Have plans for Wednesday, May 21st? Well, even if you do, if you happen to be pregnant, make sure you stop by Baskin Robbins. They're offering those expecting a new addition a taste of their own new addition--soft serve.

Now, you may say Baskin Robbins offering soft serve is pure ice cream blasphemy, but, if you're pregnant (and having a craving for ice cream, with or without the pickles) you can enjoy a free three ounce serving of the new soft serve from 11:00 AM until 10:00 PM. My advice? Locate the various Baskin Robbins stores around you and hit them all.

Unfortunately, the offer is limited to those lucky gals in California, Chicago, New York, Nashville and El Paso. if you don't happen to be located in one of those locations, you have two options:

1. Hop on the next train or plain and get yourself there to satisfy your desire for soft serve.

2. Consider that your OBGYN would probably say ice cream isn't good for you anyway.

I happen to be pregnant, located in New York, and a supreme lover of Baskin Robbins. So if you're looking for me on May 21st, you know where to find me.

That's right--she didn't get banned from the prom or kicked out of school--she was actually arrested! Marche Taylor was escorted from the prom in handcuffs after she appeared on the premises in a scantily-clad outfit that served as her prom dress. And, to answer your question, yes, you would see nipple.

It's been a long time since I've been to a prom, so I can hardly say what's acceptable and what not, but after checking out the duds I have to say it seems a little...well, too little! Marche didn't actually make it into the event, and was stopped in the lobby of the local Marriott before she was able to get into the actual prom.

Taylor was advised she'd violated school dress code. After she offered to cover up she was still denied entry into the prom. According to Taylor, her choices were few: go to jail or go home. Luckily, she wasn't charged and was eventually released.

It's sad to hear of a young woman denied the chance to attend what should be one of a teen's most memorable experiences. While prom is never the way we expect it to be, I hardly think Marche Taylor could have imagined her evening would turn out that way. I imagine the chaperones who saw her dress weren't expecting that either!

Ever get tired of eating at home or suffering through take out? Ever fantasize about going out to a nice meal that someone else cooks, someone else serves you and someone else cleans up? Ever figure out how to turn that fantasy into a reality and actually get you, your spouse and your kids out the door at a reasonable hour before things get too crowded and miraculously find yourselves seated at a table at--oh!--a restaurant?

You've finally managed to sit down and rest your aching feet, your aching back, your aching everything. You've got the kid's food and his toys and his diaper changer and your spouse has managed to put down the stroller and find a safe place for it out of the way. The server has brought the high chair. And, as you're sliding the baby down into it, you realize it's broken. The latches don't work or don't exist or whatever. You kindly ask for another one, explaining this one is broken.

The server obliges and brings you another one, which is, alas, also broken. Not only is it not safe, but it simply won't hold your son, who is more excited than ever to be in a new place with new faces and smells and ever so much excitement. He can't sit still. In fact, he won't sit at all and you have to hold him down to keep him from standing in the high chair.

My son Jared, like a lot of kids, is totally into trains. We've been to the California and Nevada state train museums in Sacramento and Carson City and have plans to visit a lot more of the rail-related attractions in Northern California. If you're anywhere near the four big train stations in the US, you might want to check out the events planned for National Train Day, this Saturday, May 10th.

There are going to be concerts, exhibits, and giveaways at Washington, DC's Union Station, New York City's Penn Station, Chicago's Union Station and Los Angeles' Union Station. The Harlem Globetrotters will perform in New York and Sara Bareilles in Washington D.C. Even if you're not near one of those stations, the official website has info to put together your own event.

The celebration takes place on the 139th anniversary of the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Point, Utah. It also serves to promote the recent success of Amtrak -- ridership grew by a million and a half to more than 25 million riders in 2007. Even if you're not near one of the big celebrations, it seems to me that this Saturday would be a good day to visit a railroad museum or take a ride on a train.

