Melamine: Good for sturdy plastic plates, bad to ingest. And I'm very worried that my two daughters have been exposed to huge doses of it, courtesy of tainted formula in China. So I've been spending a lot of time bugging my pediatrician, trolling boards and contacting international adoption physicians (this is actually a specialty) to see what we should do.

I've been following the whole Madeleine McCann story with a lot of interest. (Basically, I'm drawn to horrible stories about things that could happen to your child that'll feed my nightmares.)

Halloween's just slightly below my daughter's birthday and Christmas in terms of big deals in our house. And so, we're already starting to plot out our holiday plans. Here's how we celebrate it: 1. We take the day off. Otherwise, we tend to miss giving out candy to the early-bird trick-or-treaters (i.e. the cutest little ones). 2. We give out the good stuff. No Bit-o-Honey or Smarties from us. It's mini candy bars all the way, and several of them for each trick-or-treater.

Even though I was way too old when American Girl dolls first arrived on the scene, I secretly coveted one. I love the idea of a doll with a back story, that actually taught you something about history as you played with her.

If you're planning a party for a wee one (preschooler and under), I have one word for you: brunch. We've done this two years in a row for our daughter, and both times, it was a smashing success. Here's what you have going for you: 1. Most kids are morning people. My little one and her troupe of friends were all bright eyed and crank free at 10 a.m. And since the parents are now well used to being up at the break of dawn, they were reasonably awake then as well. (The coffee helped.)