Reykjavík, 2005.

• Kim Bishop (a.k.a. Mermaid in a Manhole) looks at the positive side of the princess influence at Miseducated.
• If Miss Zoot ever starts selling Embarrassment Pillows, I totally want one. As is, I hide behind Nuno during when something embarrassing happens on TV. In real life? My skin just crawls and I get a serious case of what David Foster Wallace would term the howling fantods.
• Santa Chthulu. For when you want to reward your children for good behavior and give them nightmares.
• Dooce brings you a shopping guide for infants. Really, any present will do as long as it comes in a cardboard box. A cardboard box in and of itself would suffice, really, but these are all amazingly cute.
• From Ohdeedoh: beautiful vintage Iranian children’s books.
• From the archives of Flotsam: questions to ask your potential nanny. (My answers: B, B, B, B, D, A, C [note: this does not apply to my own apartment, sadly], B, A, and E.)
• Are you asking your nanny to get vaccinated for H1N1? That is, if she can find a clinic that still has it… that stuff is going like HOTCAKES.