MSNBC
September 29, 2009

"It seemed like such a practical and good arrangement, the kind that moms have been making with each other since the beginning of time: One woman would watch her friends’ kids while they waited for the school bus so the other women could go to their jobs.

And then the Michigan Department of Human Services stepped in to tell the Good Samaritan mother that she was facing fines and possible jail time for running an illegal day care center.

“To me, this is just a friend helping a friend, plain and simple,” Lisa Snyder said during an interview with TODAY’s Matt Lauer from her Middleville, Mich., home Tuesday."

Time
September 28, 2009

"An Indonesian woman gave birth to a 19-pound, two-ounce baby behemoth on Sept. 24, but that's only the second weirdest pregnancy tale in September. The strangest belongs to Julia Grovenburg, a 31-year-old Arkansas woman who has a double pregnancy. No, not twins — Grovenberg became pregnant twice, two weeks apart. Isn't that supposed to be impossible?

Almost. There have only been 10 recorded cases of the phenomenon, dubbed superfetation. In Grovenburg's case, she became pregnant with a girl (whom they've decided to name Jillian) and a boy (Hudson) two weeks later. The babies have separate due dates — Jillian on Dec. 24, Hudson on Jan. 10."

ABC News
September 24, 2009

"A pregnant woman in Arkansas surprised doctors twice over when she went in for a routine ultrasound this June.

Doctors successfully located Todd and Julia Grovenburg's growing baby girl Jillian, but then discovered another smaller baby -- what could be Jillian's younger brother -- growing beside her.

The Grovenburgs may have conceived their son Hudson a full two-and-a-half weeks after Jillian, according to statements given to KFSM-TV in Ft. Smith-Fayetteville, Ark.

Different from identical twins or fraternal twins, the Grovenburg babies would have separate due dates and are considered to be a rare medical occurrence."

MSNBC
September 22, 2009

"It is supposed to the happiest news a couple can get, especially a couple who have difficulty conceiving and carrying babies. The in vitro fertilization procedure had been a success: Carolyn Savage was pregnant.

And then came the horrible news: It wasn’t her baby. The fertility clinic they had used had made an all but inconceivable mistake and had implanted another couple’s embryos into Carolyn.

“They delivered the worst news of our life,” Sean Savage told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira Monday from the family’s Sylvania, Ohio, home.

The Savages were presented with two devastating choices: They could either terminate the pregnancy, something that clashed with their religious beliefs, or they could carry the fetus to term and then hand him over to his biological parents.

That moment is rapidly approaching. Carolyn is 35 weeks pregnant and within the next two weeks will deliver the baby with his genetic parents attending the birth. At that time, the Savages will give up the infant, perhaps never to see or hold him again."

The Washington Post
September 21, 2009

"Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?

Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"

The Guardian
August 18, 2009

"A Tunisian woman in her 30s is expecting 12 babies in what her family described as an amazing miracle, but doctors have warned there is only a tiny chance that any of them will survive.

The unnamed woman, an Arabic language teacher who has had two miscarriages since her marriage to a colleague in 2007, said that she was feeling fine and looking forward to hugging her six boys and six girls.

"All I want to do is to be able to hug my babies and show them all my love," she told hospital workers in the town of Gafsa, about 250 miles south of Tunis.""

New York Post
August 17, 2009

"Three sourpuss Parks Department agents put the squeeze on a 10-year-old girl in Riverside Park yesterday, slapping the tyke with a $50 ticket for hawking lemonade without a permit.

Clementine Lee, who lives just blocks from the Upper West Side park, had dreamed of opening a lemonade stand since last year and took advantage of yesterday's beautiful weather to set up shop.

"It was such a hot day I figured people would want a cold drink," the aspiring juvenile juice mogul told The Post."

CNN
August 13, 2009

"You might think childbirth would be a topic too personal, too beautiful or way too graphic to write about on Twitter.

But, as Sara Williams showed on Tuesday when she posted Twitter updates about giving birth to her child, online social networking has pushed its way into the delivery room.

It's now a trend for expectant moms to post to sites such as Twitter from the time they conceive to the moment they deliver a baby into the world.

Williams, wife of Twitter CEO Evan Williams, posted to her 14,000-plus Twitter followers when her water broke, when she arrived at the hospital, during contractions and when she decided to get an epidural. Her husband broke the news on his Twitter feed that their "perfect baby boy" was delivered on Tuesday afternoon.

As if the real-time drama of her labor wasn't enough, Sara Williams managed to spice up her Twitter feed with humor along the way."

MSNBC
July 17, 2009

"New parents may balk at naming their newborn boys such tried-and-true but yawn-inducing names as Michael or David -- but a new study shows that if they play it safe, they may be doing their babies a favor.

Writing in Social Science Quarterly, Shippensburg University professor David Kalist says giving newborn males oddball, girly or strange first names may just help land them in jail.

In alphabetical order, the Top 10 "bad boy" names, according to Kalist, are Alec, Ernest, Garland, Ivan, Kareem, Luke, Malcolm, Preston, Tyrell and Walter."

The Los Angeles Times
July 17, 2009

"It's 30 seconds before his big rodeo ride, and Julian Apodaca looks like he wants to disappear under the wide brim of his white cowboy hat.

He's staring down at his boots, tugging at his lower lip, rubbing at his teary eyes.

Julian's father, a former junior bull-riding champion, has a hand on each of his 5-year-old son's shoulders.

"It's OK, hijo," Vince Apodaca says as somebody plucks the hat off the boy's head and replaces it with a helmet. "Cowboy up, OK? I don't want no crying when you get on there."

This is the world of a little-known but beloved rodeo event where kids a couple of years out of diapers ride sheep just like the big boys ride bulls. Suburban parents put their kids in Little League. In the country, where rodeo is king, parents sign up their kids for mutton bustin'."