Filed under: Lifestyle, High school, Teenager, 15-19 years, Sports, Creative projects, Weird but True, In the News

A sixteen year-old Japanese boy has been crowned the king of pen-spinning. Rkuyi Omura a high school student was named champion of a, uhm pastime, I guess you'd call it.

Pen-spinning occurs when a pen is maneuvered between the hand, little finger, other fingers and palm. I couldn't possibly tell you exactly how it's done. Contestants were required to perform a routine that would last for at least 30 seconds where they were critiqued for both style and skill.

Rkuyi Omura was chosen from among sixteen finalists in the contest organized by the Pen Spinning Association of Japan.

I've heard of Rock, Paper, Scissors contests (really, I have) but this is totally new to me. Apparently it was new to the likes of the Japanese as well, as this was the first of such contests held. Sentiment has it to take the contest internationally.

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Filed under: Adoption, Pregnancy and Birth, Moms, Weird but True, In the News

A Florida woman is under lock and key for faking her pregnancy. The twenty-four year-old was supposed to be surrogating a child, and had collected nearly $6,000 for rent, medical bills and other assistance from two adoption agencies in other counties.

Shawanda Butler was found out after representatives from the Little Angels of America visited her home. She refused to show them her stomach and instead retreated to the bedroom where she allegedly stuffed her shirt with a pillow.

Butler is now facing fraud charges for allegedly faking her pregnancy to collect money from the adoption agencies.

Part of me wants to wave my fist at the injustices that we read about every day. Part of me just bats an eyelash knowing there's so much worse out there.

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Filed under: Elementary school, Middle school, Private school, 10-12 years, Pre-teen, Internet

It's not what you know, it's who you know. That bit of advice might be especially true these days, as the job market gets tighter and the economy continues its trek downward. That's why professional networking sites like LinkedIn are so popular. But who needs LinkedIn when your mom is the librarian at the school where you want to be the computer network administrator.

That's how eleven-year-old Jon Penn snagged his position as the network manager at Victory Baptist School in Alabama. The pre-teen took over when his mother had the networking duties added to her job description. He has since evaluated, sourced, and gotten approval for a hardware firewall, as well as contributing to the development of a web access policy.

It looks like Jon has a great career in computer networking ahead of him. I certainly wish him all the best... and wonder if he could come over to my place to get my network under control?

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Filed under: 6-7 years, Emotions

In preparation for our big move to the east coast, we spent last week in New York looking for a place to call home. Ellie and I roamed around the tri-state area, meeting real estate agents and looking at houses. We took taxis, trains and cars and exhausted ourselves trying to see as much as possible in a short period of time.

Ellie didn't particularly enjoy all this traipsing around, but I insisted that she join me. I wanted her to be involved in the process of deciding where we will live. I wanted her to feel like she had input and that her opinions mattered. I asked her to take an active role and she did - asking questions, expressing her likes and dislikes and generally being very grown-up about the whole thing.

Since we announced that we are moving, I've often heard the standard "kids are resilient, she'll bounce right back" encouragement. And while I generally agree with that, I also know there are many different directions in which she could bounce. Leaving friends behind and starting over somewhere new can be intimidating even for an adult. By including her as much as possible, I am hoping to give her a sense of self-worth and confidence that will serve her well when she is a stranger in a strange place.

For now, this is all I can think to do to help her cope with this huge change in her life. What about you? Do you have experience and advice to share about easing the pain of moving away?

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Filed under: Pregnancy and Birth, Moms, High-risk pregnancy, Rumors, Celebrity parents

A giant battle robot willing to destroy her family homestead to take her out? A hit-man husband ordered to terminate her? Stealing sixty classic high-end cars in one night? None of these are any match for the star of such films as Tomb Raider, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Gone in Sixty Seconds. Pregnancy, however, does not come quite so easy to her.

According to Star magazine, Jolie has developed gestational diabetes now that she's pregnant with twins. As if that's not enough, she's also plagued with edema, fatigue, and continuous nausea. To help with the diabetes, she's been consulting with a nutritionist regularly. (I wonder if Wilford Brimley is available?)

I know that a lot of women go through these issues and they're not easy for anyone. Hopefully, Brad is being as supportive and helpful as possible.

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Filed under: Health and Safety, Lifestyle, Weird but True, In the News

Avoiding sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies can be so...unfashionable. What sexually active woman wants an ugly package of condoms cluttering up her designer handbag? Surely if a woman could buy condoms that coordinated with her outfit and looked 'designer', she would be more likely to carry and use them, right?

