Thank You Notes? Thanks for nuthin'!

I came across this article today about the nearly extinct art of gratitude, and sadly, this couldn't even come closer to my side of the family. Be it Christmas, Wedding, Birthday, Baby Shower or whatever gifts, once you give or send it you pretty much don't get any acknowledgment in return. Maybe at some family get-together a year later I may ask "hey, how'd you like that bottle-opener cowboy belt-buckle.... did you even get it?" with an answer like "yeah, in fact I'm wearing it now-let me crack open a beer for ya'!". That's about all I can expect from them. They're not bad people either and it's not like they were all raised in a barn or Canada. They just don't get around to it. I really wonder sometimes what they think when they get our Thank-you's? Like maybe "those crazy folk do strange stuff, with there 'fancy' indoor plumbing and all".

USA Today: Whatever happened to thank- you notes?

What to do with Toys the kids don't want?

Christmas is over and the kids just replaced thier Lego's with an iPod. So what do you do with the toys they don't play with? In the past my wife and I have always held a garage sale with some friends or just donated unwanted stuff to the Salvation Army. Another option is to swap them with kids online. Toyswap charges a $1 transaction fee to exchange with somebody -which isn't too bad. It's a novel idea, sort of an Ebay for kids. I still prefer Craigslist or a simple garage sale, but I like having the option.

Toyswap

The "Art" of the Christmas card

My wife and I started sending out Christmas cards with letters the first year we were married because 1) her relatives live everywhere, we rarely see them and they do the same 2) we have no idea what we did all year until we write the letter, 3) we can make really weird, sometimes, creative 'photoshopped' pictures for the card. And like the true artist that I am, I always wait until the week before Christmas creating the family portrait for the card. In the past it always seemed like too much of an effort especially when we have a million other things going on. But this year was our baby's first Christmas and it dawned on us while reading letter from years past how much our daughter would enjoy these when she gets older. It also helps me see how crazy we really are.

LA TImes: Card tricks for Christmas

Argh, avast ye baby pirate! Onesie that is.

We get some pretty cool baby gifts from our creative friends. And 2 of them are lucky enough to live near San Francisco’s only independent pirate supply store selling things pirates need most, like lard, flags, eye patches, pirate perfume (for those seductress wenches), mops, and of course glass eyes. The really cool thing about these pirate sellers is that they're actually part of a tutoring center helping kids out with writing skills. And maybe some pirate training like swabbing the deck.

826 Valencia "Pirate Supply" Store

'Educational' baby videos - a scam?

What do you mean? My 5-month-old can't read at 7 months like the package suggests! Or learn to play the Mozart in the womb?! My wife and I roll our eyes when we see this higher learning videos and merchandise aimed at infants. And these producers are making bank from gullible people -$100 million in annual sales, according to Business Week. Our infant is learning probably the same way the real Einstein learned. By just watching, observing, and grabbing whatever. Be it a cell phone, remote control, wrapper, book, pan, plate, crack pipe (that's a joke), whatever. In fact, even every infant toy we've given her isn't interesting unless we're somehow using it. If you really want your infant to be learning, walk around; give tours of the house/neighborhood and talk to her. Don't sit her in front of a TV watching a video. That's for when they become teenagers (that's another joke. I hope).

Chicago Tribune: Are 'educational' baby videos a scam?

Naming Babies After Cars?

So my wife and I are out doing some Christmas shopping and I hear a woman calling for her toddler "Jetta". Yes, like the Volkswagan. A few days ago engaged in some water cooler talk at work, some co-worker was talking about her niece "Lexus". Just to be sure, I had asked "like the car?" she said yes. I had to look this up and find out if this is common thing. It's not like the old days when people name their kids after relatives, Fruit, Disney Characters and Celebrities. Have people just run out of names, or are they just plain crazy. Imagine growing up with the same name as a car? Especially a girl, when she gets older - some guy saying something like “Check out the trunk/headlights/caboose, etc...". Seriously, did these parents forget what growing up was like? I'm saving your kid from a lifetime of therapy here. If you want to be different, try Sacajawea instead.

AJC:Brand babies

BBC: US babies get global brand names

Simple to Remember: Look Nivea, it's your new little sister, Porsche

Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood: Bye Christopher Robin, Hello 6 year old girl.

