Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Angie Cromar of Utah is pregnant with two babies who are not twins and have two different due dates.  As strange as this sounds it actually can happen.  You see, Angie has didelphys or two uteruses.   She conceived in both of them.  The odds of that are about one in 5 million.

Link - Thanks David

Chamara Washington, a Capital One call center worker, is a hero.  While making routine calls she came across  a crying 4-year old boy.  The little boy on the phone asked for help and told her the person watching him would not wake up.   Chamara listened to her motherly instincts and notified the police.

Georgia police  found the little boy all alone with a deceased caregiver.  The boy had already been alone for several days.

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Jennifer Senior of New York Magazine wrote a fascinating article on parenting.   It's titled All Joy and No Fun.  The article touches on a lot of the research out there that basically says if you want to be happy don't bother being a parent.   So I wondered how many of you really do hate parenting.  This is not to say you don't love your kids. Loving your kids and hating being a parent are two very different things.

Let me give a perfect example of people who love their kids, are great parents,  but hated being parents.  My parents.  My Dad tells me at least once a week that he was never meant to have a family.  He was really meant to be,  "A crack whore living in an apartment with the view of the ocean."   Yes, those are his exact words. My Mom, bless her, just nods.  The reality, however, is that she didn't like parenting anymore than he did.  These parents, who I adore, think raising my sister and I was akin to torture.

When both my sister and I announced we were going to have children our parents weren't as much excited as they were baffled. Why would we trade travel, money, leisure time for raising kids.  Had they taught us nothing? Didn't we realize that this experience was going to cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars? That this process was only going to break our hearts, because if we did our jobs well these kids were only going to fire us and move on with their own lives?  They obviously had raised idiots.

OK, I agree with my parents that there are lots of times that parenting can extremely suck.  Yes, it's expensive, time consuming, exhausting, and very gross.  Regardless,  I love it.   After reading the article I started to wonder if maybe I love it, because my parents  gave me such low expectations of the process.  I always knew it was going to suck, but what I didn't realize was also how awesome the highs were going to be. Then again maybe it's really too early to tell if I am going to hate parenting too. You see,  my kids are still small and one of the studies mentioned did say that people are happier when their kids are small.   Perhaps how crappy parenting is just hasn't sunk in yet.

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My baby is a thumb-sucker. She is the only one of my three kids to have this habit. Strangely, she only sucks her left thumb. She sucks her thumb when she is tired or cranky.

I will be honest, I have always found the baby's thumb sucking habit to be very endearing.  It's uniquely her.  Then again she is only 10 months old and I find everything about her to be fantastic. You know what they say about a Mother's love.

I have never stressed about thumb sucking. I have often told amused family and friends that I was sure by the time she went to college she would no longer be sucking her thumb.  Even the dental implications of the habit have never fazed me.  Given my husband's and my genetic backgrounds she is likely to need braces anyway.  See, I have always assumed that one day she would just grow out of thumb-sucking. That is until now.

A few weeks ago I came across a funny little piece by Betsy Shaw. Betsy sucked her thumb as a baby and toddler.

I continued to suck my thumb all through Kindergarten, grade school, high school and college…..

You see, Betsy is a well adjusted and happy Mother of 2, wife,  writer, and thumb-sucker. According to Betsy this pacifying habit that I find so sweet  is  something the baby may do forever. At first I was shocked.   This news goes against everything I have ever been told about the habit. Do some people really never outgrow thumb sucking?

Some time has passed and I have had a chance for this new information to sink in.  Will I eventually try to place the baby in thumb sucking rehab? Maybe.  I'm guilty of letting peer pressure get the better of me from time to time.  For now though, I think I am OK with the fact that I have a little thumb-sucker even if the habit is here to stay.

What are your feelings on thumb sucking?

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Whether you call them roly polys, pill bugs, wood lice,  or armadillidiidae we think they are just awesome.   My kids spend hours digging in the garden looking for roly polys.  These little guys have piqued my kids' interest in nature in amazing ways.

Roly polys have also bravely given their lives in the pursuit of science. They have taught my children valuable lessons.  The most important lesson being how some things can be broken and can never be put back together again. Yes, eww!! Rest in peace, little roly poly friend.  He didn't mean it and he was very sad to see you go. Now here are 20 fun facts about our unique little garden friends:

1. Roly polys aren't bugs at all. They are terrestrial crustaceans. These little isopods are related to shrimp.


2. Their color can vary from gray to brown. Sometimes they are two-toned because they are molting. First the back half molts and then the front half molts. They molt about 4 to 5 times during their life span.


