Have you seen the latest? A Qantas flight on its way from Darwin to Brisbane, Australia had to be grounded because one tiny baby decided it was an appropriate place to poop in his pants. Really, baby? You couldn't hold it for the duration of the pre-screening, boarding, flight, and de-boarding? I'm thinking your self-control should be analyzed by a professional. Maybe that baby whisperer lady in your neck of the woods could help you out.

You guys, people had to be fork-lifted off the flight when it made an emergency landing due to the "strange odor" passengers were complaining about. How would you like to be fork-lifted? Babies, you're the reason everyone hates to fly. Babies ruin everything.

Nose FridaSo, here's an irony for you: After posting last week about how I ain't afraid of no germs, my babies got a wee bit of a cold ... or they're teething ... or both. Regardless, their little noses are all mucousy and shnookly and I'm willing to do anything I can to make my little buddies all better.

Of course, those plastic bulb aspirators really do a whole lotta nothing, so I went ahead and bought a couple of those Nose Frida aspirators that allow you to suck, yes, suck the snot right out of your baby's nose (through a filter though, phew). When the pediatrician first mentioned it to me, I was like, "Oh, hells no!" But after a day of listening to them snarf, I knew I had to take serious action. A few days later, I'm sucking snot out several times a day and, I gotta say, it's pretty satisfying! Oh yeah, it's all kinds of nasty too, but hearing them breathe easy makes it all worth it. And, honestly, there are a lot of other gross things I'm doing, all in the name of love ...

Babies poop. A lot. Blackish-tar, yellow, seedy, green, brown, chunky, gooey ... okay, I'm starting to actually gross myself out a little. Moms talk poop -- a lot. And often, it's no big deal. But what always surprises me in these frequent poop discussions is how much misinformation runs rampant -- from what should be considered "normal poop" and what shouldn't.

So, Mom, with all your talking, do you really know your shit? (I had to, allow me that obscenity!) Let's talk about poop.

I do find that scientifically you can find a lot of right answers in parenting, especially when you look worldwide, instead of just in one country's backyard. One subject, though, often has strong proponents of many different methods. And that's potty training. Though as NPR points out, almost all advice on potty training, even from pediatricians, is nothing more than hearsay, personal anecdotes, or just assumptions. In fact, there's very, very little research on this subject at all.

But there sure are a lot of opinions out there.

I recently read a post entitled, "10 Reasons Why I Wouldn't Trade Having a Daughter for a Son," and having one of each myself, I got a pretty good chuckle. I've always wanted a girl, and I enjoy the hell out of her. But I do have to say: Boys are pretty darn cool, too.

I know people are always saying they prefer one gender over another. Still, I have to admit I was surprised by a recent Gallop poll that said 40 percent of adults would prefer a boy and only 28 percent would prefer a girl. Really?

So it got me thinking ... there are a lot of benefits of both genders, but a lot of downsides, too. If we compare the two, which gender is cooler?

Kristin's daughter in a homemade diaperWhen looking to cloth diaper, there are a lot of things to consider. Often the idea of cleaning poo is a big turn-off to some, but quite often it's the initial start-up cost that can be painful, even if it does quickly end up saving you money.

Some moms choose to go a different route instead, and either buy diapers from moms who make them or they buy fabric and whip up their own diapers.

Kristin, who is a crafting machine and owns SmileyMoo's Variety Shop, as well as Enchanted Smiles, makes and sells her own cloth diapers. I asked her some questions about advice for moms who are looking to cloth diaper, but don't want to go the big-brand route.

Recently, I was changing my daughter's diaper at my friend’s house, and she asked me, "Can you dump the poop in the toilet before putting the diaper in the pail?"

Sure, I said, and my friend explained that she was asking because she’d heard it was against federal regulations to put human waste in landfills -- but for some reason, nobody enforced this when it came to the poop found in diapers.

Oh good golly. Bad enough I'm using disposables in the first place -- am I doing even more damage by not taking this extra, easy-enough step?

Googling didn't tell me much; cloth-diaper and compostable-diaper sites made vague reference to this, but there was no official word. So, I called the authorities. Here’s what the EPA and the California Department of Resources had to say about human poop in landfills.

I was in a frat that went co-ed, and existed solely to fly in the face of the weird rituals of the more traditional fraternities. So my “hazing” wasn’t like what you see in Animal House – we built art projects instead.
 
But I vividly remember seeing the poor unfortunate pledges of the “real” fraternities and sororities performing strange and humiliating tasks, like having water dumped on their underwear-clad bodies. And I didn’t even go to a particularly Greek-friendly college!
 
I was glad to avoid this treatment … except like Melissa at Raising Kvell, I just realized: now that I’ve had my babies, I’m basically a neophyte in the greatest sorority of them all: The sisterhood of Momma Gotta Diapa.
 
No need for the paddle. Here’s what I’ve been through so far: