When I learned, last summer, that there are things called Toe Blooms that can make little feet look like they have flowers on them, I cracked up. And I also learned that “barefoot sandals” are a real thing, like for adults too. But I like the baby ones best.

Cut to this summer…I’m happy to say that four lucky babies will get a free pair of Toe Blooms (most popular with the girls) or Toe Buds (aimed more at little boys). Winners can tell us which they’d rather, flowers or flair! Each set is worth $20-$24.

For a chance to win, leave a comment below, up to one a day, between now and the end of the day on Wednesday, May 29th. We’ll randomly choose four winners. If you comment, you should check back at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 30, to see if you’re one of our winners. You’ll then have 5 days to send a direct message to American Baby magazine’s Facebook page to accept the prize. (We’ll also send Facebook messages to the winners, but note, our messages fall into your “other” message folder on Facebook, which can be a bit hard to find!)

You can read the official rules here. Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend. And goody luck!

Doctors Save Ohio Toddler By ‘Printing’ Him An Airway Tube       
In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day. It’s the latest advance from the booming field of regenerative medicine, making body parts in the lab. (via Fox News)

Preschool Reportedly Bans Imaginary Superhero Play
Superheroes may no longer be making appearances in this preschool classroom. An unnamed preschool recently sent home a notice to parents, explaining that their children’s “dangerously overactive” imaginations were forcing the school to ban some forms of imaginary play in the classroom, according to a post on Reddit. (via Huffington Post)

‘Boys Will Be Boys’ in U.S., But Not In Asia
A new study shows there is a gender gap when it comes to behavior and self-control in American young children — one that does not appear to exist in children in Asia. In the United States, girls had higher levels of self-regulation than boys. (via Science Daily)

Kyle Davis, Plaza Towers 3rd Grader Who Loved To Sing, Among Oklahoma Tornado Victims
Nicknamed “The Wall,” 8-year-old Kyle Davis loved soccer and going to Monster Truck exhibitions at the fairgrounds with his grandfather. JaNae Hornsby, 9, loved to draw, sing, and be a big sister and cousin to her younger relatives. The two were among the young victims of Monday’s monstrous tornado, their small bodies pulled from the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School after it was reduced to a massive heap of bricks and twisted metal. (via Huffington Post)

Chicago School Closings Vote: Board Of Education Votes To Shutter 50 Public Schools
The Chicago Board of Education voted Wednesday to close fifty Chicago Public schools, one of them delayed a year, in the nation’s third-largest district making it the largest single wave of planned public school closures in U.S. history. After the vote, few schools were spared from the list of 54 schools originally proposed for closure. (via Huffington Post)

National Geographic Bee Puts Mass. Student On The Map
Quick question: Name the peak in Ecuador with a summit that marks the point farthest from Earth’s center due to our planet’s bulge at the equator.If you were Sathwik Karnik, a 12-year-old from Massachusetts, you’d know the answer is Chimborazo, and you’d have won the National Geographic Bee along with a $25,000 college scholarship. (via Washington Post)

Winter or spring, indoors or out, active or still, asthma triggers are everywhere. The list of culprits includes pollen, cold air, secondhand smoke, mold, dust mites, pet dander, and many more. And an average of one out of every 10 school-aged children has asthma, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. So how can you keep your kids safe?

In honor of Asthma Awareness Month this May, the EPA is offering free literature for parents and children to learn more about asthma and ways to control it. I especially love the adorable picture book, Why is Coco Orange, in which Coco the chameleon and his friends learn about air quality, and how to stay healthy when the air quality is bad. Coco’s friends also learn to get help when they see Coco struggling to breathe, and Coco learns to sit down and use his inhaler when his asthma is triggered.

Along with these publications, the EPA also offers an Asthma Action Plan that breaks asthma symptoms into green, yellow, and red zones, and provides a list of ways to control things that make asthma symptoms worse.

Dr. Claire McCarthy provides some great tips in her article How to Manage Your Child’s Asthma. As an asthma sufferer myself, I thought that I knew all there was to know about the disease, but I was surprised to learn that minimizing the use of antibacterial products and antibiotics can help reduce the risk of developing asthma.

Although there is no way to prevent the development of asthma, a solid plan of action can be a breath of fresh air for you and your child.

Oklahoma Schools Lacked Consistent Tornado Shelter Rules

Surgery Offers Mixed Benefits For Kids’ Sleep Apnea
A new study has confirmed that removing the tonsils and adenoids of children with obstructive sleep apnea can reduce sleepiness and improve the quality of life, but putting off the surgery might not hurt either. (via Reuters)

Chicago School Board To Vote On Mass School Closing
The Chicago Board of Education is due to vote on Wednesday on a controversial proposal to close 54 schools in the country’s third-largest public school district in what would be the largest mass school closing in the nation. (via Reuters)

Aggressive Behavior Linked Specifically To Secondhand Smoke Exposure In Childhood
Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to physically aggressive and antisocial, regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial, according to Linda Pagani and Caroline Fitzpatrick of the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine hospital. No study to date has controlled for these factors. (via Science Daily)

Common Core Clash: AFT President Fires Back At State Education Officials
The head of a major teachers union fired back Tuesday at state education officials who had dismissed her call for a moratorium on stakes associated with new standardized state tests in public schools. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Chiefs for Change, a small group of state education officials, was distorting her call for a moratorium on the use of new standardized tests based on Common Core standards to evaluate teachers and students. (via Washington Post)

Lego Duplo’s “Read! Build! Play!”

Last year, Lego Duplo and the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) partnered to create resources that combined reading and play. “Through play, young children learn about their world. With this knowledge, they can understand books and stories once they begin to read,” says Starr Latronica, Vice President/President-Elect of the Association for Library Service to Children.

This summer, Lego and ALSC have created the first Summer Reading Lists/Activity Guides for toddlers and preschoolers. Two free guides (one for Ages 1-3, one for Ages 3-5) pairs 10 already-published books with Lego projects designed specifically for each one. The books, easily available at local libraries, were chosen by ALSC’s Early Childhood Programs and Services committee.  A Parent Activity Guide is also available for free, to explain the importance of play and to offer advice on how to interact with kids.

Parents can preview a list of the chosen books below and click on the jump to see a photo of the suggested activity for Meeow and the Pots and Pans by Sebastian Braun. Visit ReadBuildPlay.com to download the entire activity guides (which includes the full lists of Lego projects with instructions, plus coloring pages).

Ages 1-3

• Big Box for Ben by Deborah Bruss , Illustrated by Tomek Bogacki
• Construction Crew by Lynn Meltzer, Illustrated by Carrie Eko-Burgess
• Dig In! by April Jones Prince, Illustrated by Michelle Berg
• King Jack and the Dragon by Peter Bently, Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
• Meeow and the Pots and Pans written and illustrated by Sebastian Braun. (Click on the jump text below to see a photo of the Lego activity paired with this book.)

Ages 3-5

• Doors in the Air by David Weale, Illustrated by Pierre Pratt
• Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building, written and illustrated by Christy Hale
• Fly Blanky Fly by Anne Margaret Lewis, Illustrated by Elisa Chavarri
• Isabella Star of the Story by Jennifer Fosberry, Illustrated by Mike Litwin
• Press Here, written and illustrated by Herve Tullet

Lego Duplo construction activity for Meeow and the Pots and Pans by Sebastian Braun.

Visit ReadBuildPlay.com to download the free building instructions.

I expected to read a now-familiar story: socially awkward, hoodie-wearing kid holes up in his room with computer and a great idea, changes the face of the Internet landscape, goes on to collect his billions. I was expecting to read that Karp had dropped out of college, too, a la Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.

Karp didn’t go to college. He didn’t even finish high school. But here’s the real kicker: His mother told him to drop out.

According to the Times, Karp’s mom, seeing that her son was bored with his studies at prestigious Bronx High School of Science, suggested he leave high school and be home-schooled instead. He was 14.

