I bet you didn't think you'd become a gymnast or a dancer or a mime after you had a baby, did you? Well, guess what? Unbeknownst to you, you did! No, you're not getting paid for this new-found skill, and don't hope to make any Olympic teams in the near future, but once you have a child, you acquire a unique skill set only bestowed unto parents.

Behold! The 6 wondrous physical feats moms can perform once they have kids!

A recent study shows that when parents sing to their premature babies, there's a medical benefit! Amazing -- but not totally surprising: It just seems intuitive that a soothing connection like a song sung by baby's mama or daddy would be good for her, doesn't it?

Researchers studying babies in the NICU found music therapy was associated with lowered heart rates, improved sleep and sucking behavior, and even better feeding. I have my own theory that this extends to any baby, premature or not! There's something so right about singing to your brand new little person. One of my favorite "lullabies" for my daughter was a beautiful, sweet song I learned to sing (not that well!) by singing along with Paul McCartney.

Here's that song, and more that a baby would love to hear:

Image via OAbe/Flickr

I'm not one for banning books, but there are a few I refuse to look at. Two, actually. My husband's baby book and my own. I could go back and track how we made it through each childhood development milestone and when, but I've learned the hard way that I'm better off not knowing. When I did, I made myself crazy.

The problem? I was constantly running a tally in my head of the milestones my baby had met before her parents and those she hadn't tackled yet. If she wasn't tracking ahead of either my husband or me (or both), I'd instantly go into panic mode.

For a long time now, researchers have been trying to figure out why babies who come from poorer families have already fallen behind their wealthier counterparts in terms of their ability to talk, understand, and learn by the time they're 1 year old. Factors such as lead paint exposure; stress hormones; and lack of reading have all been brought into the discussion, but now researchers are exploring something new: How much babies are spoken to.

Talking to your baby is an innate thing for many parents. In fact, mini-sentences like Look at the trees outside; You see that doggie?; Can you say 'mama'? probably abound in your home. And that's great! You may feel like a crazy person, but there has never been any research that shows talking to your baby a lot is a bad thing. In fact, studies, evidently, show just the opposite.

But is there a "best" way to talk to your little one?

Our daughter is getting to the age where she is learning the words for body parts. She can say and identify "eye," "nose," "mouth," "ear," "hand," "foot," and "head." We figure it's only a matter of time before she starts wondering about what's "down there."

This raised the question, what do we call her little girl parts? Do we use the proper terms for private parts, or do we assign them cutesy names?

If there's one thing new parents really get competitive about, it's baby's first word. Mom wants the little person she carried for all those months to say "Mama" first. Dad, of course, is working every angle to get kiddo to say "Dada."

I've seen parents sit their baby down and spend a half hour (or more!) trying to coax their name out of the poor kid. I hate to break it to the parents who do that, but you're just making yourself crazy. Your baby is going to drop that first big word -- usually sometime after their first birthday -- and what they say is going to be totally up to them.

Heck, a quick poll of parents showed kids come up with some pretty goofy stuff. So don't fret if your kid said your partner's name first. You could have gotten one of these:

A new infant brain study has found that babies notice arguments and react to them even when they are asleep -- which may make you think twice about having a good old-fashioned verbal fight with your husband if your little one is nearby.

Researchers at the University of Oregon took a look at 20 babies, all of whom were between the ages of 6 and 12 months. The infants' brain activity was measured using a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner while the babies were listening to phrases being read in different emotional tones.

And the results of the scans were pretty interesting, to say the least.

If someone had told me that there were "mean babies" before I'd given birth, I wouldn't have believed it. How can a sweet widdle baby be mean? They're cute! And cuddly! And OMG, did I mention cuuuuuute?

Of course, then I had a baby. And I found out what researchers at the University of British Columbia's Centre for Infant Cognition have now confirmed: some babies really are mean. Heck, read between the lines of their new study, and you get the sense of something every mother has thought but not dared say aloud.