Last week, Tara of The Young Mommy Life, did a post about how amazing the children of young moms are. She's absolutely right! Although some of us became parents before we were thought to be seasoned adults, we are dismantling more stereotypes everyday, and so are our kids.

Just this week, my friend Ms. Nico got some wonderful news from her son's school. He came home with a very posh invitation to the Junior National Young Leaders Conference in Washington, DC for this summer. This bright 11 year old boy was chosen by one of his teachers for this very special opportunity! Talk about amazing kids. And talk about an amazing Capitol Hill. The blogosphere has been abuzz lately with recent and upcoming trips to DC. Rue, of Outdoor Afro, just returned from a conference at the White House on African Americas in the great outdoors, Tara, of The Young Mommy Life, recently met with the Senate on behalf of us young moms, and our needs, to insure a brighter future for ourselves and our babies, and next month, Mama C of Mama C and the Boys will be in DC as part of a Mom Congress, discussing ways to "empower parents nationwide to become more involved in their children's schools".

As you can see, we are all up and through Washington with our concerns and ideas on how to make America a better place. I think the fact that Washington is reaching out to our little leaders of tomorrow is great. So, I am asking you to please help us get Ms. Nico's son to DC. While he was one of the chosen ones, it takes cash to get from California to DC, cash that his graduating single mama does not have. We do NOT want him to miss out on this opportunity because of the cost of transportation. Ms. Nico has created a Facebook fan page, in which you can track her son's progress in making this trip, AND where you can reach into your pockets and donate a little somethin' somethin' to make that happen.

Thank you all in advance!

By now, many of you have probably noticed that, when I leave you a comment on your blog, my name appears as Emma's Mom instead of Ms. Bar B. That's because I've started another blog, dedicated solely to Emma. And in case you are wondering who Emma is, you can find that out here. I'm still Ms. Bar B, but penning the posts for Emma, as Emma's Mom, just adds extra meaning.

I started a journal just for her a while back. I wanted to record all of her milestones, and tell her all of these things about myself, and her family. Every child has questions about themselves as they get older, questions about their history and yours, and the majority of the time, as parents, we are able to provide those answers. In my case, my mother passed away when I was eight years old, so I did not have the opportunity to ask her questions about her time with me when I was a baby, her feelings, her life experiences. I had to, and still have to, learn of these things from the fading memories of others, and even then, they are "her" feelings and life experiences as told by (fill in the blank). How cool would it have been if she had written me notes, or kept a journal? To have her story in her own words. It would have been priceless to me now. Fortunately, this is something that I am able to do for my daughter. Aside from this being a creative way for me to speak to my child, it also provides the space for difficult conversations. Contrary to what some may believe about the level of truth that a parent should reveal to a child, I believe that honesty really is the best policy, especially when it comes to history and circumstance, and I wish to be fully honest with my daughter.

This isn't a new concept. Some of you may already write letters or record memories for your children. Tara, of The Young Mommy Life, shares letters to her children on her blog, and has plans of publishing them one day, and the late Professor Randy Pausch turned his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University into a book of legacy for the two children that he was leaving behind. The ability to leave your mark in such a way is one of the greatest gifts a child, or any loved one for that matter, could have.

So came Notes to Emma. I hope that you will check it out. It has already begun to inspire. Don't be shy, be inspired too.

I am super proud of myself! I went out of my comfort zone and did something completely different with Miss J's hair. I have been wanting to put it back in twists, but that would require us to shampoo it, and I have had too much anxiety lately for us to do our wash routine. Its coming though... the lint balls tell me so. Anyhoo... I was looking at Joyful Mom's latest Hair Day post over at Happy Girl Hair, and loved the styles that she did on her Little R and Little B, as always. Then I noticed, what looked like, a post featuring a veil style so I clicked on it. It was indeed a veil style... two veil styles, on Little R and Little B. I think the style is so cute and intricate. Anything that doesn't require simple parts or simple plaits is intricate to me. Without thinking twice, I propped the laptop up, got out all the beauty supplies and called Miss J upstairs for some hair time. She is always open to different styles, but the process of getting there almost always includes tears, and requests for breaks. We made it through though with huge smiles at the end.

Her hair was already in some nice sections so I just tried to pay close attention to where I was suppose to be connecting the braids that were coming from the sections. I got it!

And look!! I even put beads on the end! Never done that one before either. I've always let my sister in-law handle the french braids and the beads (those aren't french braids by the way, they are criss-cross ponytails... or... kinda... just see Joyful Mom's pictures in her post and you'll see what I'm talking about). I am so proud of myself for stepping outside the box. Miss J loves it too. But then, she always loves the outcome of the styles that we try, so I will be looking forward to stepping outside the box more often.

Have you tried any "outta the box" hairstyles lately?

I sooo can't believe I just did this! I made a scarf. And not just any scarf. But a granny square scarf - a baby square scarf - for my baby! Yay me! I hadn't even set out to try this scarf when I pulled out the yarn. The plan was to get started on another blanket for my shop, but then I started thinking about Miss J asking me if I could make her another blanket this morning, and since I really don't know when I will get around to doing that, I decided that maybe I'd try making her a scarf instead. A little something to match her coat since I had some pink yarn left over from the blanket I made her.


Its definitely NOT the best. Shoot, I had to research youtube videos to figure out how to put the squares together, and discovered that I didn't even need the yarn needle that I bought to do it. As simple as the technique looked, I still managed to stitch the squares in the wrong places, causing me to start over several times, and it wouldn't be that far fetched if this scarf didn't stay in one piece!


Time for me to start perfecting my granny square attachment skills, because, after I put these photos up on Facebook, I got an inquiry order! Yikes! I don't even have a price in mind. These aren't even part of my shop... yet. I can barely keep the squares together, remember??

Crochet challenge #1. Bring it on!