First came Wii Sports and about fifteen minutes late, the first reports of damage from Wiimotes flying out of gamers hands in the heat of competition or because the safety strap broke. (If your Wii was purchased before December 31st, 2006, contact Nintendo for a free strap replacement kit.) According to the blog Wii Damage, a site dedicated to damaged inflicted by the Wii, the most common target for the Wiimote is a television screen.

With the release of Wii Fit, there's a new danger to household objects, and it's not due to Wiimote projectiles. According to The Daily Telegraph, who polled 1,000 women in the U.K., 20% of the respondents reported having accidents such as tripping over pets, banging their heads, and knocking over household objects (such as lamps) while exercising with Wii Fit.

While Nintendo took action to correct the weak strap issue, there's not a whole lot the company can do for people who don't use common sense and heed the repeated warnings to make sure users of the system have plenty of room to move around before using the games. Be careful out there, folks!

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Every now and then, my husband sees a little pig-tailed cutie holding someone's hand and sighs and says, "You never gave me a daughter." He's kidding, of course, but wondering what raising a child of the opposite sex would be like is a fact of life for families blessed with kids of the same sex.

However, for 77 year-old Charan Singh Panwar of India, not having a son weighed on him so heavily, he mortgaged his land, sold his buffaloes, spent his life savings and took out a credit card loan to finance fertility treatments so his seventy-year-old wife could bear him a male heir.

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Happy 4th of July! Welcome to the one holiday nearly as fun for kids as Christmas, only with fewer financial obligations for parents but with the painful twist of the grand finale (fireworks!) at the very end of the day instead of first thing in the morning.

If you aren't the lucky owner of a cottage or waterfront property (or related to someone who is) it can be really tempting to let the kids plop in front of the television while you work on marinading the steak and prepping the potato salad for a cookout.

However, with just a few craft materials you probably already have lying around and some easy instructions, you can quickly throw together a last minute 4th of July Kid Parade that will be the talk of........well, everyone who was actually around on the 4th! (And if you keep the neighbor kids occupied for a few hours, their parents might even invite yours over to burn some daylight out of gratitude!)

If you spent your life shunning fruits and vegetables, you might want to seriously reassess that stance on healthy foods before becoming pregnant. According to British researchers, a mother's diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding directly affects the child's risk of obesity, elevated cholesterol, and blood sugar levels for the rest of their life.

In the study, researchers fed one group of rats a diet of donuts, muffins, cookies, chips and sweets while they were pregnant and nursing their young. Another group was fed a regular, healthy diet. When comparing the two groups, researchers found the babies from the junk food momma rats had higher levels of cholesterol, triglycerides,glucose, and insulin and were fatter through adolescence and adulthood that the rats born of mothers who ate healthily.

And while it's true that rats aren't human (although some humans can be rats!) according to Neil Stickland, the study's co-author, "Humans share a number of fundamental biological systems with rats, so there is good reason to assume the effects we see in rats may be repeated in humans. Our research certainly tallies with epidemiological studies linking children's weight to that of their parents."

Does this mean pregnant woman stress over a couple chocolate chip cookies and an occasional hamburger? Of course not! But knowing the constant craving for deep fried Snickers bars isn't exactly doing the wee one any favors might be the push needed to choose a juicy orange or calcium-building serving of yogurt instead.

I've never been much of a fan of reality TV. Putting ordinary people (who are always prettier or meaner or whinier than anyone person I've ever met) in weird circumstances to show what happens just isn't entertaining to me. I've got kids, I deal with weird circumstances ALL DAY LONG!

Apparently, I'm not the only one who isn't crazy about at least one reality TV show. The Washington D.C. based nonprofit group Zero to Three is upset with the new NBC television series "Baby Borrowers". The group's spokesperson told Page Six, "We're concerned about the fact that these babies are being separated from their parents and placed with strangers. On the first episode, the babies were separated for about 12 hours and were clearly in distress. Typically they will cry and cling and search for their parents, which they were doing. They should be with someone they've had the opportunity to get to know."

I'm all for educating teens on child care getting rid of the notion that parenting is one big ball of baby powdery fun, but there ARE better ways than dumping a baby off with complete strangers for a television show. Working at a childcare center, volunteering at a church nursery or preschool, or even babysitting are all good ways to get a small idea of what life as a parent is like.

