Latina.com Blog

For Thanksgiving, Jeremy, Dessa and I drove down to NJ! Jeremy always says I turn into a different person when I’m in or around Jersey—like Carla in Hi-Def. The further down I-95 we travel, and the clearer my favorite radio stations (shout out to KTU and Hot 97) sound the more excited, not to mention louder, I get, too! The second I’m around family, my “Que?” turns into a deaf viejita “Ehhh?” I’ve even been known to suddenly start talkin’ out my neck once we cross the Tappan Zee Bridge. Hopefully, I’m still recognizable to Dessa!

Jeremy and I have been together 7 or 8 years at this point so he knows to prepare himself for our visits home—it will be ridiculously loud, we’ll never have dinner on time and he’ll have to kiss more people in a weekend visit than he usually kisses in one month. Dessa, on the other hand, is a bit of a different story. We only go down about once a month, if that, so there can be big gaps between visits. She’s down with the kisses and the pastelitos always hold her over until the next meal but the noise level, well, that one we’re still working on.

Last time we went home we visited my 2 best friends. Both of their families along with their parents were there to greet us. So after a 3 hour drive Dessa walked into a condo filled with 7 Cubans, 2 Puerto Ricans and a Colombian. Poor thing was so startled she didn’t want to say hi to anyone, which is tough when everyone wanted to gobble her up with hugs and kisses. It took her a good half hour or so to get comfy and settle into the madness. I grew up with the madness so I never think anything of it and actually enjoy it now that I’m an official New Englander. I’ll have to train Jeremy how to get into Hi-Def mode so we can better prepare Dessa for our NJ visits. What do you think? Are your family visits home with the kiddies totally crazy?

Dessa strikes a pose!

One of my favorite parts about pregnancy is the hunt for the perfect baby name. Never exactly crazy about my own name (Carla, meh) I always dreamed of exotic and enchanting names for my kids.

I had two important criteria:

1. I wanted a different name but not too different.
2. My Spanish-only speaking family has to be able to pronounce it.

Right off the bat I started out with classic Latina names. Pilar, Ines, Xiomara, and Thalia were my top girl contenders, all of which my husband shot down with the quickness. Jeremy (that’s the hubby)—well, he had some ideas of his own. His number one choice for a girl? Piper. Yup, you read that right, Piper. Can you imagine if I had allowed such a thing? Not because I think it’s an awful name, but I could already hear my mami and abuelito butchering it! Peeper, Pie-pa, Peepa—yikes!

So you’re probably wondering how our baby girl Dessa finally get her name. It’s a funny story actually. One fateful day, Jeremy was heading to his “porcelain throne”and picked up a bunch of parenting mags on the way so that he could have something to read while attending to his business. All of a sudden he shouted out, “Hey, what do you think of Dessa?” I thought it was pretty and asked where he’d come up with it. Turns out there was an ad for “sexy” nursing lingerie from a company called Condessa in the back of the mag he was reading.

In a month, December 23rd to be exact, we’ll be playing the name game again when we find out if we’re have a girl or a boy in the Spring. We agree so quickly on boy names that I’m not sweating those but I am going to add one newbie to my list of girl names. Paloma is at the top of my list (thanks Salma!) but this time I’ll have to worry about my hubby’s family will destroy that name.

What are your favorite baby names? Or better yet, which ones do you absolutely hate?

Hola, fellow Mamis! My name is Carla and I’m a 27 year old Cuban Filipina American and where as most young women my age gab about late night cocktails, killer outfits and juicy sex gossip, my daily updates revolve around late night breastfeeding, poopy diapers and missing bobos (or pacifiers to some). In less than a year, I got hitched, knocked up and became responsible for another human being…oh and now, just 13 short months later, I found out that I’m pregnant again!

So, there is just no denying it. I am officially a Mami – not a mom, not a mommy, not a mother – a Mami. I’m figuring this motherhood thing out day by day. It isn’t easy but it’s great fun and I love it. So what exactly qualifies me for Mami status, you ask? Well, let me break it down for you:

• I’m have one 16 month old named daughter named Dessa and another little one on the way in 2009 and I plan to raise my babies to be proud Cubans (are there any other kind?).
• I drench my daughter in Violetas every single day, every single time she changes her outfit and sometimes just because I can.
• I have taught our daughter to call my husband, Jeremy, Papi (but everyone once in awhile she sneaks in a Daddy).
• She’s been strapped with a name tag bracelet and an azabache pendant necklace since the day she left the hospital. Oh, did I mention the earrings?
• I already started talking to my husband about her Quincenera. She will get the dress of her dreams.
• I dance around the house with my daughter and husband at least once a day to some good old fashioned Salsa music.
• I’ve sung “Los Pollitos Dicen” more times than I care to remember since my daughter was born.
• I knew the value of a faja after pregnancy way before Gwenyth Paltrow, Spanx or Brooke Burke made it trendy.

In The Mami Diaries I’ll be filling you in on everything from raising Dessa, to the anticipation of finding out the sex of this baby in my belly (stay tuned, the ultrasound is scheduled for 12/23!) to how this Mami tries to keep things steamy with her hubby, all the while still trying to find some time for herself. I hope you’ll join me here for a look at motherhood the modern Mami way. Now tell me, what makes you a modern Mami?