Kids are warned not to give in to peer pressure, but peer pressure can also be a very GOOD thing!

A team of researchers found evidence that although kids who hang out with smokers are more likely to become smokers themselves, if someone stops smoking, that behavior pattern will also spread throughout the group and in social circles far beyond that one.

Way back in February, I told you about a contest where kids in grades Kindergarten to 12 were invited to create a logo for the Google home page. The theme for the contest was "What if...?" and the winning entry was promised the honor of seeing his or her design grace the Google home page on May 22. Well, today is the day and if you visit Google.com, you will see Grace Moon's lovely drawing entitled "Up in the Clouds."

Moon is a 6th grader at Canyon Middle School in Castro Valley, California. Her vision of "What if...?" is a beautiful world in the sky. Of her design, she writes: "This new world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened. Every person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day." It's a lovely drawing and an beautiful sentiment.

Grace Moon may have won the top spot, but I am sure the judges had a difficult time choosing from all these wonderful entries. Congratulations to Grace and all the kids who answered the question "What if...?" with their own unique visions.

While the list of foods that could harm or even kill a baby continues to grow and make one wonder how earlier generations ever survived, another no-no has been added to the list: water.

Thirsty babies under six months of age should not be given water. Due to the dangerous combination of a strong sucking reflex, and immature kidneys, it's easy for an infant to take in too much water and throw off the body's sodium level enough to affect brain activity.

Kids these days! I tell ya! I can understand bringing your cell phone to court -- you might break down on the way there or back and need to call for a tow truck or you might just want to call someone afterwards and let them know you'll be home for dinner instead of in three to five. I could even understand forgetting to turn it off or set it to silent mode and looking around sheepishly and apologetically while you frantically try to shut the thing up, should someone call while the court is in session.

Actually taking a call, however, seems a bit much, especially if you're sitting in the front row. Apparently, magistrate Daynor Trigg of Australia's Northern Territory thinks so too, and told a seventeen-year-old so when the boy did just that. The teen was in court to answer two charges of breaking and entering and stealing when his phone rang. "How dare you answer a phone in court ... that allows transmissions from court ... which is a serious contempt,'' shouted the judge.

The teen responded flippantly and the judge sent him off to cool down in the court's holding cells. Two hours later, the boy was back in court where he apologized to the judge, saying "Sorry your honour for um ... having my phone on and answering it during court and backchatting." What made the boy's actions even worse is that the phone call came in moments after the judge had warned the court to turn off the cell phones.

"One of the problems that seems to be developing within our community." the judge opined from the bench, "is that there is so much time devoted by schools and others to telling people what their rights are, without the corresponding lessons being taught as to what people's obligations are." I agree completely. In many places, we enjoy great freedoms, but with those rights come great responsibilities as well. Hopefully, this kid learned his lesson well.

When kids are little, the responsibility for making sure they take necessary medications falls to the parents. You may have to hold them down and force them at times, but that is totally doable. But when they get older, necessity dictates that kids with chronic illnesses begin to take more responsibility for their own health. Short of following them around with a bottle of pills/syringe/inhaler, parents are often powerless to ensure their kids are doing what they need to do in order to stay healthy.

Reasoning that chronically ill kids who don't take their meds are doing so out of forgetfulness, Dr. Maria Britto hit on what may be a very effective way of reminding them: text messages. What better way to grab the attention of a teen these days than via their ever-present cell phone? "You have to get in their face a little," says Britta, an asthma specialist at Cincinnati Children's.

Her idea has evolved into a study to see if daily text message reminders will improve the health of teens who suffer from asthma. Pilot testing has begun and a full study will get underway later in the year. Study participant Kabrina Moton confesses that in the past, she has gone a whole month without taking her asthma medication. Now, she gets a happy little reminder each evening and she says she hasn't missed a dose. "It always says, 'Have a nice day,'" she says. "It makes me feel good about it."