Things are "a changin'" in Pooh's world next year with the arrival of a tomboy 6-year-old girl. That's funny when I was a kid; I thought the Robin character was already tomboyish 6-year-old girl until I got older. But to those purist who think Christopher was just voted out of the woods, Nancy Kanter of Disney Channel says "Christopher Robin is still out there in the woods, playing,” I guess he's inside playing Playstation 2 like most boys these days.

E! Online: Disney's Pooh Redo

Disney's Pooh

Red Rider Leg Lamp as seen on A Christmas Story

I remember seeing the movie "A Christmas Story" and thinking how cool it would be to have that lamp proudly displayed in the front room window this time of year. It kind of became an obsession of my roommate and I during college trying to find one, which was nearly impossible before the Internet came along. These days, you can buy nearly anything on the internet-even real pet monkeys! I love the Internet.

Red Rider Leg Lamp

Pet Monkeys for Sale

How to be a "GoodFather"

In the beginning, becoming a new Dad is like waking up in North Korea. Its pretty scary, unknown and all the stories you hear about it make it even worse. If you're like most guys, you really don't know much of anything "baby", probably have never changed a diaper, burped one, or maybe have never even held one. And most "dad" books don't offer much help either. In fact, they just plain suck. Boring books like "The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the First Year", or the ones that try to be funny (and short) without good information like "The New Dad's Survival Guide: Man-to-Man Advice for First-Time Fathers", or books that just poke fun at new dad's like your a tourist (My Boys Can Swim!: The Official Guy's Guide to Pregnancy ). They were all bad! Now comes Dr. Moz's "The GoodFather", a parody of the mafia movies, but in a CD-ROM format with interactive baby lessons and definitions plus a baby card maker (Although, I'm not sure what that's all about). I give Dr. Moz credit for taking a different approach.

The GoodFather:CD-Rom

Build a Snowman, then paint it

When I was a kid we use to paint snow a different way and snowmen always ended up yellow. Not anymore, these days, you can buy a dignified "snowman paint" spray bottle kit with food coloring to do it. Or you can just continue using nature's way. Maybe challenge yourself while you’re at it, drink lots of water and try spelling your name.

Plum Party: snowman paint

"Thousands" of Babies having strokes!?!

As if there isn't enough parents like me have to worry about (flat heads, SIDS, table corners, Hand Foot & Mouth disease, Limited Too!) now they throw in the possibility that my infant daughter could have a stroke at any time. AP came out with a story today called "Thousands of Babies Have Strokes Annually" which of course got picked up on just about every news outlet, and I'm sure it’ll even make the local news tonight. You know with one of those "Tagline" 2 second attention-getter teasers before LOST saying something like "your baby have a stroke..? Experts say YES. Watch tonight at 11 or it could happen to your baby TONIGHT and it'll be all your fault!” OK, so I read the article and it estimates between 1,000 infants, and maybe 3-5,000 1-month to 18 years olds (which is quite a spread). So I did what everybody should do, looked it up to see how accurate this is. So how many babies are born and what are the chances of this happening? A very conservative estimate I found was a ".1%" chance out of 3,915,000 babies alone. The percentage is much smaller for 1-month to 18 year olds ".007%". But that doesn't sound nearly as dramatic.

ABC News: Thousands of Babies Have Strokes Annually

FactMonster

Field Tested Learning Assessment Guide

Yes, coming soon - Teen Repellent!

Grumpy old folks complaining about kids hanging out around the lawn rejoice! This handy machine called "the Mosquito" apparently emits a high-frequency pulsing sound that can be heard by most people younger than 20 and almost no one older than 30. I see something big in the works here. While at the mall yesterday Christmas shopping, to much valuable walking space was taken by weird teenagers just standing around, hanging out talking smack. What better way to clear the path than to take out your handy Teen Repellent? It’s like a new kind of superhero.

CNET: What's the buzz? Teens can't stand it

A "toy" DVD projector for $300

Kids really have some cool toys coming out these days and Zoombox is one of them. This projector projects a 5 foot image (from the cable box or video game system, onto walls and ceilings up to 8 feet away and even has speakers. Perfect for a kids bedroom home entertainment setup....or a Dad's very cool gadget.

Hasbro ZOOMBOX DVD Entertainment Projector

Girls pursuing Boys in Elementary school?

