And What An Awesome Year It Was: MyBrownBaby 2010 In Review!

I can hardly believe that 2010 is coming to an end; it seems like it was just yesterday that we were designing this, the beginning of our new decade. But here we are, standing on the edge of 2010, staring 2011 in the face. I thought it only appropriate, though, that before MyBrownBaby does The Dougie into the new year, we take a look back at the posts that made us think, laugh, cry, cheer and toss an occasional side-eye. Stacked up together, it seems that 2010 was a pretty thoughtful and amazing year. Here, a recap of the awesome. Click on the sentences to see the original posts. Enjoy!

MyBrownBaby kicked off 2010 with the post “Boy, Please,” which took to task both black radio for force-feeding all kinds of sexual innuendo on its listeners and Trey Songz for recording songs proclaiming he—and, by extension, every sexually-active teenager—is a bedroom god. Uh huh. Dead. Fish. Eyes.

February saw Nick and I reeling in the post, “Evil Black Men,” over the vicious stereotyping of black men at our daughter’s school, but applauding Mari’s teacher for showing her class where they went wrong and how they could be better.

And in that same month, our own young black man, Mazi, disproved all those silly stereotypes when he had his big signing day with Lafayette College, as chronicled in, “The Boy Is Going To College!”

My Dad turned 75 in March, and my brother, Troy, and I, along with the help of my awesome cousins, threw him a huge surprise birthday party—the first birthday party he’d had in his entire lifetime. Talk about moving!

And my homegirl/writing partner Mitzi Miller shared with MyBrownBaby “On Borrowed Time,” a post about her liver transplant and the need for federal legislation that would allow organ donations across state lines—a move that would save lives.

In April, Actress, advocate, super mom, and The Talk host Holly Robinson Peete stopped by MyBrownBaby to tell us some secrets about her parenting style and to promote her new book, My Brother Charlie, on which I served as an editorial consulant. 

And later that month, Malaak Compton-Rock did the same while promoting her book , “If It Takes A Village, Build One.”

That same month, Sandra Bullock became a MyBrownBaby mom when she adopted an adorable African American baby boy, showing us in “Congrats, Sandra Bullock—AND Baby Louis,” exactly where her heart is...

Even as Arizona showed with its racist new law that some people will never get past race, culture and class differences and see each other simply as human. I reiterate: BOYCOTT ARIZONA.

And we had “One Fine Day” on which ever star seemed to align for our family—from great projects, to school acceptances to new neighbors. We are truly blessed.

In May, Mazi graduated—with honors!

And I discovered that Mari and her 5^th grade pals like… wait on it… boys. ARGH! Sweet baby Jesus, be a fence…

June saw us sticking up for a little black girl who got kicked out of her gifted class by her teacher, who claimed the child’s hair products were making her nauseous. We’re STILL scratching our heads over that one.

And author Thomas Chatterton Williams stopped by MyBrownBaby to drop an original story on us—a celebration of his incredible book, “Losing My Cool,” a memoir about hip hop’s effects on the education of black boys.

I celebrated the beauty of black women in Essence magazine, which ran my piece, "The Way We Move: Why I ♥ Being A Black Woman," one of my favorite freelance stories ever!

Oh, and yet another pet—Smash, the African Dwarf Frog—kicked the bucket. Before we could get his body into the dirt, Lila was asking for another one, prompting this post, “All Day Sucka.” All I have to say is thank God our dog Teddy is in MY care...

July was a BIG month for us: Nick saw the publication of “The Blueprint,” a memoir and advice book he wrote with gospel sensation and all-around good guy Kirk Franklin. “The Blueprint” went on to become a New York Times bestseller.

And we took our babies to Paris!!!!

I cried through half of August when Mazi graduated from high school and left for college, as chronicled in “My Son, Too.”

And renowned poet and ridiculously talented writer Bassey Ikpi joined MyBrownBaby as a contributing columnist, kicking off her series on motherhood with “Black Boys Shouldn’t Shoot,” an hysterical piece about her son and his love of water guns.

In September, Willow Smith had me and the girls running all around the house talking about, “Whip My Hair,” and reminding black parents everywhere that it’s okay to let our kids be exactly who they are…

And the events of September 11^th—and all of the craziness behind the threats of Qur’an burning—had me and Nick talking to our kids about tolerance and the beauty of different, in “Burning Qur’ans, Zealots, and a Lesson On Tolerance.”

Nick went road-tripping to New York City with his super cool Dad, Walter, an accomplished jazz keyboardist. They saw Sonny Rollins in concert—and ended up bonding like never before.

And Wayne Brady, Mike Tyson and Bobby Brown made my life with this video!

Every Little Step with Mike Tyson & Wayne Brady from Mike Tyson

In October, my Mari went on her first sleep-away camping trip. While I was home rocking and scared and nervous for my girl, she was off having the time of her life, as chronicled in, “Mari’s Awesome, Supersplendiferous, Fantasticalicious Camp Pictures!”

And continuing our celebration of Black Girl Power, Willow Smith released a video of her song, “Whip My Hair” just days after Sesame Street aired its awesome, “I Love My Hair” segment—making that one week in October “The Best Week Ever For Black Girls.”

Mari, an uber talented writer even at the tender age of 11, became “The Newest Scholastic Kid Reporter” in November.

And after seeing incredibly disturbing statistics on the reading and math scores of black boys, Nick implored all of us parents to hand books to our children and implore them to enjoy the beauty of books. READ ON!

We ended 2010 with a bang! In December, Mari saw her first story published on Scholastic’s Kid Reporter site on the same day that “Straight Talk, No Chaser,” the book I wrote with Steve Harvey, was released. Just this past Sunday, it debuted No. 1 on the New York Times Best Selling Hard Cover Advice list.  Woot!

And wait until you see what MyBrownBaby has in store for 2011. More action! More adventure! More everything! BOOM POW!!! Until then, have yourself a fun, safe, awesome New Year—see you on the other side!