Blog Posts by Charlene Prince Birkeland, Shine staff

The National Toxicology Program, a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to re-consider their position that a chemical common in plastic baby bottles and toys is safe.

According to research by the National Toxicology Program, bisphenol A, or BPA, could be linked to early puberty in girls and prostrate and breast cancer.

We've already heard that BPA is dangerous for kids and adults. Studies have been done, reports have been read.

So what's taking the FDA so long to change their position? I have visions in my head of that movie, The Insider.

While we wait (again) for final word from th government on the FDA, you can check out glass baby bottles from Evenflo and the the Adiri Natural Nurser Ultimate Baby Bottle...some cool alternatives to plastic bottles.

Photo Credit: CraftzineYou know those little labels or stamps with your kid's name that attach to jackets, bags or anything else that can be lost at school (or daycare or camp)? They're usually sweet or simple, right?

But ABC buttons? Cute to the nines.

Craftzine says some nine-hole buttons and, bright thread and a little initial-imagination all you need to create crafty label genius. No expert sewing skills necessary, just the ability to, well, sew a button. Takes less than five minutes total, even for an inexperienced needle and thread gal like me.

I am not suggesting for a second that you sew buttons with initials on every article of your child's clothing, no-sir-e-mama. That type of crazy-making is best reserved for expecting mamas in their nesting stage (I speak from experience...I sewed an entire quilt border the day before my second baby was born.)

ABC Buttons would be cute on those special clothing items that might benefit from a little extra love, like that jacket your son won't wear because it's

What is it about having kids that makes parents turn into experts in taking creative license with lies? Brilliant lies that have our unsuspecting kidlings mesmerized upon hearing these words fall from our lips...

"If you are very very quiet you can hear the clouds rub against the sky."

"Trees talk to each other at night."

"We are all held together by invisible threads."

All lies Heading East blogger and dad Raul Guiterrez said to his 3-year-old son. My personal favorite is "Sadness can be eaten." I'll probably use it within the next 24 hours with one of my sons.

I've also told a few lies of my own. Though not nearly as poetic as those of Raul G., they serve their purposes:

"The mayor doesn't let monsters live in our town." (The bedtime lie.)

"Milk is really sugar for your bones." (The please-drink-your-milk lie.)

"I always listen to you. You just weren't speaking loud enough." (The child-white-noise lie.)

"Do I need to call God?" (The Catholic Guilt lie.)

What lies have you

Once my son turned into a monkey-bar expert, wearing sandals at the park were off limits. He fell from the bars and ripped the skin on his cute toes. Adios open-toe shoes, hello Keens canvas sneakers (he wears the blue ones but I dig the hot pink).

Why no Croc love? Because the woodchips at the park creep in and leave little slivers that you can never remove because God forbid your child sit still and actually allow you to pull a tiny piece of wood from his foot (bitter much?).

Back to the Keens ($US44). Dig them. Love them. Let your kids wear them. And enjoy some good times while those little piggies stay nice and safe in enclosed shoes.

A 13-year-old boy purposely broke a vacuum to try to get out of his chores. Turns out he found playing XBox 360 and watching porn on the his computer to be a little more interesting.

Breaking the vacuum pissed his mom, Beth, off. But then she found out about the porn by looking through his browser's cookies. And I must say, I admire her three-prong punishment approach. She password protected the computer so he can't log on and put a photo of Snoopy on his MySpace page (which he now can't even log on to at home now.

But the coup de grace? Beth put her son's XBox 360 on eBay (buy it now!) so he could replace the broken vacuum. She wrote:

"...this is something that hasbeen three weeks coming, he has had numerous changes to get a better attitude...but when I found the porn on his computer that was it...so here we are: Let's bid."

She also told tech blog Gizmodo that she's a single mom and can't let her kids walk all over her or she" might never get up."

Beth, you rock. He deserves the

There's no such thing as a "mom bag" but there is very much something called "a bag that is perfect for moms." It's not a purse, either. It's a multi-purpose tote that can roll with the punches. It can hold sand toys, swim gear, library books, groceries. It needs to be cheap and washable because it's going to get dirty -- and even filthy dirty -- at times.

We moms, when we spy them, we track them down and spread the word. Mostly because we're looking for something to replace our tired, red Trader Joe's reusable bags.

So a fellow T-ball mom walked into the ballpark, (okay, fine, local elementary school field) toting a very sporty, very bright and very funkadelic tote bag. Within minutes, the rest of the team moms were chatting her up to find out about this mystery bag. I do not joke. I even came home with the sticky label from the bottom of the bag so I could share.

Turns out the tote in question is just that..."The Bag" from Mixed Bag Designs. It's is recyclable (score!), a very

In a recent "trend piece", Pretty Babies, from Philadelphia Magazine, writer Carrie Denny interviews an aesthetician who talks about one of her clients: an eight-year-old girl. After having her an "age-appropriate" eyebrow wax, the girl was to have a bikini wax. Only she was a pre-pubescent eight and had...nothing to wax.

And then there's the story about the mom who had her tween get a full...Brazilian wax.

I'm completely fascinated with this topic of tweens and waxing at the spa. For one, why? Let's be real: it hurts. It hurts real bad. Two, why would a mom allow her tween getting a bikini wax when it probably hurts a thousand times worse when the wax has nothing to pull out but bare skin (The light! don't look at the light!). And three, why would a spa even agree to perform a bikini wax on a 'tween? More questions: Do 10-year-old girls really chat about waxing? Where are they learning about Brazilian waxes? Why would they want one? And is it really a trend?

As Mark Morford at the

I've talked to many moms who aren't keen to get all craftalicious with their children because one, the kids get their art fix at school and two, they don't dig the clean up effort. I get it because it does bite to clean up paint splatters and bits of paper tossed everywhere.

If there ever were a week to call a truce with getting crafty, it's this one: Week of the Young Child. One full week to embrace your inner preschool-teacher-ness and have some fun letting your kids know how much they rock with cool projects and field trips.

Today, it's all about the crafts. If you need some simple, easy ideas for crafts for kids, I point you to my most favorite site ever: Kids Craft Weekly. I dare you to not be hooked on this site. Not only are the weekly newsletters free, the photos are adorable and the actual craft projects are ridiculously simple yet pack a punch of fun. The site currently has 48 newsletters available for you to peruse for your projects and they cover seasonal crafts along