How many times have you heard sad stories from around the world and wished you could do something about it? Well, some people have banded together, started their own group and made a difference.

Inspired by the State of the World's Mothers last year,people from across the country, including children, started knitting baby caps to help with infant mortality. In the past year, 20,000 people have knitted 260,000 baby caps for the Caps to the Capital project. Among those include a group of 80 third graders from a Houston-area school.

About 10,000 people also wrote letters to lawmakers asking for increased child survival funding.

This sounds like a great project for a variety of reasons. First, the kids are learning to knit, second they are becoming part of something bigger and third, realizing that they don't have to sit by when they hear of something bad happening in the world.

If you're interested in this project, you can go here to learn more.

Thanks to Ann for the tip!

Do you have one in your home? If not, is it because you heard that they are unreliable?

In December of 1994 in Chicago, a thermal inversion caused cold air to be trapped under layers of hot air, and that kept auto exhaust and other pollutants trapped close to ground. The fire department responded to 1,851 false alarms in a 24-hour period, giving the still new-to-the-market alarms a bad reputation.

Since then, the technology has improved, and a carbon monoxide alarm is just as important to have in your home as a fire alarm. Carbon monoxide is created when fuel is burned. So, your gas dryer, gas or oil furnace, water heater, fireplace, car, and gas range and oven can all be potential hazzards. It is recommended that you place one near sleeping areas, and one near appliances. At our house, the furnace is in the hall, right by both the kid bedrooms. Our detector is near the furnace and the bedrooms.

Make sure that you test your alarm and replace it according to the manufacturer's directions. Most independent reviews pick the Kiddie Nighthawk as the best performer. As a side note, my cousin works for a company who was asked to rate these devices. He says that the Kiddie came out best in their lab as well. He also says the digital displays may not be super-accurate, but that won't mean the alarm isn't registering levels properly.

***UPDATED to add:
Please see comments below for recall information on some older models of the Kiddie Nighthawk. Thanks to Blogging Baby reader Jen for the heads up.

Two of my girlfriends are due to have babies soon: one in the early spring and one any minute now, my god, how did that pregnancy go by so fast?. So today I ducked into the mall to pick up some last minute baby gifts because I am a bad friend and prone to procrastination. I shop better under pressure. I do!

Anyway, neither of my friends know the gender of their baby. I know, that's a rarity in this day and age, but they don't. I popped into Zara, where Nolan weaved in and out of racks full of filmy wrap dresses and I asked the salesgirl," Can you point me toward the unisex baby clothes?" She pointed at a shelf of sweaters with letters on them. Three sweaters. Ugly ones. No. I pried Nolan from the legs of an alarmed-looking teenager and exited the store.

I exited, and tried Old Navy. No luck: only boys or girls clothes. Huh. All I wanted was a comfy white onesie, or some soft green caps. No pink, no blue, no trucks, no dolls. Just baby.

Finally, I landed in Gymboree, which also had no specific unisex section, but did have a newborn section with a distinct lack of gender-specific clothing.

I settled on the "Under The Sea" onesie with matching blanket and hat. It featured an octopus and a soft orange colour, entirely gender neutral, very cute, and super soft. I didn't realize it was so difficult to find neutral baby clothes. One more reason that knowing the baby's sex can be so convenient.

Currently, if a teenager wants to receive gastric banding (or the lap band) in order to lose weight, she'll have to go one of the few hospitals in the country that offer the procedure.

The Food and Drug Administration has allowed three US hospitals to preform the procedure, which one doctor referred to as "the way to go." It could be a couple more years before other hospitals could also get in on the action.

In fact, one hospital that is able to preform the procedure recently opened a weight-loss surgery center for teens. According to the article, thirty percent of American teens are overweight and fifteen percent are obese.

In case you're interested in the difference between gastric bypass or lap band, click here to see the differences.

What do you feel? Is this an issue that should be between the patient/parent and doctor or should these types of surgery not be allowed?

I've always regretted not having a larger grasp of a foreign language. Sure, my Spanish skills can get me by in a really desperate situation, but I'm nowhere near fluent. My husband and I were discussing other languages recently and he said he'd learn Mandarin if given the chance.