I'm not that old (early 30's) or out of touch with kids since I teach once a week, but something is happening that I never noticed. I do now, and listen more intently now that I have a baby girl. My friend's 10-year old daughter came home proudly announcing "I kissed a boy today!" to him at dinner. His jaw nearly dropped and asked her who this kid was and where he lives. She went on to explain that she has been pursuing him since the summer. But being an average 10-year old boy he's more interested in skateboarding and video games (Thank God that hasn't changed!). This isn't the first time I've heard or read about this and frankly, it freaks me out! I can't imagine what'll happen when the boys figure this out (dog and cats living side by side, glaciers floating into cities, Gigli 2...).
I always imagined myself scaring these guys the way girls' fathers did to me when I was a teenager. I pictured the knife collections on the walls, with maybe few deer heads, nunchucks, crossbows, karate belts bought off EBay- Something to shake them up a bit and keep them away from my girl. But this changes everything - girls never pursued aggressively, it was always the boys. And never in Elementary school!? Time to rethink that original strategy...

Dads and Daughters

Rod Stewart's 7th baby?

Rod Stewart may be at least 100 years old, but like a true rock star, his current wife(s) always stay the same age. His current fiancée Penny Lancaster, former model of course, just gave birth to his 7th kid. I find it interesting when aging celebrities you don't know much about have babies, because you find out stuff you wouldn't normally go looking for. Like how many times they've been married and to who. How many kids they have, where they live, and which songs they made that were put into movies.

CNN: Rod Stewart a new dad at age 60

Kids and Hygiene 101-

As a parent, hygiene for a baby is important. You clean everything, all the crevices, the ears, and especially make sure they don't stink. Then why do some parents let their kids go when they hit the 'teen' years? I teach once a week to High School kids and sure, most of the kids come crawling in as if they didn't have time to clean up. But its expected, I can live with that, its Saturday. But last Saturday I saw the nastiest thing- One of my kids, wearing sandals, had toenails the size of moldy surfboards! This wasn't just an overnight thing, it definitely took some time. Makes you wonder what his parents are like. Do they even know? How can they not notice? Maybe he's on the swim team and need flippers to swim faster...

Babycenter Hygiene

50 Cent to parents-Buy my game for yo' kids, ite!

My answer- "No freakin' way!" His game "50 Cent: Bulletproof" is rated 'mature' for blood, gore and 'sexual themes'. As a gamer I have no problem for the adults to play this stuff, if that's what they like. But he actually encourages parents to use it as a teaching tool? There are better options and violent video games aren't the best tool to do it. Honestly it drives me crazy when parents buy the Grand Theft Auto series for their kids without even thinking twice about it. And not just strangers but friends and family, who still live in Super Mario World.

Reuters:Bloody video game OK for kids: rapper 50 Cent

Video Game Dad and Xbox 360

So I'm not really sure if I’m a minority or majority Dad with this, but I absolutely enjoy playing video games. Ever since my first Atari 2600, Colecovision, Vectrex, and Intellivision as a kid in the 80's, to my PS2 now. I even worked for a big video game publisher just out of Art School and worked on a few Nintendo 64/Playstation 1 titles before most ever heard of those machines. With that said, this week, the new XBox 360 comes out and I’m not really enthusiastic about it. I'm not totally convinced its ‘all that’ as claimed. Honestly when I went to E3 earlier this year (the big video game conference) the games were pretty much the same quality you can already get with the original Xbox and a current PS2. Except playing on plasma TV’s (and a home video of a sidewalk looks good on one of those). Also the fact you pay subscription fee’s to play online after buying a $60 game isn’t much of an incentive. I still need to be convinced…

xBox 360

Gamespot: Xbox vs. PS3

Choices: Harry Potter in theatre vs. Babysitter

Things changes when you have a baby and you just can't go to movies on opening night on a whim anymore. Things like finding a babysitter for a 4 month old become a huge deal. Do we ask a neighbor with kids, a friend nearby who doesn't have kids (and not really sure if they even know how to change a diaper, or like kids) or friends with kids (one more won't tip the scale, would it…)? On these ‘rare’ occasions we really wished we had family nearby. My wife and I are huge fans of the Harry Potter books and have even resorted to taking an afternoon off work-which is becoming harder to do these days. A theatre, here in L.A. at the Grove, have Mommy Movies (don't get me started on the name) that allow you to bring your crying and occasionally finicky baby with stroller and all. But they're only on Monday mornings. Why not on weekends? Theatre owners-I would pay money if you did this! Please, do it for the children....

