Babycenter.com unveiled their influential list of top baby names for 2012, and the top ten list looks a lot like last year's, with Aiden and Emma rounding out the top.

Babycenter drew some conclusions about the list from pop culture, which are unproven but could be right. Why else would the name Grey move up a few spots if not for 50 Shades of Grey? I guess if you consider your child as part of the 50 Shades baby boom, you would name your baby after the book? And then would you also buy the T-shirt?

Chaos is a little more chaotic than usual, as I am dealing with a bad back (translation: getting older). Since I am under strict orders not to sit and type, I have roped in some friends to help me over the next week while I recover.

Today's guest post is from my friend Sharon DeVellis, you may know her from her funny and poignant writing at the Yummy Mummy Club, or from her own personal site: Speed Skating Mom, where she writes about her own transition from couch potato to speed skater and challenges others to try new things. (Maybe she can teach me to skate after I recover?) Her post is about the disconnect between your motherhood fantasies and the reality that can sometimes be sweeter because of the struggle. And it has coloured icing in it.

The rise of video is making life a lot more visual -- and humiliating for those of us who aren't whizzes with cameras or editing software.

This birth announcement had Hoda and Kathie-Lee going crazy on the Today Show. Judge for yourself. Is this too adorable for words? Or just too much?

It's present buying time which means many, many hours spent wandering around stores with your credit card burning a hole in your pocket - especially if there is a new baby on your list.

Sometimes the fatigue can lead to you to some bad choices, but don't worry, the online world has you covered!

There is the usual lists of best toys for babies. All good ideas.

But then there is this:

Why has the Mayim Bialik divorce story been getting so much media coverage? A former child star, and current supporting actress is divorcing her husband of nine years. Isn't she just one of many?

Seems to me that the interest stems not from the divorce, but from the idea that the divorce may have had something to do with the whole family sleeping in the same bed, or that Mayim nursed her boys beyond the age of two.

Five teens in Brampton, Ontario were suspended for tweeting allegedly disparaging remarks about their science teacher.

The tweets were sent on their private time and off of school property. When the Catholic school heard about the tweets, nine girls received varying levels of punishment with five of them being suspended. (The tweets were between friends, which makes them less public to the entire world but visible to anyone who followed both sides of the conversation.)

The principal said that she hopes everyone learned a lesson from this incident.

Could there be a worse idea than putting a bunch of hormonal, insecure, gawky 12- and 13-year-olds together in one building and expect them to learn something?

As it turns out, no.

The scene is straight from a TV writer's playbook: A pregnant woman is racing to the hospital early when she is stopped for speeding and gives her birth at the side ofthe road. But this wasn't on TV, this happened in Eastern Ontario last weekend.The police officer thought he was going to give her a ticket but instead he had to help her deliver the baby at the side of the road. 

My kids listen to hip-hop, rap and top ten music. And listening to that kind of current music comes at a price. They hear and see things that are not part of our family's values and may not be appropriate for their age. (Note: it is not a free-for-all.)

But part of allowing the kids to listen to current music is making sure that we talk about what they see and hear and the "teachable moments" come fast and furious. We were watching the American Music Awards last Sunday night when Pink's amazing and troubling performance came on. My second-grade daughter asked me: "why are they hitting each other and then in love?"

Tough question on many levels.

Last week I saw a Facebook update on my page that made me smile: a toddler nursing while holding a piece a bacon. The update from The Feminist Breeder read: