The Daily Mail says, "this child is bound to be a music lover." Well, that or Jack in the Box.


Aah! Embryo Mr. Met!!!



This baby will be one of those kids who claims all through elementary school that she wants to be a "marine biologist" and then gets to high school and realizes that doesn't mean "swimming with dolphins" and loses interest.


This child: the next Napoleon. Or Caesar. Or anyone basically who feels entitled to the entire world.


I know I want my child to be the infant version of a sponge on quaaludes. Actually, kinda cute. Or would be. On paper.


It's rare that you can work "navel-gazing" and "solipsistic" into into one description in such a literal way!


In case you thought she'd just had too much cake.


The five-clawed dragon was a symbol of the Chinese emperors. It's weird how it's trying to claw its way in.


This baby is incredibly traumatized right now, and if it wasn't already in the fetal position, would be.


As a Taurus, I object to the bull's portrayal as a stoned cow. But this baby is going to be all, "I'm good. Cartoons," and there's a lot to be said for that.



How's this for a belly laugh? The pregnant women who decorate their bumps with amazing artwork [Daily Mail]

In an article published in the latest issue of The FASEB Journal, Sinkkonen proposes that the "symmetry, shape, and position of umbilicus can be used to estimate the reproductive potential of fertile females, including risks of certain genetically and maternally inherited fetal anomalies." He found that people have very clear preferences for their belly buttons, preferring those that are only slightly indented (so never outies!), t-shaped or oval, and a little hooded. Sinkkonen suggests that abnormal bellybuttons may indicate a risk of several fetal abnormalities. However, in case you are feeling bad about your outie, or heavily-hooded navel, Sinkkonen says: "Don't worry. Nobody's perfect except Angelina Jolie." [LiveScience]

Don't get me wrong, I often enjoy Michelle Slatalla's cozy domestic column. But this one? Not so much. In this installment, Slatalla's eldest daughter has left for college. Or, I guess, her second year.

Everybody makes a fuss when you send a child off to college for the first time. You’re expected to feel pangs when you separate from a freshman. But that turns out to be not so bad, because those feelings are tempered by the excitement of propelling a child to an entirely new phase of life. Waving goodbye at the end of sophomore winter break turns out to be much harder.It’s kind of like how your friends throw a big birthday party to cushion the blow when you turn 30. But then nobody shows up for 31 or 33 — which, arguably, are much worse — and you’re left to face the growing realization that you’re headed for 41.It is dawning on me, as time goes by and Zoe starts to come home for shorter periods and to call less often, that the center of gravity of her life has shifted away.

Yes, change is hard. Children leaving, as has been noted a time or two, is a time for melancholy recollection on the sunrise-sunsetting of the years. Of course, it's a lot easier now than back in the day! Cue the post-Boomer self-congratulation:

Stephanie Coontz, a family historian, said that luckily our generation of parents may not need to [cling to their kids], thanks to our enlightened child-rearing techniques that allowed children to begin asserting their independence at an early age. 'There may have been more tension when they were young because they weren’t being controlled as much as previous generations,' she said, 'but what that also means is that they’ll be more willing to come back to you later, as friends.'

Maybe I'm in a cranky mood, but my golly! We should be so lucky! I am not normally of the starving-children-in-Africa-clean-your-plate school of illogic, but does this lady have any idea how many children would love to go to school, how many, many generations couldn't? Mourning their loss in the home is rank luxury! Which is, of course, a deeply unfair line of logic: Slatalla's emotions are valid, as are those of everyone who's experienced the same thing. I think what rubs is the myopia of the piece: Slatalla says she sympathizes with famed "helicopter parent" Sara Roosevelt, but uses this as a jumping-off point, not for a real look at changing mores, but as no more than an examination of her own emotions. (After all, it's not like that level of attention worked out so badly for Franklin: discuss?) Maybe that's what's frustrating: you feel there's a chance for something interesting and instead she retreats into her own experience, which is, at the end of the day, pretty much like everyone else's. Is that a crime? Of course not. But it's still a disappointment.

My Universe Loses a Star [New York Times]

The BBC talks to 26-year-old Rob Swainson, who had surgery right after his birth, to correct the fact that he was born with his stomach and intestines poking through a hole in the abdominal wall. He has a "cross-shaped scar" instead of a belly button. "I thought about having one constructed when I was getting interested in girls, but not for long," he says. "You only have to look at Michael Jackson to realize it's probably best to live with what you've got." Because yeah, having an artificial navel made sounds weird. But! Doctors do it all the time, the BBC reports. For people who have tummy tucks or hernias. A plastic surgeon will create a belly button.

And the comments on this BBC story are fascinating. "Riv" writes:

I too was short-changed a navel at birth; although to this day I have no idea why. I suspect being born three months premature via caesarean section may have meant the tissue was pliable enough to gently set into a mild indentation. Any doctors out there who can confirm? I used to tell people I was grown in a vat…

"Maureen" idenifies with Karolina:

I have exactly the same sort of smooth indentation. It's the result of a repair of an umbilical hernia when I was two years old, 65 years ago. For many years now this operation, if done in the UK, would be completed with a cosmetic belly button. Perhaps The Czech republic hadn't caught up with the modern technique 24 years ago.

There's this amusing anecdote from "Bill":

Sixty years ago I was house-surgeon to a London surgeon, a real Lancelot Spratt character. He thought the umbilicus was a nasty dirty place and when operating on anyone's abdomen he would, without permission or consultation, cut it out. My job was to invent some story to tell the patient why it had been necessary. How times have changed.

And, lastly, wise words from "Edward" :

Adam and Eve didn't have belly buttons either.

Who Doesn't Have A Belly Button? [BBC News]
Victoria's Secret Model Karolina Kurkova And The Riddle Of Her Missing Belly Button [Daily Mail]