I was checking out the photos from last night's Grammy awards ceremony and came across a picture of Gwen Stefani and hubby, Gavin Rossdale. I first thought it was entirely too funny the way she arched her back to make her tummy look extra plump in her leopard-print gown. But then I spotted this photo of her with the arched back when she presented U2 with an award for best rock album.

And Bono kissed her pregnant belly. Bono. kissing. pregnant. belly.

Dreamy *sigh*

My friends and I have often thought how ridiculous our school's fundraisers are. Either they consist of over priced gift wrap or fattening candy or cookie dough. Schools are so concerned about healthy eating and warding off the growing childhood obesity problem, but this is what we sell?

Some fifth grade kids in Florida agree and refused to participate in a fund raiser selling chocolate bars, potato chips to fund a field trip to Washington D.C. They said selling the junk food went against everything they'd been taught about nutrition and good health.

Veronica Atkins, widow of Dr Atkins of the diet craze, heard about the kids and decided to donate $16,000 to the school so the children could still go on their field trip. Ms. Atkins says, "I said no way am I going to let them down and not let them go on the field trip."

Reading the posts from this week last year on Blogging Baby has stirred up deep emotions and, as usual, pondered interesting questions on parenthood, blogs and the miracle of life.

This week last year, the world's tiniest baby ever born and survived headed home after a six-month stay in hospital, a Sudanese baby was named "1 o'clock" and Peruvian 9 month-old Milagros Cerron, who was born with a rare congential defect known as sirenomelia (or the "mermaid syndrome") was about to undergo surgery to separate her legs (you can read about her successful operation and recovery here).

This week last year Sarah Gilbert complained about dads not getting any respect in parenting books, stereotyped working-mothers and posted a must-read roundup of some of the best responses to David Hochman's "the baby blog in many cases is an online shrine to parental self-absorption" article in the New York Times Sunday Styles ("Mommy (and me)").

My favorite quote though is from Sarah herself: "If there were any justice in the world, if things were in their rightful place, then these parents would be the ones who were paid to add their witty, poetic, inspirational, insightful, and downright fabulous words to the world, instead of those at the New York Times.“

Amen to that.

My heart goes out to this photo because it's everything I most love about having babies... that moment, when you fall asleep with the baby next to you, and it's all peace and quiet quiet slurping. I'm all about co-sleeping and this image gives it such a zen beauty.

Photo of Elinor and Ivory uploaded by Ivy Mae.

It's our (Very) Young Love month on Baby Image of the Day, featuring images of this amazing new love between your family (mom, dad, grandparents, siblings) and the new baby. If you'd like your own child featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We'll select an image every day to highlight. Be sure to read the intro on the main Flickr page for more information.

Wow, you guys are all about the breastfeeding and pumping, aren't you? I wrote about an experience pumping during a coaching clinic in a small-town high school, and was pleased to see that a group of moms has started a flickr pool on pumping at work. It is, all at once, beautiful and earnest and so quietly activist.

They're calling it The Pumping Project, and you can stop by the web site to lend your comments, or join the pool and add your pictures. I particularly liked this photo of the pumping room at Leapfrog; and this poignant pumping collage (love the pink striped sweater!). I can't wait to bring my camera next time I pump on the road - this issue can use more public support and there's nothing like saying it with pictures.

My daughter has come to the conclusion that if her cruel and horrible mother will not buy her a real dog she will fill her life with dogs of all forms.

This is why these lamps from Modern Tots would be a great addition to her room. Continuing the obsession with getting a dog, but still not getting a dog. Sounds perfect to mom. [via Babygadget]

This mother's question was recently posed to Seattle Times advice columnist Jan Faull, "a specialist in child development and behavior ":  "I discovered my 14-year-old son viewing pornography on the computer. When vacuuming his bedroom, I found pornographic magazines under his bed. How should I handle this?"

Her advice? She basically told the mother to "tell him you won't allow pornographic magazines in your house and, if you find them, you'll throw them out. . ." and "It's not OK to go to pornography sites on the Internet. I can't allow it in this house." 