Yesterday, summer lurked in the air. It was the first day I could smell the mini daisies in bloom on lush April-rained grass, in the air I located the tinge of barbecue, summer night swims, and sea-salt crusted legs. I turned off my computer a little earlier than usual and slapped SPF four million on the pasty paleness of my son and I: we were going to walk down to the beach, inhale the promise-filled air.

We were about halfway down the rolling hill to a small ocean-front park when a dark blue station wagon almost knocked us clean off the road, halting haphazardly on his brakes at the last possible section. I don't know why, but our quiet residential street does not have sidewalks. We need to walk tight to the grass of the houses when we're going anywhere. Though traffic is light, there are a lot of blind corners, and this particular station wagon has almost knocked us over before.
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Actually, it's my former neighborhood. Apparently--and please pardon me, as there may be just a teensy little bit of bile forming in the back of my throat (and it's NOT morning sickness)--the creator of Melrose Place are considering another such type show set in, gag, Park Slope. For those of you unfamiliar with the Slope, it's in Brooklyn, New York. The people who live there think it's the bomb--the epitome of making it in, well, at least Brooklyn if not New York.

People move from Manhattan to Brooklyn, specifically, to have their babies and clog the sidewalks with their OBNOXIOUS (note, I didn't use the word annoying--it's not annoying; it is, in fact, OBNOXIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!) double-wide strollers and brag to each other and anyone else endlessly about how wonderful they are from all their righteousness and do-gooding. None of which is mixed with an ounce of altruism.

And I used to be one of them. Well, sort of. I fled to Windsor Terrace (sort of like the older cousin of the Slope whose been around the block and knows better) long before I thought about babies--my own, anyway. See, you can't live in the Slope without at least one kid. They'll scorn you otherwise. Seriously. And regardless of cost, they must have the best of everything--you will be snubbed for a simple Maclaren umbrella style stroller like the one I have when you could have shelled out $800 for whatever Euro design is hot this week. I'm basically considered a bad parent by these people because I don't have one. But mine folds up. Easily. With one hand.

Wanderlust has struck my five-year-old.

"I've never been anywhere in the world," she told me recently. "Oh wait. Except for Ohio."

It's true that since we've been parents, our travel has been limited to in-state campgrounds and beaches (except for one apparently exotic weekend in Cleveland). Our vacation budget just isn't that large, nor is the level of energy I have for traveling with small children. But we do love a summer road trip and this year we have no fewer than four planned, all of them a considerable distance away.

When the kids were babies, we planned the bulk of our driving around sleeping and eating times. If the kids were snoozing or feeding, they weren't complaining. But now that they're older, I'm discovering that it's both easier and harder to travel with them. They no longer fill their diapers only miles after leaving a rest area, nor do they need to breastfeed in the middle of a traffic jam. But they also get bored really fast, their antsy legs wanting to run and play.

In what could be seen as a karmic turn of events, an eleven-year-old boy scout returned a wallet containing $800 and then had his own returned to him. Hailing from Michigan, J.R. Bouterse, got his own wallet back after publicity arose from his kind action.

Last month Jessica Cutler lost her wallet in a church parking lot. Bouterse lost his at an Easter egg hunt, where it was found by Nancy Bosse and her granddaughter. Even though there was no ID in Bouterse's wallet, somehow Bosse managed to track him down after hearing about Bouterse.

Rather than accepting the reward collected for his good deed by the Michigan State Police, Bouterse asked that the money be used to buy pizza for his boy scout troupe. Also in attendance at the party was surprise guest Jessica Cutler, the owner of the other lost wallet.

There you are, at home in the beautiful Santa Cruz mountains, just South of San Francisco when your son, a straight-A student out for a hike in the woods, calls and tells you that he's broken his leg and isn't really sure where he is. Naturally, you'd call 9-1-1 immediately and get the search and rescue teams moving. Now imagine they find your son, only his leg is fine and the only tripping he's done involves magic mushrooms.

That's the situation Matthew Rosenberg's mother found herself in. When she got the call from her son, she immediately contacted emergency services, just as any of us would have done. The problem is, after spending between $5,000 and $10,000 to do the search, Matthew was found standing -- uninjured -- at the bottom of a ravine.