Monday Morning Mommy Movies @ The Grove (L.A.)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -Official Site

Tech-Kid gifts for Christmas

Cnet has some suggestions on what to get your kids for Christmas this year. Although I don't agree that most of these toys are what kids really want (more like iPods, XBox360, camcorders, cell phones, digital camera's with Spongebob on it). I must admit a few like the Darth Vader Voice Changer is likely. I saw a 5-year-old boy with one, a while ago, demanding his mom for some candy. Obviously the force wasn't strong in him.

CNET:Kid-friendly gifts

Top 10 Baby names Guarenteed to get your kid beat up!

There's nothing worse for a parent than naming your new baby. You have to think of something that's not too weird, not too common (Like Madison now, or Katelyn in the 90's-there's nothing worse for a kid's individuality than to be known as Katelyn #4) and most importantly isn't an open invitation to get beat up or made fun of for life. Theses names are just a few parents just need to stay away from.

Weekly World News: TOP 10 BABY NAMES GUARANTEED TO GET YOUR KID BEATEN UP!

Energy Drink for Girls, because a Red Bull won't do.

This is when you know energy drinks have gone a little too far. Now girls don't have to look weird with those 'boy' energy drinks like Rockstar and Red Bull. "Go Girl" Energy Drinks have the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee and will be sold in places like Hair and Nail Salons. But their marketing has a twisted message of focusing on being more of a health, diet and nutrition drink. A far cry from the good old days of just plain Tab cola.

Go Girl Energy Drink

Generation Y: Smart? Independant? Yeah right!

USA Today just did a bizarre story this week about how smart and great this new generation now coming into the work force. You should read it; because I honestly don't know who they're talking about and what rose-colored glasses they were looking through. The majority in their 20's we in the working world we refer as 'Kidults', because most still live with their parents (like roommates, but who still support them), don’t like criticism and their feelings hurt, demand respect-even when it's not earned, and are overall disconnected.
Who knows what will become of them and what they'll actually produce. I remember when the "boomers" complained when my "Gen X" crowd came into the real world as arrogant and rebellious freaks. Now I'm just passing on the tradition. It's all part of the cycle.

USA Today: Generation Y: They've arrived at work with a new attitude

Elmo "Knows your name"

Not only your name, but birthday, favorite food, stories, songs, color and just in case mom and dad don’t do it, he can even tell you when it’s time to eat breakfast. And Mattel’s Fisher-Price is hoping desperate parents everywhere will come crashing through Wal-Mart’s doors to buy one this Christmas. I’m a bit creeped out with these things like last years “Amazing Amanda” and an intelligent Elmo. Toys these days are getting closer to “Twilight Zone's Talking Tina” every year. I’m just wondering which on these Elmo’s will turn out evil, you know turn out to be the new Chucky by falling off the assembly line. Hey, there’s a movie idea…

Fisher-Price Elmo

Do-It-Yourself Sonograms

There’s the big urge to see and hear your unborn baby anytime you want to, like turning on the TV. This new gadget claims you can capture your own sonograms with the included digital ultrasound camera and watch strange abstract baby images on the LCD screen. Like nearly all-new gadgets these days, it comes with a USB output for your computer to share it with the world. I'm really apprehensive about these things with new parents falling victim to marketing. When we were pregnant my wife and I bought something similar called 'BebeSounds' Prenatal Heart Listener monitor and that thing didn't work at all. I should have known when the packaging said "non-returnable" and the sales girl told us that they didn’t take any returns/exchanges on this particular product. Obviously they knew it was modern day snake oil!

Aimo Sonogram

BeBe Sounds

Bill Gates: Are your kids addicted to the Internet?

Microsoft has some suggestions for helping out with your kids spending hours of IM-ing friends, playing games, or whatever online. Including not banning the Internet from your home and subscribing to their MSN Premium service. Maybe they should just encourage them to go play with the Xbox instead.

Microsoft: Are your kids addicted to the Internet?

Yoda *heart* Baby

Sure, why not? He's around the same size, has the same features - wrinkles and bald. Except maybe for the white hair, green skin, and Frank Oz voice. But they know Jedi tricks, when they drop stuff somehow they mysteriously come back to them. Why wouldn’t Yoda heart them?

