I've been staring at my monitor for ages and can't come up with anything remotely interesting or coherent. I will take the lazy way out and resort to a list of things that have been on my mind lately:

1. Back to school- I've not shopped for anything except a backpack.

2. Another summer is gone and once again we did not get to take our First Ever Family Vacation.

3. Babies.

4. My training and fund raising for the Breast Cancer 3 Day are no where near on track.

5. My trip to Minnesota- I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and am geeked out at the idea of seeing the Betty Crocker test kitchen.

6. School starts in two weeks! I'm having a friend over for mimosas after we drop the kids off.

7. Going back to work.

8. What I see as the "future" of this blog and "where" I want it go.

9. I 'marked all as read' in my reader Saturday night and I feel so guilty.

10. Getting Phil back in school.

What's on your mind today?

Overheard: Tyler Explains Being Biracial

"My mommy is brown and my dad is white.

They mixed together and made my color."

Mama, Look At Me!

"Mama, did you see me?! I was in the deep end!"

Disney's The Princess and the Frog

I can't remember whose blog post I was reading, but the gist was that any blogger who has been invited on a "mommy getaway" is automatically going to say great things about the company or brand. I disagreed (naturally). One of the reasons I've appreciated the relationship I have with Disney is because they really do "get it." They want our feedback, be it praise or criticism.

A few weeks ago, Phil and I went to see the new Harry Potter while Tyler was at a birthday party. The trailer for The Princess and the Frog came on and I couldn't help a little "yes!" and a fist pump. I've seen the trailer before, but watching it on the big screen made it a little more real.



When I went to Disney World last year, Princess Tiana was definitely the elephant in the room for awhile. I'm not sure the Disney execs were quite prepared for the discussion. The button was definitely hot! But everyone gave their opinion respectfully and in the end, I think both sides walked away with something.

Not having a daughter I didn't weigh in too much. But, as a adult who didn't have many black dolls to play with as a child, I'm conflicted. On the one hand it's great to finally be able to say, "wonderful, a character that little girls of color can identify with!" but there's also the "what the hell took you so long?!"

We didn't have enough time to really dig into the issue but I would have liked to. The part of the conversation I'm most interested in is the

why. Why did it take so long to get a black princess in the stores and on the screen? What were the obstacles? What was the feedback in preliminary screenings? I want to be angry (and a little jealous) that I didn't really get to have a princess experience when I was a kid. But, at the same time, how exciting it will be to go to the Disney store and see the Princess Tiana dolls and costumes at Halloween! 

I did say to the execs that Disney does a great job with their own stories (Monster's Inc, Cars, etc.) so why wait so long to feature an African American character in a feature? I also think they need to add more colors to the crayon box in their network programming. I don't think Hannah Montana or Alex Russo have any black girlfriends (unless I missed something). 

I will definitely be going to see Princess and the Frog in the theater. Sadly, the biggest way I can show Disney how important this is to me (and hopefully others in the African American community) is with my wallet.