"He wasn't normal," said Capt. Bill Finch of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and part of the rescue effort. "He was like one of those guys who's been drinking a lot and starts saying, 'I love ya, man.'"

There was an episode of Leave it to Beaver where the Beaver decides to fake being sick so that he can get out of going to school. I remember the doctor (who still made house calls) telling Beaver that he shouldn't pretend to be sick because it means the doctor can's visit people who really are sick. That lesson has always stuck with me. Unfortunately, it seems Matthew missed that episode.

I don't know if it's fair to make Matthew or his parents reimburse the state for the cost of finding him, but it sure seems to me that he ought to think about doing it anyway.

This past weekend, I took the kids camping (didja miss me?). We went with five other families we'd met through Jared's preschool. All told, there were eleven adults and thirteen kids in our group. We all had adjoining or nearby campsites and shared the kitchen area and fire ring of the central-most site.

Both Jared and Sara had a grand old time running around the woods of Samuel P. Taylor State Park with their friends. They found a log bridge that crossed the stream, hid in a hollowed-out hole in a redwood tree, chased lizards and banana slugs, and generally ran themselves ragged getting in touch with nature.

Camping is a wonderful activity for families. First off, it's a cheap vacation -- we paid $20 a night for our site and that could accommodate two families. There are no fancy restaurants to splurge on, so your food costs are pretty much what they would be at home. Once you have some basic gear -- a tent, sleeping bags, a stove, and flashlights -- your costs really are minimal. And camping is a great way for families to have wonderful shared experiences.

So with that in mind, I thought I'd share some tips I've learned over the years as well as this last weekend.

Last night my husband and I stopped by the grocery store to pick up diapers and orange juice. While we were there, Sean thought we should stockpile some grains and a few other items in the basement in light of rising food prices and recent news that Costco and Sams Club were restricting purchases of rice and other grains. "Weird stuff is happening.", he warned.

The optimist that I am, I laughed and chalked up the hoarding to paranoid senior citizens and immigrants. Remember all the Y2K paranoia that amounted to nothing? We left the store with diapers, OJ, and three other impulse items.

This morning, in the Wall Street Journal, there's an article titled: "Load up the Pantry". To my chagrin, it makes a good case for Sean's advice at the grocery store. Just as $2.00 a gallon at the pump is a "rosy memory of a bygone age", recent higher food prices are here to stay and likely to go even higher.

Why? The emergence of a Chinese and Indian middle class demanding more and better food; this demand will only increase. In addition, our ethanol policy (something our politicians need to seriously deal with!) is making corn more expensive, thus increasing the price of cereals and other corn and packaged products. Now add to that rising fuel and transportation costs.

So, the article argues, if you have extra storage space, why not load up? Plus, buying in bulk has the added benefit of saving you money anyway.

What is your family doing to deal with rising food prices?

Spring is definitely in the air and you know what all that birds and bees business leads to: a mailbox overflowing with baby shower invites, that's what!

I just stumbled across an Etsy store filled with amazing cuteness at bargain prices that will make yours the shower gift people oooh, ahhh, and possible skip their birth control over.

Mia Joie offers handmade cloth baby shoes in sizes from newborn up to six months old (which larger sizes and non-slip bottoms available on request) and there is NOTHING in the world cuter than a pair of twee little shoes, with the possible exception of a pair of twee little shoes with a matching baby barrette.

Mia Joie has thought of everything, many of the shoes are made of organic material and there are even itty bitty soft sandals for the little boys. So before you buy another boring receiving blanket off a gift registry, take a little peak at what Mia Joie has to offer the ten little piggies coming soon to a friend or relative near you!

Looking for a way to educate and entertain this Earth Day? Why not take your kids on the trash trail? A trash trail tour simply follows your garbage from your kitchen garbage can to its final resting place. Visit the transfer station, the dump, or the regional waste facility where your community's garbage is stored.