Yoda Loves Me Shop

Kids clothes...by Madonna?

So what are we talking about here? Frightening images of boob bra's or latex was more what I was thinking if Madonna had something to do with it. But no, the English Roses Collection (based on her kids book) is a high-end line designed with her 9-year-old daughter's input. As for $136 coats and $76 skirts her stuff isn't coming to Target stores anytime soon. Which probably means my daughter won't be visiting Madonna's English garden anytime soon.

English Roses Collection

USA Today: Madonna in style

Go "Trick or Treat" for Daddy...

I just can't wait for the day my daughter can go beg, I mean... go 'trick or treating', for candy. Not only it is fun for a kid to get all dressed up and get rewarded for it with candy, but as a parent I get to partake in eating the loot. Well, at least some of it. Sure, I can go buy it, but that's not nearly as fun. I can already picture myself in a few years anxiously asking her "sooo...what did you get?!"...and then her replying "MY CANDY!" as she runs for her room then slams the door. Exactly as I remember it from my childhood...

Star Wars Baby Costumes

First of all, it was cute to dress a baby up as a Star Wars character maybe back in the late 70's/early 80's when the movies were actually good. But why now? Don't support the bad... please!? Would you seriously dress up your baby like “Jiminy Glick in La La Wood”? There is no difference; both films were best never to be made. Yes, baby Yoda is cute but so are a million others things. If you must do Star Wars for Halloween, the dog probably wouldn't mind being a wookie.

R2D2 Baby

Craftster: Yoda Baby

Baby Einstein is crack for babies

I finally ripped open the Baby Mozart DVD we got for our baby shower and played it for our 3-month old daughter. What came next was totally unexpected. I was somehow expecting, like most baby/toddler videos, some talking fish in overalls sharing his cookie with a horse and then singing about it...or something similar. It was actually closer to a home video of random objects with bad canned synthesizer music. I first felt extremely ripped off, until I saw my daughter fixated on the screen. Yes, absorbed at 3 months old! I then felt admiration and a bit jealous as a creative that I hadn't come up with the idea. These people made millions selling their company to Disney a few years ago. I'm now thinking of recording the ceiling fan in our living room, my daughter loves staring at that. I wonder if it's worth at least 100K.

Baby Einstein

Predict your childs height..?

And this isn't a guy at a carnival who also guesses your weight, this is real science (well, the Canadian kind at least). I'm always a little curious as to how tall my 3 month-old daughter will be when she's "all growns up". But it's not like I'm obessed over it enough to go into a doctors office to find out. Anyhow, these researchers claim their test is accurate to within two inches for boys and 2.5 inches for girls. I bet the guy at the carnival has the same accurancy rate, except with him you get a stuffed animal too.

Medpage today: Simple Noninvasive Test Predicts Kids' Adult Height

Hey W.C. Customs - Pimp my stroller!

You know, I'm just waiting for the day my wife and I are walking through the Beverly Center (or perhaps Ontario) and while waiting for the elevator a "West Coast customs" pimped out stroller ride comes rolling next to our Bugbaboo. You know, maybe with the wheel spinners, gold trim, tinted sunshield maybe. I'm actually surprised nobody has come up with something like that yet?! Anyhow, seems like others have the same idea--

PIMP MY PUSHCHAIR

Pimp My Stroller

Martha Stewart...making houses?

Yes, that's right - houses like the kind people live in. And Martha Stewart is making 650 of them with her designing everything from the closets, lights fixtures, wall colors, to the floors. KB Home is building them in a upper class suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina and they're based on her own homes in Maine and New York. Maybe there's a neighborhood K-Mart to help furnish them. Upper class neighborhoods just love shopping there.

KB Home: Martha Stewart

MSNBC: Martha Stewart enters the world of real estate

TomKat Baby - from Outerspace!

Yeah whatever, its like we haven't heard it a million times already - Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are expecting a little one sometime next year. And while everybody is still curious as to if it's a boy or girl some (like myself) have been wondering what kind of crazy stuff does a scientology birth consist of. This Flash animation short gives a pretty good answer to my questions-

TomKat Baby - from Outerspace!

