Filed under: Moms, Newborn, 3-6 months, Infant / First year

Here's a warning for all of us: use your baby as down payment, get arrested.

That's what happened to Nicole Uribe, a 23-year-old "mother" who traded her infant son in exchange for a Dodge Intrepid and some extra cash. The recipients of said baby, Jose-Juan Lerman and his wife Irene, have also been arrested -- all on suspicion of felony trafficking in children.

Police Sgt. Brett Wilson said she couldn't speculate on the motives for the exchange -- presumably because the car was a Dodge Intrepid, and not something a little nicer.

The baby is now in foster care (thank goodness).

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Filed under: Moms, Toddler, Nolan, Adventures in Parenting

One of the secret gifts of Mothering a toddler is the laughter. Babies are cute, they do fun things, but a toddler's quirky brain wiring makes for some serious entertainment.

Nolan thinks he's hilarious. This has been evident from the time he was a wee baby, but lately he is seriously convinced of his own private hilarity. I'll catch glimpses of him in the rear view mirror, snickering with gusto about some secret joke he's concocted involving his hands and Jordi's dog snout. He'll be sitting in his high chair, and commence laughing hysterically...something to do with a kiwi fruit?

I spent so many months watching Nolan's reactions to my actions: his sleeping when I rocked him, his protests when I diapered him, his pleasure when I put him in a warm bath. It is such a refreshing and unexpectedly beautiful thing to watch him provoke himself...even if I don't totally get his "inside jokes".

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Filed under: Celebrity kids, Movies

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is currently appearing in a London revival of Peter Shaffer's Tony award-winning play "Equus." The play tells the story of 17 year old Alan Strang, who has been referred for psychiatric care after blinding six horses with a metal pick. When the play was first produced in 1973, its content and its staging made it incredibly controversial.

And it is again, but this time the controversy is less about the play itself and more about Radcliffe, who appears completely nude and smokes a cigarette. According to the Daily Mail, Harry Potter websites have been receiving e-mails from concerned parents. "One said: 'We as parents feel Daniel should not appear nude. Our nine-year-old son looks up to him as a role model. We are very disappointed and will avoid the future movies he makes.'" The Boston Herald reports that "The anti-smoking group ASH said Radcliffe's onstage cigarette was 'regrettable.' The group said it feared Radcliffe's status as a role model might encourage young people to start smoking."

I find it hard to take these concerns seriously. Parents who are worried about their children seeing Radcliffe in the nude or smoking shouldn't take their kids to see "Equus." This is not a play for very young kids, for so many (obvious) reasons. A high school student is most likely old enough to understand the play; he or she is also probably mature enough to understand the difference between Radcliffe the actor and the character of Alan Strang.

Finally, good for Daniel Radcliffe; it must be hard to be Harry Potter all the time, and I respect him for challenging himself in a role like this. If he's hoping to have an acting career after Harry Potter, he will need to show that he has the ability to play other kinds of roles, including some which may not be quite so squeaky clean. It's unreasonable for anyone to expect him to play only one character in his entire career.

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Filed under: Family togetherness, Moms, Dads, 6-7 years, Emotions, Divorce

Ellie recently learned a new word: Divorce. I am not sure how she got to be six years old without hearing this word, but there it was. Because of her own circumstances, she already knew about teenage pregnancy and unwed mothers, but divorce just hadn't crossed her path until now.

She came home from school a few days ago, sad about a little girl in her class who only saw her daddy on weekends. Ellie was confused about why her friend's daddy didn't live with her. She wondered if maybe he went on lots of business trips. In the most positive way I could, I explained divorce to her.

By the look on her face, you would have thought I had told her that her own head was removable. She clearly didn't know that parents splitting up and living in separate houses was an option.

Since then, she has been digesting this new information and applying it to herself. She suddenly wants to know all the details of when Nana and Papa met and got married. Although cheating spouses was not part of my divorce explanation, she seems to have made that connection on her own. She is bothered by the cute, young girls at the coffee shop who seem to be flirting with my husband. Yesterday, she noticed Papa's wedding band was on the table. Papa was at work, wedding band wasn't. She didn't want to hear my explanation of how that might have happened. Papa had some explaining to do.

We have both assured her that we will never get divorced. And we really believe that is the truth. But we also know that her friend's parents thought the same thing. I don't know what happened in their marriage, but Ellie's new awareness of the fragile ties that bind makes us both want to try harder to keep ours together.

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Filed under: Feeding & Nutrition, Health and Safety

Nearly two and a half years ago, Sarah Gilbert brought you a story noting that Bisphenol A, a toxic chemical, is found in baby bottles. Now, a new study highlights that danger once again. Environment California, using independent labs, tested a number of hard, clear plastic baby bottles and found that "every one of those five brands of baby bottle leached a toxic chemical called Bisphenol A into the liquids inside the bottle," according to the group's Lara Tabor.