“I saw him at school all day and absorbed all night into his computer,” Karp’s mom, Barbara Ackerman, told the Times. “It became very clear that David needed the space to live his passion. Which was computers. All things computers.” After Karp dropped out of Bronx Science, he spent a lot of time working at MTV, building a website that went on to be acquired by Google for $50 million.

Speaking for myself, my family and I have pretty much built our lives around our kids’ education. My husband and I commute far to work, we pay too many taxes, and live in a small house, all to send our kids to good schools. These were choices we were all too happy to make, because we value our three children’s education. Even though things obviously worked out quite nicely for Ackerman’s son, I wonder if I was faced with the challenge of raising a child who was being underserved by the traditional education model, if I’d have the courage to tell my kid to give it up, and follow his true passion.

My three children still have a way to go before the high school years and making their billions of dollars (har). But this story got me thinking, and I’m sure it’s got you thinking, too: If your kid was clearly understimulated at school, would you make a move as bold as Karp’s mother did, and suggest he simply…leave?

Image: High school hallway via Shutterstock.

Oklahoma Parents Seek Out Kids In Wake Of Tornado
The parents and guardians stood in the muddy grass outside a suburban Oklahoma City church, listening as someone with a bullhorn called out the names of children who were being dropped off — survivors of a deadly tornado that barreled through their community. (via Huffington Post)

Intercell Vaccine Gets U.S. Pediatric Approval
Austria’s Intercell said on Tuesday it has won U.S. regulatory approval for pediatric use of its Ixiaro vaccine to protect against Japanese Encephalitis (JE), a step it had achieved in Europe in February. (via Reuters)

Early-Life Traffic Air Pollution Expose Linked To Hyperactivity
Early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7, according to new research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. (via Science Daily)

Babies Who Share Bed With Parents 5 Times More Likely To Die Of Cot Death
Babies sharing beds with their parents face a five-fold risk of dying of cot death, even if their parents are not smokers, new research shows. The increased risk of death extends to babies previously thought to be at low risk because they are breastfed and the mother has not taken alcohol or drugs, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal Open. (via Fox News)

All Virginia Students To Use Computers For Standardized Tests
All Virginia students will have to log on to a computer to take this year’s Standards of Learning tests, making Virginia one of the only states to wholly abandon the nearly ubiquitous paper-and-pencil bubble sheets. With spring testing in reading and math underway in many schools this week, the move to electronic tests means that Virginia, one of the few states that did not adopt national academic standards, has become a model for the dozens of states that did. (via Washington Post)

Last Wednesday, my daughter needed to make it to her ENT, so I pushed my eye appointment off. I really didn’t want to miss two days of work in a week. But on Friday morning, I got a call that my godmother had a heart attack (she’s fine now, she just needs to remember to make time for her health), so I missed the entire day of work anyway. Now imagine if I’d actually made it to that eye appointment, I would have missed three days of work and I wouldn’t be squinting at my computer so early in the week spreading the urgent message that you should not let your schedule get in the way of your health.

But in all seriousness, when I watched my god sister sobbing after being asked if she was her mother’s proxy last Friday, it really did hit me. Neglecting our health to take care of everyone else actually hurts them in the end.

Even if you have lots of time, but no health insurance, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, many of the screenings women need are free. For example, the health care law requires coverage of well-woman visits, cervical cancer screenings, depression screenings, and more.

Visit WomensHealth.gov to learn more about living a healthier life.

I’ve rescheduled my eye appointment and I won’t cancel it this time. Take a moment out of your busy schedule this week, and take care of your health. Your kids are counting on you.