There is no way I'd ever, ever, ever have agreed to let my babies be on a television show like this, even with a nanny stationed nearby in case she's needed. What exactly is going on with our society that makes babies fair game for a reality series, anyway?

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One of the best things about Halloween is the assortment of candy bars the little goblins bring home. I consider it repayment for my costuming efforts as there is always WAY too many for tender tummies to handle, so I help reduce the inventory levels of chocolate covered goodness from the communal treat bowl. ( And, you know, to save the little scamps from cavities. I eat because I love!)

Because of this yearly crash course in chocolatery, I fancied myself somewhat of an expert on the various candy bar brands available until I took this quiz asking you to identify cross-sectioned chocolate bars. Even with multiple choice answers available, I scored a dismal 14 out of 20 which shocked me. Obviously, I need to do more research treat myself a little more often than just Halloween and build up a better understanding of chocolate and caramel and nougat!

Test your candy bar knowledge against your kids and see who is candy king in your house! It's trickier than you'd think!

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Don't rely on just your memory to keep track of when to reapply kids' sunscreen.

The perpetrators of the horrifying and and heartbreaking case of Baby Grace discovered to be the blonde toddler's own mother and stepfather a mere seven months ago, are in the headlines again.

Kimberly Trenor, 19, just gave birth to a baby boy fathered by Royce Zeigler II, 25, the same man accused of helping beat her 2-year-old daughter Riley Ann (dubbed "baby Grace" by investigators before the body was identified) to death.

The infant was taken into the custody of Child Protective Services immediately after he was born and Trenor was returned to jail. In spite of both parents initially agreeing to give up their parental rights, Zeigler changed his mind and now wants his parents to raise the child. CPS was in the process of placing the newborn child with some of Trenor's relatives but now the courts will have to decide who will raise the baby boy born into such unfortunate circumstances.

It's hard not to feel sympathy for the members of the extended family. Not only did they lose a darling little girl due to the horrific actions of their own flesh and blood, they might also be denied the right to see this little boy as he grows up.

I'm sure glad I'm not a judge.

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"Things are different today,"
I hear ev'ry mother say
Cooking fresh food for a husband's just a drag
So she buys an instant cake and she burns her frozen steak
And goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And two help her on her way, get her through her busy day.

-The Rolling Stones "Mother's Little Helper"

Between the proliferation of kid activities, the increased expectation of parental involvement, and the demands of work AND home, today's mothers are being pulled in more directions than ever before. How are modern mommas getting more hours in their day? It's not a pill like the Rolling Stones sang about.

A study by The National Sleep Foundation found that 65% of mothers regularly drink caffeinated beverages to make it through their day. And we're not talking just a cup or two, Sarah Kripal, mother of two from Lincoln, Nebraska admitted, "I need about four energy drinks, three cups of coffee and a six-pack of soda every day." Lindy Smith, a mom of three says, "I usually drink two to three pots of coffee a day. I am sure this is not good for me, but how do you keep up?"

In spite of research that coffee can reduce inflammation and decrease blood sugar levels, caffeine can trigger migraines, heartburn, gastrointestinal problems and put women at an increased risk of miscarriage. And unlike the original Mother's Little Helper, liquid energy requires no prescription is readily available in various sweetened and foamy forms (vanilla lattes are my weakness!) in nearly every city in the nation, making it easy for busy moms to grab a delicious cup of jet-fuel whenever energy levels sag.

No doubt about it, caffeine is a hard habit to break and current lifestyles make it hard to imagine why we'd even try giving up the one thing that helps us squeeze more hours into a day.

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Spontaneous dancing is one of those childhood traits that you can easily take for granted and miss desperately when kids start getting self-conscious. Matt Harding has become an unlikely internet celebrity through amazingly touching videos of himself doing his signature (and endearing) primitive dance move all over the world.

I'm not sure whether it's the childlike quality displayed by Harding,or getting even a split-second glimpse at some of the amazing places all over or the world, or the reminder that anything is possible that makes me cry when I watch it, but I do.

Share it with your kids, it's a great reminder that you can a friend to dance with (even a whale!) no matter where you are.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.