Paper Doll [Babble]

Kirby, Your Enthusiasm [Ask Alternadad]

• A."Of course, in Hollywood, "hanging your boob out of your clothing for all to see" is just fine, as long as there is no baby to feed. You see more boob at the Oscars than when most mothers breastfeed."
  
• B."I think breastfeeding in public is just fine as long as it is done modestly. Just hanging your boob out of your clothing for all to see is a bit tacky. Isn't that why they make such cute covers now so moms can nurse in public stylishly?"

• If your answer is B, then congrats, you are a big jerk and also the worst kind of tool of capitalism. Of course, for the scant few of you who are looking at this as less of a femiladyist issue and more of a picture of a movie star's tit, here is a fetish site for you, now please go there and leave us alone. I am mostly just talking to the person who is always emailing us about posting rackier pix of the 'Toos. Emily

  Maggie Gyllenhaal Nurses In Public [Babble]
  Image via Celebrity Baby Blog

Instead! "As a European, I would like to compare it to an Audi — because I personally prefer that brand. I wouldn't compare it to a tank either." Why? Exactly how big are the sidewalks in Dutch-land anyway?

Parenting blog Babble readers who commented on the article seem mostly happy that someone is finally standing up for their ostentatious prams: "I credit the stroller for my weight loss, and I love that I could gaze down at my new, sleeping babe during our walks," says VancouverMama. A lone dissenter, um, dissents: "Yes, it is beautiful, but my mentality is buy a GOOD quality, middle-of-the-line of the stroller so that you have more money to waste on buying designer clothing for your kids." Babble is really the most aptly named website in the entire internet, isn't it? — Emily

Five Minute Time Out: Max Barenbrug [Babble]

When I think about breasts—and as a DD-endowed editor of sex and parenting magazines currently breast-feeding a baby, that's quite often—I think about 'lactivist' organizations like La Leche League, dopey enterprises like 'Girls Gone Wild,' sublime celebrities like Dolly Parton and the blog-traffic-boosting potential of the red-carpet 'nip slip.'

Earlier: Is 'Stacked' Author Susan Seligson Padding Her, Uh, Resum

Parents Babble: The Human Face of Hipster Parenting [Babble]

Waiting Online [Babble]

When my son was a few months old and my dear, dear friend Anastasia was at the end of her pregnancy, she turned to me one day and said, "I have a request."

"Anything," I said. After all, she had come over two or three times a week since my baby was born to help me as I finished a book. She'd done everything from returning phone calls to burping the baby to vacuuming. When she tipped over in the course of trying to rock my son, Skuli, she bonked her head rather than drop him, prompting me to wonder if it was fair to relegate administrative tasks and baby-care to a woman who was nine months pregnant.

"I want us to nurse each other's babies," Anastasia said.

"Okay," I said, immediately.

"They'll be milk-siblings," she said excitedly.

"Yeah," I said. "Wow."

Breast Friends [Babble]

My husband and I marveled at [our older daughter's] exceptional development and obvious intelligence. And I think we marveled a bit at ourselves: good parenting, great DNA. Let's do this again, we decided.

Here comes Frances. Or, more aptly, there she sits. Our fifteen-month-old. Not walking. Barely standing on her own. Just perched on her haunches, clapping at a pair of strappy Weeboks still tagged and in the box. Frances has one word: "hot!" It means "scalding coffee," sure, but it also means "touch," "look," "hey!" "can I have that?" "duck," "light," and "ceiling." Friends' children, younger than Frances, say words and perform physical feats that might as well be sonnets and high-flying acrobatics compared to my girl. A boy in the neighborhood, born four months after her — which in baby time is like Gen Y to Frances's Gen X — runs circles around her. Literally. What does Frances do? She sits in the middle of the floor, pointing at him, saying, "hot, hot, hot!" She's a chubby-kneed Paris Hilton.

Behind The Curve [Babble]

it took watching my daughter's reaction to one show to recognize how completely horrible and anti-human the images are. I keep seeing her eyes blinking, her head snapping back, the twisting of her mouth into a terrified frown.
What was even scarier than her reaction, though, was our reaction. I mean, we tell ourselves we're these gentle citizens. But we didn't bat an eye watching people shoot each other. It's like our natural human reaction - to blink, to be fearful and upset - had been eroded. We've become so habituated to manufactured violence that we've forgotten what it's supposed to portray.
I know people get all hacked off when I talk politics on this blog, so I'll step away from the bullhorn. I realize, after all, that we can't shelter Josie from this country's popular culture forever. Eventually, she'll see lots and lots of fake murders.
But here's what I'm getting at: shouldn't we try?

Pray that Chuck Klosterman's shooting blanks. It's our only hope.

Baby Daddy [Babble]
Earlier: Neal Pollack: Spokesman of His Grup-Eration
Earlier: 'Babble' Publisher Doesn't Know When To Shut Up

We've found that there are a lot of taboos around parenting, as much as we felt there were around sex when we launched Nerve," Mr. Griscom said. "There are a lot of things you can't say, like, 'We wanted a girl, but we got a boy.' Or, 'We're pregnant with a third, but we don't know if we want it.' "
Babble, he says, will say it, and with wit and style. Or at least with irreverence.