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About those sexy Halloween costumes for Tweens…

Posted on October 9, 2014

Bellyitch Rewind

A questionably age-inappropriate costume for tween girls

My fellow Washington Times Communities columnist, Rebekah Kuschmider, had a thing or two to say about the trend of sexy Halloween costumes for tween girls on her “So Here’s the Thing” blog recently:

So here’s the thing: kids aren’t sexy.

We’re nearing the peak of the Halloween revelry and little kids everywhere are strutting their stuff in costumes. My son is dressing as an astronaut. Because I suck at all things crafty, I got his costume at one of those temporary Halloween stores that spring up like orange toadstools on Rockville Pike every fall.

The costume is surprisingly awesome and comes complete with a NASA badge on it. (It did not come with a helmet but Amazon remedied that!) When my little boy appeared at Boo at the Zoo in his astronaut gear, complete with his snow boots to simulate space boots, he got lots of positive attention from other Zoo Booers.

A three-year old being an astronaut is cute, age-appropriate, consistent with my son’s current set of life-goals and non-commercial. Not that I would have minded much if he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, but it was nice to escape the bonds of Disney and pay homage to real astronauts instead of the Space Rangers. And it was REALLY nice that nothing in the boys aisle of that costume superstore would have looked at home on a stripper pole.

Sure, the girl’s section had the requisite witches, princesses, and superheroes but there were also “flirty” costumes which were just tweened-down versions of the “sexy” genre so popular among women who are old enough to make informed choices. I don’t know about you, but putting a ten-year-old in a “flirty” cop’s outfit doesn’t make me want to smile with pride that this child aspires to be a law enforcement office. It makes me cringe that her parents are sending out of the house dressed like the entertainment for a bachelor party.

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Princess Charlene of Monaco confirms she is having twins

Posted on October 9, 2014

Princess Charlene of Monacao announced that she and Prince Albert are expecting twins later this year.

The former South African Olympic swimmer will birth the first set of heirs to the throne from Prince Albert.

He has two adult children, 22-year-old daughter Jazmin Grace Grimaldi and 11-year-old son Alexander Coste, but because each were each born out of wedlock, they do not qualify in the royal lineage.

The couple married in 2011 and Princess Charlene has long said she wanted children of her own but that it was “in God’s hands,” she told Vanity Fair.

Prince Albert is the eldest son of Princess Grace.

Congrats!

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25 Fall Inspiration Looks for Moministas

Posted on October 9, 2014

It’s been a while since I shared my fave outfits assembled by the personal styling and shopping concierge service Prep 101 which operates and books clients from its Facebook page of over 300,000 fans!

For busy moms who like to stay stylish, these style palettes may provide some inspiration for outfits to assemble for weekend, an outdoor outing, or any event.

Here are my fave late Summer, early Fall picks from its daily release of outfits that is shares daily:

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Kelly Rowland bares nude bump for Elle photo shoot

Posted on October 8, 2014

Mom-to-be Kelly Rowland goes bare in her photo shoot for her new Elle.com piece.

The gorgeous singer and former Destiny’s Child group member opens up in the cover piece to the spread. In it, she explains how perplexed she is that people give celebrity women flak for posing nude while pregnant.

“I don’t know why they would get flack. It’s really—I won’t say amazing—it’s Godmazing [laughs] watching your body carry a human,” she said, adding: “I took a birthing class and I was amazed by all the things this woman was saying to me about birthing and what the body does naturally. Why wouldn’t you want to celebrate that? The body should be celebrated.”

The first-time mom-to-be with her husband Tim Witherspoon says she is excited to meet her son.

“I can’t wait until he gets here,” she tells Elle.com “I just have a couple more weeks. I’m excited to bring a child into the world, and sharing that experience with my husband is probably the most beautiful part.”

She also expresses how staying fit, but modifying moves with her trainer Jeanette Jenkins, was important to her.

“I would tell my trainer ‘this move doesn’t feel right,t and we’d modify it,” the “Motivation” singer said.

“I still walk two miles everyday…I still work out. It’s important to me.”

On how she would balance life in the spotlight with a child, Rowland says she plans to play it by ear.

Good call!

Check out the gorgeous pics.

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10 Photos of Kids Risking their Lives to get to School

Posted on October 8, 2014

This morning, my 12-year old was complaining about having to transfer his stuff and walk from my SUV to my husbands Sedan after we made a last minute switch on who would drive the kids to school.

My husband recalled seeing some of AmusingPlanet.com photos of children traversing some very dangerous terrain and conditions to get to school, and quickly pulled it up on his smartphone to remind our tween of how good he has it!

Here are a few to show your kids when and if they ever pitch a fit about walking a few feet or taking a bus to get to school. Click HERE to get the back story to each image.

You’re welcome!

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Celebrity Pumpkin Patch Tradition

Posted on October 8, 2014

Every year, celebrity parents, just like everyday parents take their children to the farm and the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins to decorate and carve into jack-o-lanterns. It’s a time honored tradition that is a fun activity for all families. This year and the last celeb parnents like Christina Milian, Olivier Martinez, Diddy, Pete Wentz, Heidi Klum and Denise Richards (above in collage) treat their little ones to a trip to the patch.

