel foreign..because it's a multi-cultural city. The parks are so wide and exciting, there are plenty of Africans. My mum wants those Senegalese to baby sit me so that I can learn Wolof and French (you know she was once engaged to a Senegalese, shhhh!!).. I understand, Senegalese are such wonderful people..she just had her issues --thus cutting off that engagement.

4) I hope to go visit my family in Uganda by the end of the year. Maama tells me Jjajja (my grandma) is the best person in the entire world. All my cousins are longing for me, and so are my aunties and uncles. They cannot imagine a baby not at home. But you know what, whoever said,"like mother like son" was definitely thinking about my maama and I. My maama was the only child of her mother born outside the family home (oh! long story) and she grew up with her grandmother. So, when she was five and ready to start kindergarten, she joined her siblings in Kampala (Uganda). I understand her siblings used to call her, "Guest" because they didn't know she was one of them. Can you imagine I am the only one of my jjajja (grandma)'s grandkids to be born outside Uganda and away from home? Now I know they will all call me "Guest" or Mugenyi. I have already met my paternal family in Bartonsville, PA. Now, I need to visit my jjajja.Well, I guess I should wish for good health, good feelings, good friends, good finances, good weather and good lifestyle. I also wish for a good inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama, as the first black President of the United States.

I am thankful for the people, for the gifts, for the smile, for the attention, for those friends and family and those who care for me. people say I look like my mother, but I found a look-a-like who aint my mother..ha!