Well, it became painfully evident this weekend that I am late off the block in having "The Talk" with my 12-year old son. Between sets on Guitar Hero this past weekend, he and his friend had a delightful discussion about the fate of Jamie Lynn Spears and her baby. My son was astonished that the girl wasn't married and still had a baby on the way. The friend, the very bright child of two medical professionals, laid out Ms. Spears' options. They were talking over the song but I heard one option pretty clearly - she could terminate the pregnancy.

Video games and kids - they'll forever go together. It's tough to get the kids outside for some exercise. But with new gaming peripherals, exercise is becoming part of the game. Want to read more about video games in fitness and health?

Can we talk menstruation for a few moments? I'm 42 and my body's is betraying me. Pains over here. Cramps over there. Stuff not at the same latitude it used to be. Extra me where I'd rather have less. My doctors have the answer, plain and painful as it may be..."What do you expect? You're old." Ouch.

I'm changing calendars tomorrow. Replacing the tattered 2007 one with a shiny 2008 one. There's lots of white space waiting to be filled by kids activities, birthdays, parties - there's already a bridal shower in January waiting to be pencilled in. I've taken to saving the old calendars. Maybe I don't like the idea of tossing out the old year - too dismissive. So I keep them in a drawer, one year on top of the previous one. There are ten years piled into a three-inch stack of faded cardstock and twisted wire binding - a lot of living compressed in those three inches.

The news of Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy, at 16-years of age, has swept through the media and now through my kids' schools. And now they are asking questions. Questions I wasn't really expecting yet. "Did you know Zoey 101 is pregnant?" my 11-year old son asks my 9-year old daughter. "I know!" she said, "And she doesn't even have a husband!" Uh, well, it's really the actor, Jamie Lynn Spears, that is pregnant, I corrected as I picked up dirty laundry, but yes, that is correct...