3. On rare occasions you will find a bright blue or purple roly poly. The purple/blue roly poly is a sick roly poly.  The color is caused by the iridovirus which causes crystals to form beneath the roly poly's exoskeleton.  Don't worry, the virus is not dangerous to humans.


4. They have a hard exoskeleton called a cuticle and it's made from chitin.


5. They are usually less than 1 inch in length.


6. Roly polys can live up to 2 years. Sadly, sometimes less when my son comes in contact with them. Let's just say he is learning the meaning of gentle.


7. Roly polys are super common. They are pretty much found all over the world. They can live in grasslands and rain forests.  They just tend to like moist areas so you will find them under rocks, leaves, barks, or logs.


8. They eat decaying plants and animals which is a good thing. They are like nature's little waste management team. Sometimes, however,  they also eat seedlings  and ripe strawberries which can really annoy gardeners. They can't eat thicker plants, however, so they aren't really a danger to most of the plants in your garden.


9. You can catch a whole bunch of roly polys by placing a cantaloupe upside down in the garden. The roly polys are attracted to the rotting fruit and the moist environment.


10. Predators of the roly poly include: frogs, newts, toads, spiders and small mammals. When the roly poly is molting and soft, they sometimes are eaten by other  roly polys.


11. Females have brood pouches that hold eggs and embryos. They tend to have 2 dozen offspring at a time and have two to three broods a year.   Baby roly polys looks just like big roly polys except they are white and very small.


12. No daddy required here. The roly poly can reproduce by parthenogenesis.


13. They aren't related to the pill millipede even though they look a ton like them.


14. They are able to roll into cool little balls. This process is called conglobation. It is a defense against predators.


15. They have a gill-like structure that they use for breathing. Therefore, they require moist environments to live in.


16. A roly poly is a true blue blood. Roly polys have haemocycanin in their blood which makes it blue in color when it is carrying oxygen.


17. They can drink through their anus. They have uropods on their rear ends and are able to suck up moisture through them.


18. They eat their own poo. This is called coprophagy and it allows them to get back some of the copper they lost when they poo'ed.


19. Wolbachia bacteria can turn a male roly poly into a female roly poly.


20. They don't urinate. Instead they release a form of ammonia gas.

After learning all this neat stuff about the roly polys, how can you not love them too!

Naming your kid after a werewolf or vampire's girlfriend is so last year. Why not try something more unique.  How about giving your kid an elvish moniker like Radella for a girl. Radella means elfin adviser. Having a boy? Not to worry. How about Tegalad which means bringing light.

For more fun elfin names check out Mooky Chick's list. They also have suggestions for Gothic, vampire, Pagan, Celtic, and Wiccan names.

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Some Neatorama fans sent us this great free sample of the Baby Dipper bowl to try out.  I have to say that at first I thought the shape was kind of funny. It reminded me of a sport cup.  But, now after having tried the product for feeding my 8 months old  I'm a total convert.  I love it.

The bowl is low enough that I don't accidentally knock it over.  It is solid enough that when I do manage to knock into it doesn't go anywhere.  It has a great non-slip base.

The spoon-shaped lower corner makes for very easy feeding. Sometimes it even lets me sneak in a bite of my own food with my free hand.

If I could change anything about the bowl it would be to make it in some different colors.

My favorite part about the bowl, however, is that it was Mommy invented. Mommy inventions rock!

Baby Dipper Bowl is available from www.babydipper.com

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Is your little girl bald. Not worry there is Baby Bangs to the rescue.

Our patent pending HAIR+band accessory combination allows baby girl's (with little or no hair at all) the opportunity to have a beautifully realistic HAIR style in a SNAP!! It's quick, easy and baby barely knows it's there. Each Baby Bangs! HAIR+band has been made using only the finest ribbons and fabrics, PLUS our Baby Bangs! come to you pre-customized & size appropriate, cut, styled and ready for immediate wear. The wispy hair strands have been arranged in the cutest most adorable elfish coiffure!.

I love this! I wish I had seen this when my little one still didn't have hair
http://www.babybangshairband.com/index2.php

Sharing a room just got a whole lot cooler.  This Tropical Surf Shack bunk bed is the perfect set up for any little surfer(s).  It comes with a thatched roof, ladder, and slide.

Tropical breeze not included.

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