It might not sound like a lot of fun for you -- who wants to spend their Saturday at the dump? But kids love to learn how things work, and the lesson that when you throw something away, it isn't "gone" is a powerful one for teaching about environmental issues. Family Education has two other tours as well, Flushed With Pride and The Power Trip.

If a trash trail isn't for you, you can still educate your kids this Earth Day. Here are 10 easy ways to teach kids to go green.

The grass is greening, the trees are budding and red and yellow tulips are popping up everywhere. It must be Spring! Along with Mother Nature's show, one of the most reliable indicators that Spring has actually sprung is the sounds of children out and about in the neighborhood again. And just in time for the warmer weather, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued their updated Public Playground Safety Handbook (pdf).

According to the CPSC, public playgrounds see more than 156,000 injuries each year requiring emergency room treatment. April 21-25 is National Playground Safety Week and the CPSC wants to remind parents, teachers, childcare personnel, school officials, playground designers and inspectors what to look for when evaluating the safety of playground equipment.

The handbook is quite technical and geared more towards those who build playgrounds than those who play on them. But for parents, the CPSC offers these tips to keep in mind to avoid injuries when hitting the playground:

• Always supervise children on play equipment to make sure they are safe.
• Purchase playground equipment that meets the latest safety standards.
• Maintain at least 9 inches of protective surfacing, including shredded/recycled rubber, wood chips, wood mulch (non-CCA treated), sand or pea gravel under and around playground equipment to cushion children from falls.
• Check that protective surfacing extends at least 6 feet in all directions from play equipment. For swings, extend protective surfacing in front and back of the swing, twice the height of the suspending bar.
• Repair sharp points or edges on equipment. Replace missing hardware and close "S" hooks that can cause injuries.
• Never attach ropes, jump ropes, clotheslines, pet leashes or cords of any kind to play equipment due to the strangulation hazard.

If this is the year you finally install your very own backyard playground, here is some inspiration.

Is traveling late in pregnancy too risky?

Last week I traveled with my husband to Washington D.C. to witness the welcoming ceremony for Pope Benedict on the White House south lawn.

Despite being less than a month away from my due date, there was no question in my mind that I was going and I immediately set about making airline and childcare arrangements.

It didn't take long, however, before friends and family started weighing in and I started to feel a little less confident in my initial decision. I could, they warned, go into labor on the plane or at the White House (not too shabby, I thought!). Delivering in another city, they insisted, would entail countless inconveniences and needless worries for our kids and loved ones back home.

While I was reassured by the fact that I delivered four times and never once before my due date, the idea of delivering without any drugs brought back some bad memories from my 2nd delivery - the time I swore that I would never deliver naturally ever again!

On the other hand, as a Catholic, this was more like a pilgrimage with great spiritual and religious significance for me. Surely God would take care of me. Right?

Besides, this was an opportunity for my husband and I to get away alone before the baby comes. As every nursing mom who hates to "pump and store" knows, our newborn will basically be attached to my body for the next year. This would be our last chance to get away alone.

The day before I left, I had an appointment with my doctor to ensure that I had not dilated. I took with me on the journey a copy of my records and a note from my doctor permitting me to travel. Sean made sure to carry luggage and to keep me hydrated and as comfortable as he could during the journey.

On the first night, we went out to dinner. During dinner I heard a familiar, yet grating laugh. As it turned out, Fran Drescher was dining nearby and almost immediately (a coincidence I'm sure), I began to experience severe abdominal pain. "Oh no." I thought, "I'm going to go into labor without seeing the Pope!"

Luckily, it was a false alarm, By the time I got to the hotel, the pain subsided. The next day, I went to the White House and thanks to my "she looks like she's going to pop any second" appearance, was granted front row seating in the handicap section. What a blessing!

In the end, it was a fantastic get-away for me and Sean and I have no regrets about taking the trip (although it took me a full day to recover from the exhaustion when I got home).

If you have had to make a travel decision in your third trimester (whether you went for it or not), share it here with other moms and moms-to-be.