Father-Son Portrait
Funny thing is, they both depend on boobies. One to make a living, and the other for food! Via CubicleBot
Game of Thrones Nursery Mural
It's never too early for your child to start learning. To help her son learn the sigils of the major houses of Westeros, Tumblr user Some Pointless painted this mural showing adorable versions of them. You can see close-up photos at the link.
Link -via Nerd Approved
Teenager Saves Kidnapped Little Girl
Temar Boggs of Gable Park Woods, Pennsylvania, heard that police and firefighters were frantically searching his neighborhood for a kidnapped 5-year old girl. He and his friends got on their bikes and joined in the search. During their search they encountered a driver behaving suspiciously:
The car was on Gable Park and turned around when it got near the top of a hill toward Millersville Pike, where Boggs said several police officers were gathered with the kind of cart used to carry an injured football player off the field.
The driver, an older white man, then began quickly turning onto and out of side streets connecting to Gable Park, Boggs said.
The neighborhood is something of a maze; many of its streets are cul-de-sacs.
Boggs got close enough to the car to see a little girl inside. Garcia was nearby.
The driver looked at Boggs and Garcia, then stopped the car at Gable Park and Betz Farm Road and pushed the girl out of the car. The driver then drove off, Boggs said.
Boggs said he didn't see where the car went.
"She runs to my arms and said, 'I need to see my mommy,' " Boggs said.
Boggs scooped the girl onto his shoulders and began riding the bike toward home, but then decided that wasn't safe, so he carried her and walked back while Garcia pedaled along, guiding the bike Boggs had been using.
Link -via Robb Allen
(Photo: Lancaster Online)
Send Pizza
Two-year-old Hazel is undergoing treatment for neuroblastoma at Children's Hospital in L.A. As a lark, her family helped her tape "Please Send Pizza" in her window. Yesterday, redditor ashortstorylong spotted the sign in the window of the hospital and took a picture. The picture made the front page and then went viral on social media. One thing led to another, and the fourth floor of the hospital received dozens of pizzas- enough pizzas for everyone!
The hospital has issued a statement thanking donors, but says no more pizzas are needed. Link
Update: Hazel's mother wrote about the event in a blog post, with more pictures. Link
Eighteenth Century Midwife Training Mannequin
Angélique Marguerite Le Boursier du Coudray (1714-1794) was the midwife of the court of French King Louis XV. She was famous for her skills in that trade and highly sought after as a teacher. Madame du Coudray traveled all over France, training as many as 10,000 women to bring babies and mothers through the childbirth process safely. This was one of her training aids--a dummy that simulates childbirth.
Link -via The Oddment Emporium
(Photo: Ministry of Culture, France)
Toddler Buys Car While Playing with Dad's Phone
Don't give your smartphone to anyone that you don't trust with your money. Paul Stoute of Portland, Oregon found that out when his 2-year old daughter Sorella used the eBay app on his phone to purchase a 1962 Austin Healey Sprite:
“She decided to open the eBay app, and started clicking around and one thing led to another and we own a car,” he told KOIN 6 News, laughing.
Mom and Dad had an “initial panic,” he said. “‘What do we do? We can’t really afford it’ kind of thing.”
But they decided to keep it.
(Photo: KOIN 6 News/Dean Barron)
Babies Sing Queen
Singing in the shower starts early, even when you're too young to shower! These two bathing beauties are learning about it the right way. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Embarrassed
How many times must a mother breastfeed her baby in a public toilet stall before she breaks? UK poet Hollie McNish was fed up by the attitudes she encountered: that breastfeeding must be hidden, and that maybe a mother should just stay home for a year or two until her child is weaned. This shame sells a lot of formula. In this spoken word performance, McNish says what she thinks, in colorful everyday language that may be NSFW. The text of the poem is at the YouTube page. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
Homemade Beer and Baby Float
There's no better way to beat the summer heat than to go tubing down a lazy river. But it's not as pleasant if you have to constantly keep a beer and a baby in your hands. That's where Instructables member flyingguppy's rig comes in. This device made out of a bicycle wheel, a mouse pad, a brake pad and pool noodles keeps all of your essential gear and/or loved ones safe.
The Jungle Cruise Stroller
Imagine you walk into Disneyland and among the many babies in the many strollers, you happen to see this -a baby in a Jungle Cruise stroller. If you were smart, you'd take a picture just like Twitter user Imaginat1on. Now that's a true Disney fan in the making right there.
He's a Yankee Doodle Dandy
Look at this little cutie -those firecrackers are almost as big as he is! He's celebrating the 130th birthday of the USA, which means this picture was taken in 1906. This is just one of 18 Vintage Photos of People Celebrating Independence Day you'll find at mental_floss. Link
(Image source: Library of Congress)
Kids Sing for America
The Star Spangled Banner is an extremely difficult song to sing properly -even more so in front of a crowd. But with hard work and bravery, these talented kids do it better than most pros. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
A Tablecloth and Play House In One
For years, kids have wanted to play house under the kitchen table, but thanks to Etsy seller CoolSpacesForKids, the game has never been easier or more realistic. Plus, unlike a pillow or blanket fort, you don't need to clean up this play area before dinner time.
The American Way of Birth, Costliest in the World
Giving birth to a baby in the United States is more expensive than anywhere else in the world. If you don't have health insurance, you'll be on the hook for the billed amount, which is much higher than insurance companies' negotiated prices. If you have health insurance, there's good chance it doesn't cover maternity costs. And even if it does, many services expectant mothers receive are often deemed unnecessary expenses by the insurance company -and therefore not covered. On the up side, a woman who finds out she is pregnant has time to shop around for the best deals… that is, if she knows that certain services are optional, and even then getting an estimate can be difficult. Renée Martin has insurance through her work, but it does not cover maternity expenses.
When she became pregnant, Ms. Martin called her local hospital inquiring about the price of maternity care; the finance office at first said it did not know, and then gave her a range of $4,000 to $45,000. “It was unreal,” Ms. Martin said. “I was like, How could you not know this? You’re a hospital.”
Midway through her pregnancy, she fought for a deep discount on a $935 bill for an ultrasound, arguing that she had already paid a radiologist $256 to read the scan, which took only 20 minutes of a technician’s time using a machine that had been bought years ago. She ended up paying $655. “I feel like I’m in a used-car lot,” said Ms. Martin, a former art gallery manager who is starting graduate school in the fall.
Even with insurance, out-of-pocket expenses for childbirth have quadrupled in the past ten years. One of the reasons is that instead of a flat fee, maternity services are individually billed, often by many providers. Chris Sullivan and his wife bought a package deal for maternity care from the hospital for $4,000.
The couple knew that price did not cover extras like amniocentesis, a test for genetic defects, or an epidural during labor. So when the obstetrician suggested an additional fetal heart scan to check for abnormalities, they were careful to ask about price and got an estimate of $265. Performed by a specialist from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, it took 30 minutes and showed no problems — but generated a bill of $2,775.
“All of a sudden I have a bill that’s as much as I make in a month, and is more than 10 times what I’d been quoted,” Mr. Sullivan said. “I don’t know how I could have been a better consumer, I asked for a quote. Then I get this six-part bill.” After months of disputing the large discrepancy between the estimate and the bill, the hospital honored the estimate.
The New York Times has an extensive article about the soaring cost of maternity care, the lack of insurance coverage for much of it, and how the U.S. compares to other developed nations in the way it charges new parents for delivering a baby. Link -via Digg
