Blog Posts by Parenting.com

Tricks and treats! Gruesome and delicious cupcakes perfect for your next Halloween party, from Lily Vanilli's A Zombie Ate My Cupcake! Click here to get the recipes.

For instructions on how to create these costumes and more homemade inspirations, click here!

A boo-bash menu your little monsters are sure to love! Click here to get the recipe.

Moms get candid about what they're really like as parents, what they secretly think about other moms, what they miss most about life before kids, and more. Plus, more mom secrets from TODAYMoms!

By Sasha Emmons

Plus:

• The Most Ridiculous Parenting Products. Ever.

• PHOTOS: Stuff My Kids Ruined

Photo Credit: VeerGraceful ways to handle unsolicited parenting advice, even if it comes from your family

By Barbara Rowley

As a baby, my daughter Anna refused to wear her shoes or socks. Not a big deal if we lived on a sunny beach. But we live in Montana -- and she was born in late October. So the first line of the mother-daughter battlefield was drawn: I put her shoes and socks on, she worked them off. If she was lucky, she'd push them off when we were in transit and they'd be lost forever. Score: Anna 1, Mom 0.

Then one day, while we were on vacation, a stranger wandered into the crossfire. She was older, better rested, better dressed, and apparently a self-proclaimed authority on baby podiatry. She took one look at Anna in the hotel lobby and screeched, "Ooooh! Look at the tiny little baby with the cold feet!"

"They aren't cold," I said, instantly defensive. "Feel them!" I thrust my daughter's feet, dangling from my chest as she hung in her front carrier, toward the woman's

The scarcely believable stories that you're sure are made up probably aren't

Did you hear about the woman who had hiccups, day and night, for the last five months of her pregnancy? The woman even hiccuped all the way through her delivery. I know this is a true story, because that woman was me.

After suffering with hiccups for months on end, I had a beautiful, healthy baby girl. And a story to dine out on -- probably for the rest of my life. And I'm not alone: The bizarre and the unbelievable are part and parcel of many women's pregnancies. And as unique as some of these tales may sound, the medical facts underlying their specifics are usually applicable to all pregnant women.

Plus:

The Best Age To Get Pregnant

In the case of my hiccups, doctors came to believe that they were the result of normal pregnancy hormones run just slightly amok. These hormones, which work to relax muscles and ligaments all over the body to help

By Shawn Bean

Earlier today I read one of Parenting's blogs about the new breed of playground. Forget about tall monkey bars, seesaws and tire swings. Those are now relics, rendered impotent by federal guidelines and lawsuits. The new ones are really, really safe. No one falls. No one gets hurt. No one has a wide-eyed "whoa!" moment after reaching the jungle gym's apex.

Let's take a tour of a family household near that playground, shall we? In the living room, there is an entertainment center with an empty, square-shaped space in the middle. Open the fridge, and you won't see Coke, Capri Sun, chocolate milk, pizza, white bread or cupcakes. In the playroom, you won't find toys with small parts or sharp edges. The medicine cabinet in the bathroom holds no medicine - no cough suppressant, no antibiotics, no children's Tylenol. There are no bunk beds in the kids' bedrooms, only organic mattresses flanked by child-safe bed rails. Outside, an eight-foot fence surrounds the property.

Read one mom's take on how gay parenting is becoming a part of America's social fabric. Plus, could your child be gay?

By Patty Onderko

My 3-year-old twin boys and I are camped out on the terminal floor at the Denver airport, halfway through a five-hour flight delay and surrounded by plastic planes, action figures, and lollipop wrappers. Soon another set of young boys is lured to our sticky little campsite by the tinny, baritone catchphrases coming from a Buzz Lightyear toy.

"Twins?" their mom asks, after the four boys negotiate the rules of engagement (the newbies could play with Buzz but not Spidey). "Mine, too," she confirms. With common ground established, we begin sharing the complaints of our kind ("I have to buy two of everything!"). As our kids play superheroes, I'm introduced to her husband, who shares the same strong Boston accent of his wife. We're all chatting amiably when my wife, Emily, returns from checking on our flight status. "You guys sisters?" the mom asks.