Maybe, maybe not. But the idea that fashion conscious women would enjoy buying condoms if they were pretty has resulted in Proper Attire condoms. Marketed as a "must have" fashion accessory, the condoms were created by Planned Parenthood and are available only at a few boutique-type retailers. The condoms themselves haven't gotten a makeover, but their packages are sleek and colorful and look a bit like designer wallpaper.

The condoms are available in four styles (basic, color, studded and extra large) and a 3-pack sells for $6. I haven't bought condoms in quite some time, but that sounds rather expensive to me. Perhaps that is the point? In a world where women happily spend thousands of dollars on designer handbags and shoes, a high-end condom that makes a fashion statement doesn't seem all that odd.

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Filed under: Image of the Day

This just warms my heart through and through. Babies grow too fast, I tell you! Cuddle up with them while you can! Thanks to picslikethis for this perfectly sweet reminder.

If you'd like your own picture featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr Pool - We'll highlight an image every day. Remember: we're on the lookout for shots with interesting backgrounds, cool angles, or original composition. Be sure to read the intro on our main Flickr page for more information and limit your uploading to 5 photos per day.

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Filed under: Adjusting to childcare, Toddler, Adventures in Parenting

I know I should be scouring the Internet for fabulous finds and products, but I just dropped my precious boy at his first day of Mother's Day Out. Today marks the first time that he will be cared for by someone besides myself, my husband or our rarely-used babysitter. What does this mean for me? Three and a half hours of uninterrupted toddler-free time!

I'm sure I will grow to adore this little break once a week, but right now, all I can do is stare at the clock and wonder.
Is he having fun? Does he miss me? Will he eat all of his lunch? Is he being a good boy? Is he going to take a MONSTER POOP and stink up the entire classroom?

I'm sure he's having a great time, as he didn't even shed a tear as I left the room. (I, of course, can't say the same for myself.) Still, it's so hard to watch your little ones grow up. Tell me, what was your first "official" drop-off like? Did you cry?

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Filed under: Birth complications, Hospitals, Making a Difference, In the News

Necessity might be the mother of invention, but it was an Indiana father who created a system that warns visitors to the unit that the sounds in the room have risen to a level stressful for the wee patients.

Because the babies should still be developing inside the womb where every day noises would be filtered and muffled, they aren't yet equipped to process noises louder than a normal conversation. The stress can cause their heart rates to race or slow down to dangerous level and disturb their rest. Anything that interferes with babies' vital signs or sleep can slow development and healing as their bodies do most of that work while they sleep.

The Sonicu system uses alarms that resemble traffic lights. If the noise level starts creeping up, a computer turns the green light to a yellow caution signal. If the noise exceeds the recommended level, the light changes to red and the overhead lights dim. It's not hard to understand why the hospitals with the Sonicu system like it, they no longer have the unpleasant task of having to ask excited (or just plain loud) visitors to keep their voices down.

Of course, there are many hospital sounds that can't be helped: the various beeps and blips of the monitors and machines and the terrifying alarms indicating a problem (something we were told we'd eventually become used to, but thankfully were discharged before that happened) but it still feels good to be able to do something helpful, even if that something is just shutting up.

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Filed under: Moms, 2 years, Toddler

I used to dream about the day when Riley would say the words "I love you", I could only imagine that as far as milestones went that one would exceed them all. It would be even better than that glorious day when he finally started holding his own damn bottle, which, if I'm being honest here, I found just a tiny bit more thrilling than those teetering first steps. What? SO I'M LAZY SUE ME.

Anyway, I can't remember when I first started hearing him say the L word but these days he says it all the time. Problem is, it doesn't typically feel quite as special as I thought it would because he tends to use it like this:

Riley: "Ooh, a tiny rock! Mommy, a tiny rock! I yove you, tiny rock."
Me: "Aw, that's nice that you love the tiny rock."
Riley: "Riwwy YOVE tiny rock!"
Me: "You are a loving child, indeed."
Riley: "I yove indeed. What indeed mean, Mommy? My yove indeed, Mommy."

So although I've heard him say it many times, I think the one that stands out in my mind as the first official true-blue moment when I felt like he really said it to me was just yesterday afternoon. We were curled up against each other on the couch flipping through a Richard Scarry book when he suddenly leaned against me and said, "I yove Mommy". Then he told me that he was happy ("My happy!") and I told him that I loved him too and that I was very happy too, and we went back to the book.

Oh, I suppose I'm not describing it very well but it was just sort of . . . quietly wonderful. One of those parenting moments when your heart feels the way sunlight dancing on water looks.

Do you remember when your child first said they loved you?

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