In many schools, a typical field trip is also to a local farm for a hayride, meander through a corn maze, feed farm animals and pick pumpkins. It’s a fun time!

How about you? Do you go to the pumpkin patch or the farm every year?

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What the lesbian with the accidental biracial baby lawsuit REALLY says about race in America

Posted on October 7, 2014

For the second time in recent years, a sperm bank accidentally gave a white lesbian couple sperm from a black man instead of a white one they requested.

In each case, both ironically happening in 2012, the mistake was not discovered until the baby was born.

In the UK, a couple sued the largest London sperm bank for accidentally using sperm from a black man.

Ironically, that same year, an Ohio woman, Jennifer Cramblett and her partner Amanda Zinkon welcomed a gorgeous bi-racial daughter, Payton, who Cramblett birthed. Only thing, there too, the bank did not inseminate the white male subject the couple had carefully selected.

According to Cramblett’s suit, the bank uses handwritten notes that are susceptible to misreading.

The suit alleges that although they love Payton, it will be too challenging to raise her in an all-whte union town that is intolerant and prejudiced against African Americans.

Court papers also point out that Cramblett never knew any African-Americans until she went to college.

“Because of this background and upbringing, Jennifer acknowledges her limited cultural competency relative to African-Americans and steep learning curve, particularly in small, homogenous Uniontown, which she regards as too racially intolerant,” the suit states.

I agree with those who say that Cramblett has a right to receive some sort of redress because she and her partner did not sign up to have to deal with all the crap that biracial and other people of color, including white parents to bi-racial kids have to endure.

Think about what she is asking the court to rule on.

If the court were to decide in her favor, in its reasoning, it would have to find that prejudice, bias and racial discrimination do make life in America tougher for people of color.

In that decision, we would also have a court or jury essentially recognizing that life as a Caucasian in America is without the same level of hardship and that there is a certain level of skin privilege that all enjoy, irrespective of where they fall on the socioeconomic wealth line.

It just sucks way more to not be white, a court would have to rule.

In the UK case, one half of the lesbian couple is infamously quoted as saying, “All we wanted was a family. Instead, we were landed with a nightmare that will last forever.”

Some people assumed she was talking about the child, but not really. The nightmare she was referring to then was having to go through life exposed to and stressed out over the various injustices colored Brits endure. Who wants that hassle? (sarcasm)

Back to the Ohio case.

Finally, Cramblett is also asking the court to rule that the white people who live in her community are prejudiced and racist, generally, as a whole. There is no room (or time) for a court to interview her entire town to make that determination on an individual basis, so a court would just take Cramblett’s word for it and determine that small predominantly white rural towns are anti-black and anti-biracial people.

I think of all the people I’ve seen defending this latest couple in the comment section on this story and wonder if they really agree with her on that last point — the one where she is saying that generally, small town white Americans who have never been in contact with people of color in all their lives implicitly can not look at them as their equals and will default to being racist and prejudiced?

Now don’t you think that’s messed up?

photo: compliments NBC

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Study: Drinking water contaminant increases pregnancy complications

Posted on October 7, 2014

A common drinking water contaminant increases the risk of some types of pregnancy complications, a new study suggests.

“Our results suggest that prenatal PCE exposure is not associated with all obstetric complications, but may increase the risk of certain ones, including stillbirth and placental abruption [when the placenta separates from the wall of the uterus],” the Boston University Medical Center researchers said in a university news release.

The team looked at the effects of the chemical tetrachloroethylene (PCE) among pregnant women in Cape Cod, Mass., where water was contaminated with PCE in the late 1960s to early 1980s due to vinyl-lined asbestos cement pipes.

The study included nearly 1,100 pregnancies among women with high exposure to PCE and about 1,000 pregnancies among women with no exposure to the chemical.

Pregnant women with high PCE exposure were more than twice as likely to have a stillbirth and 1.35 times more likely to have placental abruption than those who weren’t exposed to PCE. Those with high PCE exposure were also at increased risk for vaginal bleeding.

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Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are expecting their first child

Posted on October 7, 2014

Actress Blake Lively and her husband actor Ryan Reynolds are expecting their first child together according to a photo the star posted on her website, Preserve.

In the silhouette photo, Lively is seen cradling a bump. The image is part of a post titled, “falling for family.”

The couple married in 2012. This would be the first child for both.

Congratulations!

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Search for Fall/Pumpkin Festival this Fall to Go To

Posted on October 7, 2014

October is a month many families take their kiddies to the pumpkin patch or to harvest festivals to enjoy a hay ride, feed some farm animals and pick pumpkins to take home and carve. While at farms, many families get to pick up some home made jams, fresh produce and other local harvest treats.

If you are looking for a festival in your region, here is a website that lets you input your location and will give you a pretty generous listing of area festivals. FESTIVALS.COM.

Have Fun!

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