Faull goes to great lengths to explain that the woman's son is naturally very curious about sex and that "it's important to point out to him that what he sees at a pornographic Internet site or in a magazine does not depict commitment or respect between partners." Only someone who has never been a teenage boy could have offered that advice. What Faull completely fails to address is the fact that the boy is masturbating to this pornography, i.e. he's not reading the articles. If this mother goes and tries to order him to not look at pornography, or if she snoops around under the kid's bed, the shame is going to be pretty intense and far more damaging than any messed-up ideas about commitment or respect between partners. Here's what she should have said: teenage boys use pornography to masturbate, and any time you try to discuss or forbid "pornography" that is just a proxy for masturbation itself. How you choose to handle the issue of your child masturbating is up to you, but please understand these are deep issues there that will affect his sexuality over the course of his lifetime. If you want to teach him about "commitment or respect between partners" to counteract corrupting societal influences that you won't be able to keep from him forever, do so by providing an example of commitment and respect with YOUR partner. Don't go into his bedroom like Eliot Ness busting up a bootlegging operation. If you want to implement web-blockers or put the computer in a public place or subtly throw the magazines away, fine. He'll get the message. But please don't try to have a conversation about it, and please don't, as Faull suggests, keep a watchful eye and try to catch him viewing porn. You'll both be better off if you let him have his privacy.

We had two bags of what Everett likes to call "Cheeto snacks." It's something I don't feel excellent about, but as Frito Lay reformulated the product to remove the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, I've given in a bit. We happened to have two bags: one generic equivalent, that had already been opened, and a "real" bag of Cheetos, with the skinny orange tiger who shills for the brand.

I told Everett he had to eat a banana first, and then reached for the already opened bag of "cheese snacks."

"I don't want those!" said Everett. "I want the ones with the Cheeto guy on them!"

Oh dear. For whatever reason, I decided, now was the time to have that branding talk. I picked Truman up - he'd just pulled a very large can of tomatoes off a shelf, very nearly bonking himself, and comforted him - and sat Everett down.

What do you give a nine-year old for a birthday present? A bike? A doll? Well, Veronika Robinson of Penrith in the U.K. chose to give her daughter breastmilk as a ninth birthday present. From the source.

Robinson apparently weaned her oldest daughter when she was five years old, but when she turned nine she asked for breastmilk again, and got it (Robinson was still breastfeeding her other daughter). The younger daughter Elizah is now almost eight and does not want to stop drinking milk from her mother's breast. “I don’t want to be weaned. I want to breastfeed for ever,” Elizah says.

Robinson recently went on the Britain's Channel 4 to speak about her decision to defy convention and extend breastfeeding with her daughters to such an advanced age. Not surprisingly, Robinson is an extreme lactivist who edits an alternative-parenting magazine called The Mother. "My girls were brought up to think it was completely normal to ask for a breast in a shop,” she said on the program. “That’s bad enough when they are toddlers, but when they are big girls, people get freaked out by it. I try to be discreet, but we have had some odd looks. People tend to be disgusted and disbelieving.”

Ya think? How can you discretely breastfeed an eight year old in public?

I know the lactivist community gets very upset about any scorn brought down on extended breastfeeders, but it seems like any reasonable lactivist would recognize the line must be drawn somewhere. As someone who is adamant about the right to breastfeed, it concerns me that people like Robinson actually discredit the normalization and widespread acceptance of breastfeeding by turning it into a freakshow. When a woman says things like, “I can’t believe any mother wouldn’t love to hold onto that wonderful feeling you get when you are nursing your own child,” and her daughter got the idea from somewhere (Gee, I wonder where) that breastfeeding is so great she wants to do it "forever," it is pretty clear that there are other issues at work here. Honestly, I don't really care that she has chosen to do this (there are a million things more harmful to kids that parents do all the time) but does she really need to go shouting from the rooftops about it? With breastfeeding in general still trying to overcome a certain ick-factor among ignorant jerks, stories like this don't help.

As I bounce around the internet from parenting forum to parenting forum, one question always seems to come up with regular frequency: Do you kiss your children on the lips? The answers are varied.  People say "Yes! I come from a family of lip-kissers," or "No, I feel uncomfortable," or "I do it when they are little, but not when they are older." Me, I'm definitely a lip-kisser, and my mom still kisses me on the lips. And the Italian side of my family? Well...

How about you?  Do you smooch on the lips?  Or, are you more of a cheek kisser?  Do you stop lip-kisses at a certain age? Please share your thoughts!

