- Now I got my baby doing her hair like this
with her toothbrush that she actually has to use
and brush her teeth with,
so I'm trying to teach her,
No, baby.
This is your toothbrush for your mouth
and this your toothbrush for your baby hair!
(hip hop music)
What's up, guys?
I'm Brooke Valentine, mother to London,
the awesome London who is 10-teen?
You know, like, 10, but he's like, really a teenager.
I have my beautiful bonus daughter, Brooklyn
who's nine.
Kind of nine-teen,
and Chí Summer who's one,
16 months, 26 in her mind,
y'all get where I'm going with it?
Mm-hmm.
Chí's a chunk-a-chunk. (laughs)
That girl is solid muscle!
Everybody see her like, coming in,
like, she kind of short little thing.
You try to pick her up, it's like, whoa!
(laughs)
She is solid and she knows it.
She laughs and she goes, "Down down,"
every time somebody tried to pick her up, down, down.
She was walking at nine months,
so she's been ready to go, rarely crawled.
Like, she crawled a little bit,
and she's like, "Eh, I think I'm just gonna,
I don't wanna get my knees dirty.
I think I'm just gonna go ahead and walk." (laughs)
She's a talker. Chí Summer's a talker.
- Hi, Daddy!
- [Brooke] You say, "Bring me that, Chí".
She'll go, "Thank you, you're welcome."
Like, (laughs) Like, really?
She remembers lines from songs already,
certain things in those little shows
that she watched on TV, she already picked up the lines.
She sings along with the ABCs.
She says a lot of different things.
Hello? How are you? (laughs)
She's answered the phone.
Chí's first word was kind of like, two words.
It's like, she was kinda saying mama baby,
like, all together. (laughs)
Everybody's like, "Okay, she's saying mama,
but maybe you putting the baby on,"
and I recorded her doing it
a million times,
and everybody was trying to tell me,
"She's saying mama baby," and she still says that.
Okay. Mama baby was the first words.
Chí Summer's teeth is growing in so interestingly.
She has all of them on one side,
and then the other ones,
she's been cranky lately.
They're finally breaking through on the other side,
but it's crazy that they all,
I've never seen that before!
I asked the dentist.
I was like, "What's going on?"
I'm like, "She would always get one at a time,
but then they came over here first, and,
I don't know.
It just speaks to how unique she is.
Chí is super into Cocomelon.
She love her some Cocomelon, Little Baby Bum,
and ChuChu TV!
That's her new vibe.
I was kind of shocked
'cause she started getting into ChuChu TV,
'cause I thought it was a little older
'cause they tell stories,
but she'd be into it
about the little kid that couldn't sleep
and kept telling his mama no,
and she'd be like, "No, no, no,"
when she watching along with it.
Chí Summer loves her Vans.
She has a Vans collection, of shoes,
and she'll just go in the room
and she'll pick them all out and she'll match them,
and she'll just, like, put them in a row
and she'd look at 'em,
and she'll pick a pair and she'll run to me
for me to put them on her feet,
and then she said, "Bye bye!"
She grabbed the cutest thing.
She always goes to the door.
She puts shoes on.
She grabbed my purse and she start looking for a mask.
(laughs)
'Cause that's mama going out into the world, right?
She's standing at the door with a little purse,
and I'm like, "What's she looking for?"
And she's like, trying to say mask.
She' like, "Ma, ma?"
I'm like, "Oh, she need a mask so she can go out!"
(laughs) So cute.
I was a breastfeeding mama.
Moo!
I was the cow.
It was fun.
I did breastfeed my son, my first child,
and I will say,
what was interesting about this time,
breastfeeding Chí Summer is,
everybody saw what I went through on the show
when I had lumps in my breasts
and I had to have them removed and stuff like that,
so when I went in for that surgery,
I talked to the surgeon,
and he told me that there was a chance
that I may not be able to breastfeed,
and, at the time, I was like,
"Boy, what you talking to me about that for?
I ain't having no more kids!" (laughs)
And then boom! Chí Summer.
So, I didn't know if I was gonna be able to breastfeed,
but I was able to successfully
and exclusively breastfeed for eight months,
and, hey, by nine months, she was walking.
That grown lady held a purse looking for a mask,
and I was like, girl, you don't need these anymore.
You don't need them anymore, sis.
Leave 'em alone before they hit the floor.
Well, my pregnancies with London versus Chí,
they were both interestingly high risk, okay?
For different reasons.
With London, I had
something called placenta previa
where the placenta is covering the exit, which is scary,
so I had that with him,
and then, with Chí was just simply high risk
because of high blood pressure and my age.
A woman of a certain age. (laughs)
So, because of that and my blood,
my blood pressure would be sky high.
So, because of that,
once I got pregnant, they were already watching me,
so I would say, with both pregnancies,
it was kind of like, sit down, stay home, eat right,
be stress-free, you know?
So I had to shut down with both of my kids
and then I experienced postpartum hemorrhage
after the birth of both of my kids,
so I ended up being in the hospital, myself,
a whole month after having the baby, recovering.
It was a lot. It was stressful.
My son is special needs.
He had a stroke at birth,
so London's journey started like, right away.
Right from him being born.
The journey of him being rehabilitated from the stroke
started immediately.
With Chí Summer, it was a bit different
because she was totally fine and just went home,
and I was in the hospital.
She was waiting on me to get out. (laughs)
And you good? My milk good?