18 Ways to Make a Baby

I'm into making baby's the old- fashioned way. For some that may not be an option, that's when science comes in handy. "18 Ways to Make a Baby" is actually a very interesting site on today’s world of assisted reproduction. It covers everything from fertility throughout our lives to cloning a baby - a subject that would even make Dr. Evil proud. When I was in school (years and years ago) I never paid any attention to this stuff in class. Making flipbooks on my textbook corners was much more interesting. But these days, it really is amazing stuff.

PBS Nova Online: 18 Ways to Make a Baby

A Boy named "Google"...

Only in Sweden can a kid be named Google, not get funny looks or get beat up in the schoolyard. Here in L.A. he would have trouble looking out a window (unless of course, he bought stock just when the company went public. Then he'll have plenty of friends to party with, like Anthony Michael Hall and Scott Baio). Apparently this isn't a new phenomenon, earlier this year it was reported that a Romanian couple named their kid Yahoo. But that was a hoax. I guess the Swedish didn't know that.

Google Blog: We get letters (3)

Snopes: Yahoo's My Baby?

Dress like Barbie - For real?

Yup, real Barbie clothes and not for little girls, but for teens and women in their 20's and 30's. And just like the real Barbie, money is no object. High-end designers like Anya Hindmarch, Nickel, Paper Denim & Cloth creating jeans for $176, sweatshirts at $140, handbags and jewelery sold at trendy places out here in L.A. like Fred Segal and other boutiques. Places a real Barbie would shop before going to the moon, to perform surgery, on a horse.

Reuters: Mattel launches Barbie clothes for women

CNN Money: Wanna dress like a Barbie?

Whoa! Blossom has a baby!?

Mayim Bialik (or as the world knows her-Blossom Russo) was in that 90's sitcom "Blossom”. She was kind of the 90's version of Punky Brewster, except she had a crazy brother Joey Lawrence (who by the way, random fact, almost hit my college roommate with his Lexus in a parking garage back in 1995). What I didn't know is that she has a Ph.D. in neuroscience! I wonder if its the funny hats that inspired her?

E! Online: "Blossom" Baby in Bloom

What?! Now they release the Video iPod...

My tragic story: a month ago Steve Jobs has a big party and the iPod Nano is released. All worked up with excitement, I go buy it (and the popular black one too). Then this happens...? I feel betrayed. Then I see a Mac "rumor" off one of the sites Apple tried to shut down earlier this year and they say, somebody told them that my Nano might have video capabilities?! I should hope so.

Think Secret (Rumor site)

Apple iPod w/Video

Coloring with O.J. and gangsta's

Most coloring and activity books when I was a kid were of primarily 80's cartoons or sitcoms, like Alf, Knight Rider, Transformers, etc. Things sure are different these day with these finds. I must admit though, there's nothing quite like coloring in Ice Cube's glock, Dr. Dre's bling or O.J. infamous bloody glove.

O.J. Simpson Colring and Activity Book (Free download)

Gangsta Rap Coloring Book

Smurfs living a worn-torn village?

UNICEF is trying to get our attention these days. Maybe because funds are getting low, or other world events such as Earthquakes, Floods, Hurricanes, Tsunami's just seem to be taking center stage. In Belgium, their newest campaign features those relatively peaceful 80's Smurf's with their village getting carpet bombed and baby Smurf crying for his dead mother, Smurfette (Which in reality couldn't be Smurfette, because she was sent in as Gargamel’s evil spy with the intent of destroying the Smurf village, then changed. Unless of course - she was pregnant…by Gargamel?). All this for the sake of Africa! If I were a kid and saw that, it would kind of freak me out. Instead, they should have chosen something closer to Belgium adult’s hearts, like Baywatch.

UNICEF

Smurf's Official Site

Yet another study on SIDS and...weird heads?

Today the American Academy of Pediatrics released another yet study to scare parents, and of course I had to read it. With caution, afraid I was doing something wrong and the police were just waiting to ram down my door. It all made sense, pretty common things but then I came across this part that freaked me out "Avoid development of positional plagiocephaly (flat back of head).... Avoid having the infant spend excessive time in car-seat carriers and “bouncers.” " What?! I don't want my little girl to have a "Flat back Head". I never thought of that? Is this a common thing? I've never noticed other baby’s with this problem but then again, they're always in car-seat's, laying down, or bouncers!? It's going to be hard enough when she's a teenager when she starts blaming me for breathing! Now this takes some serious thought...

American Acedemy of Pediatrics: AAP REVISES SIDS PREVENTION RECOMMENDATIONS

Human's in a million years will look like...?

