Smart for Life = The Dumbest Thing Ever! I'm a snack editor, which means lots and lots of treats make their way through my desk (to the delight of my neighbors). Sometimes they’re amazing, like exotically spiced nuts. Sometimes they are, um, interesting, like caffeinated jelly beans. But I have never seen a WTF as baffling as the Smart for Life meal replacement cookies.

The concept -- however absurd -- is simple: "Eat a cookie. Skip a meal. Lose Weight. Save money. Send it to Haiti!" Seriously, the company’s slogan is "You Eat Too Much… They, Not Enough." Is the company personally going to send it profits to Haiti? Doesn't look like it. While your stomach is growling, they advise you to text the Red Cross with your $10 donation or visit their website for a list of charitable organizations. These cookies are not only offensive and unsafe, they taste JUST like a dirty sponge. By all means, donate to Haiti but please, also feel free to sink your teeth into any cookie your heart desires. It’s Friday.

New mom Picabo Street, recently inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame and considered by some to be the greatest female skiier of all time, may not be racing downhill on skis for the Vancouver Olympics in seven days, but she's still getting ready. This time around she'll be a correspondent for The Today Show, watching as superstar Lindsey Vonn tries to smash her record. We talked to her about Vancouver, the new baby she may bring with her, and Essure, the permanent birth control procedure she recently under went.

Read the interview

When you think you might be pregnant, every day of waiting feels like an eternity. Well, eternity might now be one day shorter. The new First Response Early Result Pregnancy Test claims to detect hCG, the pregnancy hormone, up to six days before your expected period, a day sooner than other tests on the market.

Of course, to get the most accurate result (and to keep yourself from going through multiple pricey pregnancy tests), you should hold off on the pee stick until after you've missed your period, when higher hCG levels are almost always detected. But we know you're dying of curisoity and will probably test early anyway. So if you need to know at the first possible moment, this might be the test to try.

When did you find out you were preggo? Did you test early or did you wait until you were late?

Plus: Think you might be expecting? Here are 16 early signs of pregnancy.

If you've got one, you know it ain't pretty. You can smell them and their stinky socks/underarms/breath coming down the hall. All the Lysol in existence can't make their bedrooms inhabitable by other life forms.

That's why we were kinda shocked to see a news report the other day about tween boys ages 8 and up dousing themselves with grooming products like hair gel and cologne and face washes to the tune of $1.9 billion! Being a mom of 8- and 12-year-old sons with a soap phobia, my first thought—besides "where can I get a case of this stuff?"—was "are they using them instead of a shower?" Or are other people's sons actually clean, too? Because the mini Old Spice deodorant stick my oldest got at his fifth-grade hygiene class two years ago still has plenty of mileage left in it. (I did catch his little brother swiping it under his hairless armpits the other day though, so maybe there's hope!)

How about you: Are your tween boys into grooming yet? And can you give me any decon advice for my brood?

Are you having a bad day? If you are -- and even if you aren't -- take a minute to watch the trailer for the upcoming Focus Features' Babies. You will be powerless in the face of this cuteness, we promise you.

This looks like such an interesting slice of childhood around the world, and I'm intrigued to see how things are done differently in Mongolia, Namibia and Japan. And yet some things stay the same no matter where you live - all babies take those wobbly first steps, cry when someone takes their toy and look stinkin' cute in the bath.

What do you say: Are you in line with us when this opens (release date TBD but some time this year)?

Classes. Lunch. Recess. Classes. That’s roughly the pattern your kid’s average school day follows, right? Well, according to an article in the New York Times, some schools are making a switch to the schedule, with noticeable results: Classes. Recess. Lunch. Classes.

Recess before lunch? Yep, you read right. The schools that have tried it so far say it leads to higher consumption of milk, fruits and veggies and less food waste at lunch (aren’t your kids ravenous when they come in from playing outside?), plus fewer visits to the school nurse and even a decrease in behavioral problems.

Makes sense to me. Think about it: Do you eat right before you exercise? And when I was a kid, I remember my mom telling me not to run around right after eating, or I’d get a tummy ache (she was right!) So why are kids being sent to recess right after they’ve eaten?

Plus, sending kids to recess after their batch of morning classes can let them burn off energy they’ve been bottling in- which’ll leave them hungrier for last night’s meatloaf in their lunchbox. Lunch can also be that much-needed cool down period between racing around the playground and sitting still at a desk.

Do you think this schedule would work better for your kids?

Meet Pete:

Pete is a vice president of corporate sales and marketing at Bonnier. He and his wife are proud parents of a 15-month-old son. And they are also expecting…wait for it…triplets. Due in June.

(We'll give you a moment to absorb.)

Yes, that means they'll have four under 2. Yes, that was our reaction too.

We had so many questions: Are you freaking out? How's your wife getting along? How will you fit all those car seats in one car? And just how big is your house?

Pete's agreed to check in with us every one in a while to let us know how they're gearing up for the birth. First up, the story about the first sonogram:

A few days ago, a woman came to see an apartment I'm trying to rent out. My husband's transfer has finally come through, and so we're subletting the place and moving. But what did this stranger and I spend most of the time talking about? Potty training.

Her 3-and-a-half-year-old, it turned out, has been resisting it -- not surprising, since boys famously take longer than girls. My two-and-a-half year old is now fully potty trained -- thanks fully, I am convinced, to a book that came out this summer titled Potty Training Boys the Easy Way, by Caroline Fertleman & Simone Cave (Da Capo Books).

The book came in to my office about 8 months ago, when my son was just about 2 and nowhere near ready, but something about it caught my eye. It's a slim read, about 120 pages, and just seemed to make a lot of sense. Fertleman and Cave believe in a low-stress, no-negativity modular approach that doesn't require you to hand over your days to peepee and poopoo, so it's easy for even working moms to fit into their schedules. It also has a bunch of pre-potty training exercises you can do just to get your kid thinking along those lines, like encouraging him to pee in the tub. (The grandparents were a little grossed out, but hey, you can't argue with success.)

Long story short: Once the serious push came, Diego got potty-trained in a few days over Christmas break. (Keep in mind, this is a kid whose never been among the first to do anything; he was a late walker, late talker, etc.) He'd run off to the potty himself, then call us to demand his reward. Once, he even emptied out the potty himself before calling us.

The woman didn't take my apartment. But I bet you anything she went out and got the book.

One of my favorite parts about having a girl is the clothes. But somewhere along the way, I lost the decision-making power over my daughter’s wardrobe. Although some days she still deigns to let me dress her, other days she insists on personal expression, and we end up with a look like this:

Or this:

Yes, I let her go to school like this. Clothes – as much as I love ‘em – seem like a battle not worth fighting. And I have to admit – part of me loves her quirky, outside-the-box style. If there's anyone who can pull off rainbow legwarmers, she can.

We know your kids have picked out some doozies too. We’re putting together a gallery of adorably weird kid outfits (guaranteed LOL). Send your child’s strangest look to scrapbook@parenting.com.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of a Civil Rights milestone: Four African-American college students sat at a whites-only lunch counter in North Carolina and politely refused to leave unless they were served. Their request was granted -- but not until July, after they’d inspired similar challenges across the South.

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down is the perfect book to read to your child today. It explains what happened in kid-friendly language (for example, explaining that when the men ordered donuts, they were instead treated like donut holes -- invisible and ignored), with illustrations that convey the tension of the peaceful yet prolonged showdown. Created by husband-wife team Brian and Andrea Davis Pinkey, it’s a true page-turner -- and an eye-opening look at one of our country’s more tumultuous chapters.

($16.99, Little, Brown, & Company). Ages 8 and up.