I told you that my daughter Alex received her first bicycle for Christmas.  Well, I'm happy to report, she's pedalling like a champ now.  "ALLIE GO FAST!!"  she shrieks in delight, pedaling as fast as her chubby legs will carry her.  She loves the bike, asking to ride it multiple times a day.  She even wears the helmet when she's NOT riding the bike, she  loves it so much.  We officially have a hit. 

The thing is, even though she totally got the pedaling thing down, the kid REFUSES. TO. STEER.  She's too busy admiring her feet, or making sure I'm paying attention ("MUMMY!  LOOK!!  ALLIE GO FAST!"), or generally looking anywhere but where her bike is going.  Worse, every time I try to grab the handlebars to steer, she pushes my hands off indignantly:  "DO IT BY 'SELF!" she shrieks, narrowly missing the curb or a parked car.

For this reason, her bike rides now consist of her pedaling her bike as fast as possible, with me huffing and puffing beside her, every so often hitting the handlebars hard enough that she changes direction and avoids death.  And let me tell you, I'm no young mother.  This kid is about to kill me.  It's amazing that she and I haven't landed in a gnarled heap somewhere, awaiting critical medical attention.

All this to tell you that if, all of a sudden, I'm not posting here for a while, you'll know why.

I'm always discovering new differences between my two boys, Nolan, 4, and Quin, nearly 9 months old. Overall, Nolan was an calm, cuddly baby - I could hold him in my arms forever. Quin? Ah, no. He's on the move and the only time he really wants to cuddle is when he wakes up or when he feels abandoned if I've left the room for a millisecond. All of this adds up to one thing when I try to cut his nails - it doesn't happen. He's too squirmy. I've even tried to do it while he's dozing but he's such a light sleeper - dare i risk waking him up? No way. I've even tried to nibble his nails when he's nursing - gross, but a tip from one pediatrician and it worked with Nolan- but with Quin - it distracts him and he ends up pulling his hands back.

This seems like a silly question, but any tips on how to cut a baby's nails when he's a bundle of energy?

A very close friend of mine who I used to work with used to collect heartshaped boxes.  It all started when her daughter found one in a small antique store when she was very young, and used her pocket money to give her mother the box for Valentine's Day.  My friend was so moved, her daughter continued to give her heart shaped boxes for every Valentine's Day, and even a few Mother's Days. 

So, obviously, I couldn't help thinking about my friend when I came across these beautiful hand-carved soapstone boxes from Global Exchange.  Made in the Kisii region of Kenya, each box is hand quarried, carved and painted without any mechanical tools of any kind.  A beautiful way to store jewelry or other special trinkets.

From US$ 11-18 each.  And yes, Global Exchange ships internationally.

My son, he loves hearts. And like so many boys who are two, three and four: he hasn't yet learned that pink is not cool. He loves pink with the same passion he loves orange, blue and purple. So Valentine's Day couldn't be more fun. He has pages of heart stickers that he applies to everything, and he's been carrying around a box of drugstore valentines for the past two weeks.

And when Hanna Andersson sent me an email advertising their new long johns of "soft 100% organic cotton and printed with charming new Candy Hearts for your favorite little Valentine!" naturally, I clicked through, Everett's heart fetish in mind. I don't know what I was thinking, but hey - I love Hanna! You know I do.

Silly me. Hearts are for girls. The jammies were trimmed in pink (only) and were lodged firmly in the "girls" section of the web site. I clicked over to the boys' section, and nothing remotely Valentine's-y. Sure, they have a new print, the most adorable jungle-themed jammies, which I will probably end up buying (once they go on sale silly!). I'm not calling for a boycott or anything. I just wish that someone would find a way to include my boys in this heart-filled holiday. Boys have hearts too! Right?

So I've been surfing the web looking for some toy storage solutions for my toddler, Alex (thanks to some of the great ideas you guys gave me here).  While doing my online shopping thing, I came across this Jax toy box from Giggle.  I'm so intrigued by the design of this toy box -- it's so simple!  So light!  So minimalist!  And apparently, it's made from organic cotton and wood, so it's so good for the environment!

It's also US$175, which I'm thinking might be a tad too rich for my blood.  But perhaps it's not for yours, so I present it here for you.  It comes in purple, green and orange, and ...

...oh.  Turns out Giggle doesn't ship internationally.  Well, that makes my decision much easier then doesn't it?