Do you ever wonder, while waiting in line or driving in traffic, what human beings will evolve to and look like in 1 or 100 million years from now? I do while looking at my 3-month-old reflecting family features she has, what she will be like when she's my age, and weird stuff like that. Unlike today, people just a century ago only lived until about 45 years old, were pretty short, and died from strange stuff like 'smelling horse manure' or something obtuse like that. Will we all look like Yoda, Soap stars, or polluted Morlocks eating the beautiful people who live on the surface? Or maybe just the same but with great hair like the guys in Rogaine commercials...

MSNBC: Before and After Humans

Pimped out PSP case: only $35,000

You've got to be kidding! Don't be surprised if you see this on an extravagant Christmas list for one of Snoop Dawg's 12 or 18 kids. This Sony PSP case is made out of alligator skin, 7 carats of black and yellow diamonds, all topped off with a pound of gold. It also makes a perfect accessory for the Escalade.

BabyPhat

EURweb: Diamonds from Russell & Kimora

Child-developmental psychologist and his Alien roomate

How would you like this guy to have been your kid's psychologist? Jonathan Reed, a former child-developmental psychologist (why was he one in the first place?) claims one day he "was hiking with his golden retriever in a forest in Seattle...then his pet was being torn apart by a "gray" -- an alien being with an elongated head, smelling of rotting fruit." But wait! There's more - he continues "he took the alien home and lived with it for nine days in which it communicated via telepathy and was able to pull thoughts from his mind." You know, I believe him. I think aliens work and gather at the nearby DMV. There's no other explanation for that smell.

Yahoo News: UFO-spotters tell tales of the extra-terrestrial

Independent Online-Enthusiasts gather for world alien congress

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes-Expecting?

In Hollywood, like presidents, you have to keep your popularity ratings up. With either good or bad news. I can’t think of one person in this town who thinks that this whole ‘relationship’ is real. I mean with the Oprah confessions, the magazine cover with Katie in a wedding dress, the staged make-outs?! But as to whose publicist came up with this stunt - I bet they're going to get some Christmas bonus this year. What does Katie get? Well she’s probably looking to a once unknown named Nicole Kidman who curiously became huge hit after her marriage with Tom. Her dreams to follow the same footsteps of stardom except for the fact Nicole can actually act.

E Online- Cruise, Holmes: Pregnant

Diapers, Costco and free food samples.

My wife and I never caught on to the whole Costco (Bj's, Sam's Club) phenomenon. Sure we've been to one a few times with friends/family, but never had a need for 3 gallons of Ketchup, or a case of Del Monte green beans. Until I found out how much cheaper diapers were there. And I'm not talking about a few pennies per diaper, but a real deal. Before out little one was born we were set on a diaper service or the costly least environmentally destructive Seventh Generation diapers from Whole Foods, but when you go through loads of these a week, it really adds up. Besides, where else can you get samples (and a pretty good portion size) of nachos, teriyaki shrimp skewers, and French toasts sticks?

Costco

Seventh Generation Chlorine Free Diapers

Bugabooo By: at $2000

How do you take an already pretty swanky expensive stroller and make it even more exclusive? You get some Dutch fashion designers to create their version of it, mark it up nearly $1200 over the base model, and then release only 1000 of them. As a designer myself, I think you have to be a pretty brave parent to stroll around in a bright white stroller. Obviously their first designer doesn't know anything about who these strollers are designed for-children. And they don't fair well with white, not even one that costs $2000.

Bugaboo By:

Disney MP3 Players

Many tween-age kids don't want toys anymore; they rather have cell phones, Playstations, portable video players and iPods. Disney finally caught on to the trend and released these Mix Sticks music players for 6-12 year olds. They look similar to the $99 iPod shuffle, but cost $49. They play WMA files, or ripped CDs, and but not iTunes songs (iTunes is by far the most popular). Though Mix Sticks do feature plug-in memory cards with pre-recorded songs for parents, or kids, who just don't want to deal with the computer. I'm a little wary about these, my 10 and 12 year old niece/nephew and their friends all want iPods like the rest of the world. My guess is that these would fair well with my younger 6-year-old niece or just plain Disneyfiles who want anything Disney. But then again, I do really like the chrome one...

Disney Mix Stick Player

Photos @ Cnet