Sounds like some British schools might have listened in on our conversation. Secondary schools in England will have more chances to teach foreign languages besides the more common French, German and Spanish. In fact, Mandarin and Urdu, the second most spoken language in the world, could be offered to students in the higher grades.

Here, in the United States, foreign languages aren't typically taught at many schools until the children are older. I'm hoping that my children will start learning a foreign language when they are younger, which will help them retain the knowledge and, hopefully, be a better global citizen.

What languages would you like for your kids to learn? If you could learn another language fluently, which one would you choose?

Here's yet another story from my home-state of Texas: School officials disciplined an elementary school teacher after she showed her fifth graders clips from the movie "Amistad."

The teacher, who has taught for 27 years, showed the movie (including parts with stabbing) to depict what life was like on a slave ship. "Amistad" is rated R, which goes against the district's rules on showing r-rated films.

What do you think? Should the teacher have shown this movie? On one hand, it is educational and gives a visual image to what really did happen to slaves on those ships. But, on the other hand, it is quite visual and rated "r." I remember being in fifth grade and watching Freddy Kruger movies at home and seeing "The Birds" in class in the sixth grade, which might have been the influence into why I hate birds so much today.

Would it anger you if your child's teacher saw that movie?

PHAT Mommy pointed her readers to a really cool online resource last week: Parentography.

Parentography is a site that allows families to review, recommend, and inquire about places to go with kids in tow. Membership is free, and once you're a member you can review your favorite (or most dreaded!) places. You don't even have to register to read reviews on restaurants, hotels, theme parks and other places you might want to know a little about before deciding to visit with the kids.

The site is pretty new, and hasn't expanded to cover places outside the US, but I did find the following encouraging news on the FAQ page:

We don't offer any coverage outside of the United States right now. It is definitely something we are interested in pursuing and hope to begin as soon as possible. If you have reviews or excursion ideas for foreign locations, write them down and save them. We'll keep you posted about when we launch any new geographic locations!

I'm going to go poke around and see if I can find out if there any parks within twenty miles of my house that have wireless.

I recently wrote about a rumor going around online that Michelle Duggar, of the "Duggar Family" fame, is pregnant. For those of you who aren't up to date on the happenings on TLC, the Duggars are a family that lives in Arkansas and has 16 children.

Michelle and her husband Jim Bob have said in the past that they viewed children as a blessing and, as long as Michelle was willing, they would have more.

I sent an email to Jim Bob Duggar, who graciously replied. Michelle is, in fact, pregnant!

"It is true, Michelle is expecting #17 July 27th, 2007," said Jim Bob in an email to Blogging Baby. What wonderful news for this family.

While not everyone may agree with their birth control practices, it is nice to see a family that really welcomes all additions. If you'd like to see more about The Duggar family, you can see some previous Blogging Baby posts here.

The CDC's report on US births has released its statistics for 2005, and there are some interesting notes. 2005 was a record year for C-sections (30.2% of all births) and unwed Mothers giving birth (up 12% from 2002.) I had a baby in 2005 and fall into both those categories, so I'm not overly surprised.

A few other interesting facts:
-- Low and preterm birth weights continue to rise
--Child death rates did not decline
--Life expectancy increased.

Click here for more facts and figures on the latest in birth, death and life trends in the United States.

I admit I get frustrated by the absurd chaos of parenting at times. When Nolan flails around, frantically yelling when I'm trying to change his stinky, sweaty diaper, I want to sink two storeys into the frozen tundra. When he runs away willfully or throws my special moisturizer down the toilet, I want to carefully pluck out all of my hairs and lay down on the floor for awhile. But I have never, ever wished physical harm on my son. And I do not understand parents who do.

A 23-year old Oregon man was arrested after he repeatedly shot his 18-month old son with a stun gun. The gun had been used on the toddler on numerous occasions over a 3 week period, until the man's wife called police to report child abuse allegations.

The man was then arrested and the little bou was treated for injuries. I hope the boy is OK, and I hope he can get past this. And I hope that man never has another child again.