There is a very important issue here in Texas- the unjust jailing of a 14 year old girl named Shaquanda Cotton. Several talented and committed writers of blogs I enjoy have spoken on her unjust treatment and promoted a campaign to right this injustice.

Shaquanda will be free as of tomorrow, March 31, 2007. The black blog community has provided inspiration and now has changed the life of this young lady. My hat is off to you brave and thoughtful writers- thank you for raising your voices so that hers could finally be heard.

ETot has reached another developmental milestone. Which you ask? Why the water milestone of course! I haven’t figured out if it’s just my boys or not but there is a period of time just after turning 2 years old where my boys become obsessed with hand washing.

I suppose when you’re a dirt grubbing, puppy chasing, food smashing cowboy day in and day out your hands might get just a little dirty too. The marathon hand washing sessions all day every day does give me hope though, perhaps he’s channeling his future career as a world renown surgeon. Scrub on Dr. Cowboy, scrub on.

Every day as part of our bedtime routine with the boys we discuss what happened that made us happy and what made us sad over the course of the day. Usually EBoy’s first response when EDad asks him what made him sad is “Mommy, what made me sad today?” (shortly followed by his dream request for the night which has to begin with NOT being about ETot’s big noggin).

One night he immediately told us something had made him sad that day. A boy in his class had told EBoy that he smells like a pig.

Smells? Like a pig? My freshly bathed and always tidy sweet EBoy most certainly must be dealing with a horrific terrifying bully at school. The overreacting flip switched on in my brain and internally I was already making plans to confront the boy, teachers, parents, administration, any and every person who had been privy (or completely ignorant) of my son’s wronging. I finally actually thought to ask him what happened after this mistreatment. Turns out EBoy told his teacher, the offending boy was sent to time out, and later he apologized to EBoy.

This boy is actually one of his best friends and EBoy told me he’s so glad that he knows him. School is a joy for him and each day he can’t wait to get there. EBoy already knows that just because people say hurtful things it doesn’t mean that they really intended to hurt you and it’s ok to confront them and forgive.

My little big boy is so much stronger than I ever realized, and is teaching me that same strength each and every day. I knew parents were responsible for being teachers but I never realized how much learning we have to do from the little teachers in our lives.

There are very few things that I’m terribly picky about. Shopping is more of a chore at times than I care to admit. I’ve always had a serious love of dishes and have had to refrain from purchasing them because I’d have a set for every day of the week if left to my own devices.

We picked our wedding china from Pier1- a fairly inexpensive pottery. Unfortunately its prone to chipping so I’ve known that someday I’d replace it but not until I finally spotted the absolute perfect pattern which I absolutely love. For years I’ve searched on the internet, peeked into my favorite catalogs and waited patiently to finally find what I’ve been looking for. Well I’ve found it. My dream china but you can only get them in the UK. I haven’t a clue of who John Lewis is or how they put together such a fabulous store, but they really really need to open a US location or I’ve got to figure out a way to blog a free plane ticket to London.

No matter how cute your toddler may look trying on the green glittery leprechaun hats in the bargain bins at Target, resist. Otherwise you will be washing green glitter from a very unhappy ETot’s scalp for several days to follow. I’m contemplating renting him out as a magical living St. Paddy’s sculpture if the green glitter is not gone soon.

The green and white striped hats are just fine though.