Okay, cool. (laughs)
Okay. So, having a baby in your twenties.
The snap back and so real.
Like, that first kid just come out,
you back at the club with your friends talking about,
"Hey, I got a babysitter!"
Second baby, not so much.
You're body's like, "Okay girl, you are really trying it.
You did it already.
Let me see if I'ma snap back this time."
And I don't even wanna talk about the third.
The stories I've heard from my friends about that third baby
and what that does to you.
I want more kids,
but I think Marcus and I met too late, and,
we kind of,
it developed pretty fast,
so we didn't get a lot of time
to just be young and silly together, and newlyweds,
so we kinda gotta wait until the kids grow up
before we can just be nude on the beach,
and they could be like, "Mom!!
Ugh! Put your clothes on!
I saw pictures of you and dad,"
Like, you know what I mean?
Like, we wanna go be crazy,
but we can't right now 'cause we have the kids.
For that reason, it's like, maybe not have another one,
but I want to.
I think Marcus' standpoint is
after seeing you go through what I saw you go through
in that hospital,
You don't say absolutely not if I have kids!
- [Marcus] No, absolutely not.
You don't say absolutely not,
'cause then people think you don't want any,
so,
- I'm not.
For me, it's an absolutely not.
Listen.
Did you tell them the truth
about what happened at the hospital?
- I mean, I didn't go into detail.
I don't wanna be a Debbie downer.
- Listen.
My wife lost a record amount of blood, okay?
Like, she was in there passing out, her mom passed out.
Like, there was a very strong chance
it could've been a swap out.
Like, you could have got the baby and,
It was crazy in there.
You know, we not getting no younger.
I don't ever wanna put her through that again,
so if it was something that would happen,
somebody else would be carrying the baby.
She's not doing it.
- Anybody? (laughs)
You mean I can have me another one?
- No, I didn't say that.
I'm just saying, in the event that we did,
you wouldn't be carrying the baby.
- Alright.
- Yeah.
You know,
Like, this is my best friend.
Like, I just wanna like, have fun with my wife.
I don't wanna be raising kids forever!
We got three kids! Like that's, you know?
My family is awesome, you know?
I have a hard time even acknowledging that it's blended.
That it didn't just happen with, like,
it didn't just happen because
it was a very seamless, organic thing, you know?
- Just like his waves.
- Yeah, baby. On swim.
My family's on swim.
- They're just lit!
Everybody that knows our kids
knows this is not a brag, our kids are just lit.
London's a comedian,
like, Chí be rapping, Brooklyn, dancing.
We're entertained all the time.
- All day long.
- It never stops.
We take them somewhere there to party. (laughs)
- Yeah, you would think we planned it.
When I even think about the fact that
we actually brought this together,
it's so seamless.
We call them the, you know, the three cities.
We got London,
- Our locations. - [Marcus] The locations!
Yeah, yeah.
We got London, we got Brooklyn, and Chicago.
- [Brooke] And they just work!
We never had a issue.
It's never, "Leave him alone," or "Leave her alone!"
They just work.
Brooklyn understands London. She's patient with him.
You know, she protects him
when they're in settings with other kids,
and Chí protects all of us.
- Chí protects everybody.
She walks up to mama, (mimics punching sounds)
Right now, the kids are completely virtual.
They're not going anywhere as it pertains to school.
Like, London's even getting his therapy sessions from home
in a controlled setting,
and is driving all of us nuts. (laughs)
Even though I don't care for it, I understand it
because the idea of sending my babies to school
in a COVID world freaks me out, too, so,
if I had the option, I would be right at home,
drinking 12 cups of coffee,
trying to help them get all of these classes.
I think I do about 42 zones a week?
Classes, classes, therapy, math, algebra,
just, (sighs) - My baby need a vacation.
- You know what it is? He's a great,
Can I call you a baby daddy?
You is a baby daddy! - Wow, wow.
- But he is a baby daddy!
You being a baby daddy don't mean you not a husband, too.
- It's crazy. - You a baby daddy.
- It's crazy. - He's good.
I gotta reach the young ladies out there.
I speak their language. - Now, let me,
- No, I gotta speak they're language.
- Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.
- He a good baby daddy, girl. He a good baby daddy.
He take care of his kids.
He don't just pick them up and then put them back down.
Like, he pick 'em up and he take them places,
he's made food, he packed up their little bag.
He's very involved.
He know what they like and don't like,
you know what I mean?
So then, when it's like that,
you don't mind having another baby.
- It's 2020, you know?
You see what black husbands have been reduced to this year?
- He would've been fine with it
if I woulda said baby xaddy.
- That's different.
- (laughs)
Toxic! Toxic ways!
- It's the same thing, I'm outta here.
- Oh, gosh.
Motherhood has taught me that some things just don't matter.
They don't deserve your energy
if it's negative, and it's like, time-wasting.
What?
(laughs)
Motherhood has taught me,
what's sex life got to do with that?
Oh my God, what?
So, anyway, Chí in her own bed now,
but she was in a bed with us for a little while.
A little while.
I don't know what that baby daddy just said,
but mother life,
What?!
- No, no. Goes on,
- You like Waldo! (laughing)
- Nah, 'cause like, she thinks she can come through,
put it on you real good, two, three days a week,
and it just be like, "Okay, now run along now!"
No!
- How often would you like it, Marcus?
- Six, seven days.
- So, no. We not having no more kids. (laughs)
Just decided!
We good!