The other day I was putting a barrette in my daughter's hair when my son -- her twin 2 1/2-year-old brother -- handed me the pink one and said, "For me." I put it in his hair and he wore it most of the day, never fussing with it like his sister does who usually keeps it in for five minutes before ripping it off. Of course this made me think of the whole J.Crew pink toenails boy-gate last year and the questionable outrage over it. But then I remembered that we do live in a country where people of the same sex are banned from getting married in some states.

Then I heard about Sweden who recently came up with a new gender neutral word. The pronouns "he" and "she" (in Swedish "han" and "hon") are now known as "hen." Toy company Leklust is on-board with their latest catalog, too. The Swedes are considered a leader in gay rights and same sex marriages have been legal in the whole country since 2009.

Good for the Swedes! Why are the rest of us so uptight?

When I found out that there was a little boy inside my belly, the first thing I thought was: I'm terrified. This was soon followed by: I am so excited! I will teach him how to cook and do ballet! He will appreciate art and literature! Lastly I thought this: We won't do any guns or violence in MY house.

Oh how I laugh at myself now.

The second my little boy started walking, he started turning things into guns. And swords. And knives. And weapons of any kinds. We go to an amazing preschool where the curriculum is weapon-free, but somehow, somewhere he is picking it up and I, as his mom, am powerless to stop it. So I don't try.

Amidst snazzy magic tricks and fancy dance routines, you wouldn't expect something as simple as walking to get much of a reaction at a school talent show. But when 6-year-old Caleb Roach walked across the stage at Pickett Elementary in St. Joseph, Missouri, recently, he brought down the house.

According to KQTV, nine months ago Caleb was riding with his father when they veered off the road and crashed. His father suffered only minor injuries, but Caleb lost use of his legs. His mother, Crystal Neill, told the station, "He instinctively knew that his legs didn't work anymore."

Ilina Ewen isn't a mom who pulls punches. This "left-leaning" mother of two lets it all out over on her blog Dirt & Noise, and we love her all the more for it.

She's helping us celebrate Mother's Day the way she always does: with no-holds-barred truth about how she came to be a mom.

I never wanted to be a mother.

As a girl, my imaginative play never included weddings, babies, or boyfriends. I used to line up my collection of dolls from around the world and stage my very own lilliputian Miss Universe Pageant.

Jordan Reid of Ramshackle Glam is one of those bloggers who would make you so full of hate jealous if only she weren't so impossibly cool and funny. She is glamorous and sweet and humble enough to somehow make it all work -- darn her!

We love her (can't you tell?) and we think you will, too. Here is her Mother's Day contribution below:

I couldn't sleep last night.

We’re making an offer on a second house (the one with lots of space that’s a bit of a blank slate, design-wise), and while I doubt the owners are going to come down enough to allow us to get it, they might ... and I am definitely more than a little nervous. It is such a big deal. And I’m scared.

When my first son hit the toddler stage I was convinced I had given birth to the most stubborn child on the planet. However, now that my youngest is four years old, I know I was wrong: the older child has the honor of being the second-most stubborn child on the planet. Somewhere along the line a particularly scandalous ancestor must have taken a Tijuana donkey show a little too far, because exotic DNA is the only explanation I can come up with for the mulish streak I've managed to breed into both of my offspring.

I'm kidding, of course, because it's actually incredibly obvious where my kids get their unreasonably unyielding nature: my husband. He's obstinate, fixed in his convictions, and tends to dig his heels in when he's told to do something he doesn't want to do, just like our children.

In Aurora, Colorado, a 6-year-old boy has been suspended for what seems to be a ridiculous reason on the surface -- singing a popular song. The details behind the case, however, paint a much deeper story that raises some real concerns about sexual harassment and how young children can be accused of it.

D’Avonte Meadows was singing LMFAO's song, "I'm Sexy and I Know It." It's a catchy tune, and we've laughed before when kids sing such adult lyrics, mostly because they have no idea what they're singing. D'Avonte, however, seems to have had some clue what they meant, and I'm not so sure the school overreacted by suspending him for three days as much as I did when I first read the story.

Kelli Nelson is a mom who isn't afraid to talk about her feelings in her blog The Sweetness of Life. And we love her for it.

Who could resist a blogger who can make us both laugh and cry? Been there! Here is her blog below:

Do you ever wonder if your children feel your love? I mean really feel it. Often when I look at one of mine, I wonder if they can feel the swell of my heart at that moment.