Childhood ADHD tied to obesity decades later

Newer whooping cough vaccine not as protective
A newer version of the whooping cough vaccine doesn’t protect kids as well as the original, which was phased out in the 1990s because of safety concerns, according to a new study. (via Reuters)

Home visiting programs are preschool in its earliest form
Through programs across the country, nurses, social workers or trained mentors offer support to new or expectant parents and impart skills to help them become better teachers for their children. (via Washington Post)

City closure of Cobble Hill preschool means kids are having ‘classes’ in parks, museums as parents fume
The Linden Tree Preschool is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. The city closed it on May 9, saying it did not have permits for infants or toddlers. Since then, parents have taken their kids to the park and other field trips where teachers have been instructing the kids. (via NY Daily News)

USA Football health and safety survey shows few youth concussions
Fewer than 4 percent of youth players surveyed in a USA Football-sanctioned study suffered concussions in the 10 leagues examined. (via Fox News)

This post was written by our friends at Celebrity Baby Scoop

Hilary Duff has joined the campaign to support Johnson’s Baby Cares partnership with Save the Children for the second year in a row. The actress recently visited the Save the Children early childhood education school in Yucca Valley, California – where she met with families who benefit from the program.

Celebrity Baby Scoop recently had a chance to catch up with Hilary about the Johnson’s Baby Cares program, her 1-year-old son Luca, and her biggest motherhood rewards.

Celebrity Baby Scoop: Tell us about partnering with Johnson’s Baby for Johnson’s Baby Cares. What’s it all about? Why did you get involved?

Hilary Duff: I can’t believe I have my first year as a mom under my belt – time flies. Looking back on it, I’ve been thinking a lot about the support I received from my family, friends and fans over the past year, and how their words of encouragement really helped me get through some challenging days.

Unfortunately not all moms have the same support system or even basic everyday resources to help them with motherhood. That’s why I’m proud to partner with Johnson’s Baby Cares for the second year on its newest campaign centered around Johnson’s Baby “Care Cards” – which is helping to deliver encouragement and positive support to moms across the country, while also raising funds for families and babies assisted by Save the Children.

Now, everyone can help in an easy and fun way! Visit Johnson’s Baby’s Facebook page to send a digital Care Card filled with love and inspiration to a special mom in your life. For every card sent, shared or liked Johnson’s Baby will donate $1 to Save the Children to benefit early parenting and childhood education programs.

CBS: How’s baby Luca doing? Is he into everything these days now that he’s walking?

HD: “Luca’s incredible! I can’t believe he is already 13 months old. He’s certainly an active boy and yes, even more so now that he is walking. In fact, he basically skipped the walking stage and went straight to “speed walking.” I spend my days on my feet trailing him around the house and yard!”

CBS: How has your life changed in the last year since you’ve become a mother? What are the greatest rewards of motherhood? Biggest challenges?

HD: I really love being a mom.Motherhoodchanges the way you see the world. I’ve always been passionate about giving back, but now I’m more passionate about supporting causes that help other moms and babies, like Johnson’s Baby Cares.

I’m rewarded by Luca every day, whether it’s with a new smile or an accomplished milestone, but the biggest reward has to be discovering this tremendous newfound love that I had no idea existed within me. Every day brings new challenges, but you learn to trust yourself and your instincts to help get through them.

CBS: You seem to have the ‘perfect’ life with a great career and family life. But do you think women can REALLY ‘have it all’? Have you had to make sacrifices now that you’re a mom?

HD: Nobody’s life is perfect but in this day and age women are able to find a balance between work and home life. Of course my life has changed but I don’t think of them as sacrifices because I was ready for this new chapter!

CBS: We saw you and Mike enjoying Coachella. Comment on the importance of making time as a couple. Do you think it’s important? Do you have regular date nights?

HD: Yes of course it’s important to make time to focus on your relationship. But it’s not always easy! We aren’t huge planners, we tend to do things last minute but we enjoy going out for nice dinners or spending time with friends.

CelebrityBabyScoop.com is one of the most popular blogs on the topic and the foremost provider of everything celebrity-baby, featuring baby fashion, baby names, baby trends and up-to-the-minute celebrity baby gossip and pics. Get all the latest news, updates, and photos about Hollywood’s most beloved celebrity moms, dads and their babies. Who’s the latest Tinseltown baby? Who’s due next and who just announced a pregnancy? It’s all on Celebrity Baby Scoop.