Missing toddler Alouette Day-Moreno-BaltierraBrace yourself: this story will boggle your mind. A 17-month-old California girl who allegedly vanished two months ago was found alive in Kentucky. Wonderful news, right? Yes. Except there's more to this tangled case than meets the eye.

The toddler, Alouette Day-Moreno-Baltierra, is not, as you'd expect, back safely in her mother's arms. Instead, she's with Child Protective Services. Why? Because her mom -- who reported the baby missing in October -- may be involved in her daughter's "disappearance," according to police.

And apparently so is a woman claiming to be her maternal grandmother, Maria Baltierra-Dejesus. Cops found the 62-year-old "suspicious woman" pushing the little girl in her stroller Thursday in a University of Kentucky parking lot. The child was reportedly wearing only light clothing and no shoes, hat, or mittens despite below-freezing weather.

But that's not even the worst of it ...

Have you heard of the movie Snakes on a Plane? Now just imagine if it was snakes in a daycare instead. That's the issue a group of parents are dealing with in Townsville, Australia. Their children's nursery school was forced to shut down because of an infestation of pythons. Not little, harmless garden snakes, mind you, but deadly, bone-crushing pythons. Are you freaking out yet? I know I am.

How does that story about Little Red Riding Hood go again? Something about how she goes to visit her grandma and ends up locking the poor woman out of the house, or something like that? (No?) Maybe I'm just confusing my stories, because this one sounds awfully familiar. A toddler locked her grandmother out of the house and the fire department had to be called to get her back in again.

I'm sure this was all just an accident! No 1-year-old could have such strong feelings against their granny that they'd lock her out of the house. In fact, I can see this happening to anyone, but especially a babysitter.

Uh-oh, photos of Gwen Stefani's husband, Gavin Rossdale, cavorting with their hot, young, blond nanny have surfaced on the web. He was photographed with his hand upon the nanny's spandex-clad bottom! SCANDAL-- oh wait. If you look at the rest of the pictures, you'll see that they're just on a hike and they brought all the kids along with them. And the reason Gavin's hand is on his nanny's bottom is because he's kind of guiding her up a hillside. And they're in the middle of Los Angeles, not out in some private spot.

Poor Gavin and Gwen! Now there's this salacious story making it out like Gavin's hitting on this young lady behind a working mom's back. Should they have tried to get a less fetching person to watch their kids? Is it ever a good idea to hire a hot, young nanny?

Going on vacation with our kids can sometimes be even more exhausting than our day-to-day lives with our kids. Still, having that quality time together to do nothing but have fun and enjoy each other's company is well worth getting up at the crack of dawn and packing the entire day full of all sorts of activities.

And that's why, for the life of me, I just don't understand the concept of hiring a "travel nanny" to go on vacation with you so you can relax and unwind while somebody else takes care of your kids 24 hours a day. Heck, forget the travel part -- why on earth do parents bring any sort of nanny on vacation? Doesn't that kind of defeat the whole purpose of taking a trip together as a family?

What if you had to scan your fingertips every time you dropped off or picked up your child from daycare? That's what parents will be doing in Mississippi when a new program begins next year. With Mississippi eChildcare, parents who get federal childcare vouchers will have to scan their fingers every time they bring their kids to daycare.

When I first heard about the program, I thought it was a security measure -- kind of extreme, but just a way to make sure the wrong adult doesn't leave with your kid. But nope! Its real purpose is to help the state keep track of attendance. In other words, they want to find out how much of that voucher money is being wasted on families who hardly use them. The state claims it could save up to $18 million by reducing false attendance claims by childcare providers. Yay! All they have to do is treat low-income parents like criminals.

Almost a year ago, I stopped working full-time so I could stay home with my kids. But for nearly two years we had a nanny who took care of my twins starting when they were 10 weeks old. I remember when I was on maternity leave, looking through the locals boards for the perfect candidate. We wanted someone with twin experience, someone who came with excellent references, and we felt nervous about the whole thing. How were we going to ever be able to trust a stranger to take care of our babies? When we met Uma, we knew. She was kind and professional. She smiled easily, and when she spent that first hour with us during her trial run, I felt her love for children.

When we called her references, it solidified our choice. I would bet Marina Krim had a similar experience when she hired Yoselyn Ortega to care for her kids.

Have you heard the latest about flying with your family? It sounds like some airlines may be charging you extra to seat your kids with you. A family who booked their flight to Disney World seven months in advance JUST so they could sit together got split up when their flight was changed. Their 5-year-old daughter was separated from them and seated next to strangers! The airline said they could re-assign the seats ... for a $60 fee.

Well of all the -- the parents complained to the airline and then to NBC News. How dare an airline charge families extra to be seated together. Do they really want to stick passengers with other people's young children?

Wait a minute. Why is this a problem? This actually sounds like a great idea!