I was lucky enough to be at the bedside for the birth of a friend of mine's son. It was the most amazing, beautiful, disgusting thing I have ever witnessed.

Pregnant with my second child at the time, it did help me visualize the birthing process which was still a mystery to me after my labour-less C-section at 37 weeks the first time around. I wanted to return the favour and have friends at my bedside but my husband overruled - fearing issues both medical and emotional.

For many pregnant moms, the idea of having someone watch the birth is abhorrent, but others, like my friend, have a "more the merrier" attitude. But this Ottawa mom is going further than inviting a few pals over. She is live-streaming her birth for those who sign up at her website.

I have just returned from volunteering with Scientist in the Schools, in my son's grade three classroom.

I'm not sure that one day a term is really a way to make kids excited about science, though the leader assured me that as long  as the teacher continues with the themes, the kids learn scientific concepts throughout the term.

Well, that's a big if in a French Immersion classroom with a lot of kids, chaos, and other curriculum necessities on the list. I'm not so sure that kids are learning too much science in elementary schools. So science concepts sort of all into the we do at home bag. One thing that a primary teacher once told me is that the kids who bake with their parents regularly are farther ahead in math and science when they arrive at primary school.

I have three children - three different, amazing, lovable children. And they deserve to be loved equally. But this article in Time tells me that is an impossible goal. All parents have favourites - whether they express it or even know it.

Six months ago, I did a post about a mom blogger who wrote about favouring her younger child. It wasn't just about favouring her younger child, she didn't much like her eldest kid. The post elicited a lot of comments from people who grew up with favouritism themselves; those stories were so full of anguish and sadness. I think anyone reading them swore to do better.

My kids don't play hockey in fact, they can hardly skate, so the whole concussion discussion goes on around me without me having a stake in it. But I do hear the fear in moms' voices when they talk of their kids (especially their boys) getting older. The risks they take and are encouraged to take on the ice is scary.

And they wonder if it is worth it.

There are lots of risk factors when trying to conceive with IVF (in-vitro fertilization) and one of the big ones is weight, the other is age.

Wanna-be mothers can't do anything about their age, but they can perhaps do something about their weight. Doctors in Canada are discussing banning obese women from receiving IVF.

I don't know how you do it. I get told that often by moms of only children or people with no kids. I don't know how you do it is what I often tell moms of four kids or more or who work full-time and still manage to coach the soccer team and write thank-you notes.

I don't know how any of us do it.

Curtis is going on a diet. The breast milk diet. He is going to exist on nothing but breast milk for as long as he can.

He is currently on day three and is documenting it all on a blog called: Don't have a cow, man! He and his wife Katie have a 9-month-old and Katie stored up an entire freezer worth of milk for her premature baby. The banked milk won't be needed by the baby and instead of throwing it out, they thought they would publicize the health benefits of breast milk by doing this publicity stunt.

Update: The Don't Have a Cow blog has been removed which makes me wonder was it a prank? Or could the couple not handle the media attention? We may never know. 

Helicopter parents are getting blamed for everything these days. First they are stunting their kids emotionally, and now they are making their kids clumsy and fat.

Researchers were studying playground design by observing how kids interact with the equipment, and the one thing they noticed was that the parents kept getting in the way. The researchers realized over the seven-week study that whenever the parents were around, kids were only half as likely to engage in active behaviour.

Is weight one of the taboo topics along with drugs and sex? Are we too afraid to discuss weight with our kids?

Yup. I would even go a step farther and say that I am more comfortable discussing sex than weight with most people, including my kids.

I am but I didn't realize that until I started watching this video (below). But it's true, talking about weight with your kids is so laden with concern of triggering an eating disorder that we avoid it or we panic.

A study released last week proves what many had suspected: when a man becomes a father his testosterone drops - substantially.

The researchers measured testosterone levels in 624 men when their levels were high and what they found is that five years after parenthood the levels dropped as much as 34% in the men. The steepest drops were in the men who spent the most time caring for and hanging out with their kids.