The toxin was found in bottles from Gerber, Playtex, AVENT, Dr. Brown's and Evenflo and was discharged more whenever a bottle was heated or washed with harsh detergent. "Bisphenol A has been linked to cancer, obesity, diabetes and a lot of other serious problems," Tabor said. Naturally, the bottle manufacturers say their bottles are made with FDA approved plastics and are safe for food contact. Bisphenol A can also be found in other products, including eye glasses, reusable water bottles and microwaveable food containers, but Environment California says that products for babies should be the regulated more closely than other products.

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Filed under: Feeding & Nutrition, Media, Internet, Breastfeeding

It seems that MySpace.com can't handle breastfeeding. At least a half-dozen women have reported that the social networking site has deleted pictures of them breastfeeding their babies from their profiles -- because they're too sexual. We've been through this before, but apparently MySpace hasn't. Breastfeeding isn't sexual.

A quick browse of MySpace caused me to suffer through dozens of sexy pictures -- all of them far more revealing and arousing than any breastfeeding picture could ever be. I'm not sure what's going on at MySpace, but they don't seem very consistent. Breastfeeding is about as sexy as macaroni and cheese. In fact, it's a healthy, natural activity that is generally the best choice for babies. It's too bad MySpace doesn't recognize and support that.

Meanwhile, one woman has started an online petition which, so far, has gathered more than 6,000 electronic signatures. If you don't find breastfeeding to be sexual, head on over and add your name to the list of supporters. Perhaps if enough people sign it, MySpace will get the point.

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Filed under: Health and Safety, Blogs

Two years ago, we made our first ER visit when a table fell on Henry's foot, cutting off the tip. First thing in the morning. Before I'd had my coffee.

I'm still recovering. (You can read the whole story here.)

This week two of my favorite mom bloggers took their sons to the ER. Melissa Summer's son Max smashed his toe while looking for a breakfast cookie; Kari's son Spliggle made himself an Excedrin sundae. Melissa's post left me feeling a little weak in the knees (blood! lots of blood! and a lost toe nail!) but Kari's post made me cry. Both posts also made me laugh, in places, because sheesh! kids!

Here's hoping Max and Spliggle are better soon! Now let's hear YOUR ER stories.

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Filed under: Sleepover

Normally I spend my Tuesday evenings hunting for new daddy blogs to bring to your attention, but this week I'm slacking off. It's time to let you guys do the work for a change. Hence, here's are a few sites suggested by readers. Thanks for taking the weight off my shoulders.

Let's kick things off with the Trixie Update. I'm always slightly partial to dads with daughter, so I was quickly a fan of Ben MacNeill's stories and photos of his daughter, Trixie. But beyond the more traditional parent blog stuff, Ben has created a Trixie Tracker that, at one point -- albeit through some odd statistical process that I didn't learn about in art school -- used to track his daughter's sleep patterns, diaper and bottle usage. Looks like you can sign up and use the tracker for your own kid. Awesome for new parents!

Mitch McDad is another man raising little ladies. The guys might want to stay away from Mitch's post about kidney stones, but everyone will love the recent video of his daughter running around the living room ballerina-style. It comes with the note: "Here's a glimpse into my life. It's 180 degrees away from anything I ever imagined. And it's better than I could have ever hoped for." Dude, I hear ya.

And finally, there's Tales From the Dad Side, written by Sci-Fi Dad. It's nice to find a guy that'll intelligently examine parenting news and discussion from round the Internets in one post, and blog about his in-laws in the next. You'll also want to read his round-up of kids TV shows, which is completely, 100% hysterical.

On my own profanity-laced daddy blog, you can read about the wackos that hang out at the park on weekdays. Who knew?

If there's a dad blogger you think should be featured here, let us know.

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Filed under: Pregnant celebrities, Celebrity babies, Celebrity parents

Did you hear the buzz on Oscar night about Naomi Watts' "bump"? I peered at pictures of her teeny lithe figure in her cute yellow dress and I thought, no. That is probably some gas, perhaps a raisin in there. There has been rabid speculation about all of Hollywood's A List 30-something's "pregnancies": Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez. I thought that Naomi's bump was yet another desperate fabrication.

But no! Naomi's dashing partner Liev Schrieber let the cat out of the bag on the weekend, saying he is excited about the prospect of being a Dad.

Congratulations to the absurdly adorable couple.

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Filed under: Adoption

I came across this very interesting little piece that appeared in the New York Times the other day about American families raising adopted children from China and exposing both the child and the family to Chinese traditions. This is done basically to give the child a sense of identity of where they are from and their culture, as well as giving the adoptive family the opportunity to learn more about their child's roots.

This is a really great concept and as we see more families adopting from overseas, it really does give a child a good sense of self and an understanding of where they come from. There are times when we seem too quick to "Americanize" these kids, but we need to remember that all of us come from somewhere else, and we celebrate our own traditions and customs, whether we are of Italian, Irish, Jewish, German, African-American, Asian, etc., descent. We as adoptive parents should allow our children that same opportunity to celebrate their own inherent traditions.

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