If Dr. Britto's idea proves successful for asthma patients, it stands to reason that it would work for other diseases as well. "We have the science," Britto says. "We just can't figure out how to get the right drugs into the right kids' bodies." Maybe now they have.

My 4-year-old son Bennett says, "It smells like the pool, Mommy" and I know exactly what he means. He's talking about the bleachy smell our new towels have, which reminds me, too, of the chlorine in the swimming pool at the hotel we visited (unexpectedly) last year, when our travel trailer broke a leaf spring on our family camping trip.

Or sunscreen. It's like having the beach in a bottle; as soon as I smear Banana Boat on the kids, I recall long days throwing rocks in the lake, or floating belly first on inter-tubes, trying to catch the tiny minnows that flash and dart in the shallows.

The lilac outside my window reminds me of the ones by my parent's house, when I was a little girl. I have a memory of falling asleep tucked between cool, clean sheets, to the gentle fragrance of a bunch in a jar by my bedside.

Which of course reminds me of my own Mom--on the nights she and Dad went out, I'd sit on the edge of her bed and watch her finish getting dressed, in the big, long mirror over her dresser. She'd put on a necklace or earrings; then perfume, which she kept on a little mirrored tray on her dresser. She'd let me twist open the lids and smell the fragrances with names like Charlie or Anais Anais, then she'd reach down and dab a bit of whatever she was wearing on each of my wrists.

Does your kid know every word to every song from the Disney hits High School Musical and High School Musical 2? Can he or she belt out a tune like Sharpay, bust a move like Chad and look pretty like Troy? If so, here's a way to channel all that talent away from your tired ears and onto the small screen.

Sponsored by the Disney Channel, My School Musical gives kids a chance to get their 3 minutes of fame doing something they are probably already doing anyway - singing High School Musical songs. All they have to do is create a video of themselves singing one of four songs, upload it and sit back and wait for the glory. Actually, they can do more than wait - they can watch other kids videos and rate them. The best of the best will be featured during the June 13th airing of High School Musical and High School Musical 2.

Deadline for entries is May 30th and even if you aren't planning to enter, check out the submissions so far. That, my friends, is entertainment.

My five-year-old is a popsicle connoisseur; he has opinions on everything from the color and texture to the flavor and packaging. When the warm weather returns, he will announce solemnly, "It's popscle time, Mama," and remind me to add them to the grocery list.

The other day I mentioned that we could make our own popsicles and he stared at me with gigantic eyes. "WE CAN?!?" he demanded. "HOW DO WE DO THAT?" Well, I said, we need a recipe ... "FIND ONE!" he insisted. So I did.

Simply Recipes, which is one of my favorite food sites, has a wonderful and simple recipe for juice popsicles; it includes recommendations about where to get good molds, should you need those, too. Easy Kids Recipies has several variations, including a root beer float-cicle that sounds great to me (my son says not, it's not a REAL popsicle). Cooks.com has a nice selection of fruit-based pop recipes, for a more nutritious alternative.

Not really in the mood to MAKE the popsicles? My son would like to recommend Edy's fruit bars; the variety packages are a nice choice because the pops are small-ish and you get three flavors in each box. And of course there's always the classic Popsicle, with the joke written on the stick. Those are fun, too.

Even though Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards split up, oh, 100 years ago, they're still duking it out in the press. The relationship between the two is so contentious, they recently received the honor of named one of Hollywood's nastiest divorces.

The most recent issue surrounds an email that Richards allegedly sent to Sheen's current girlfriend, Brooke Mueller. Sheen contends that Richards asked him for a sperm donation, so that she could have another child and that all three children would have the same father.

The pregnant-and-nude photo trend has captured another celebrity. According to sources, seven-months-pregnant Nicole Kidman is planning to pose naked in all her pregnant glory for photographer Patrick Demarchelier. She hasn't done it yet because she's not quite pregnant enough. She wants to showcase her belly at its largest and therefore will wait until just before her due date to pose.

Judging by recent photos, Nicole Kidman is one of those women who don't even look pregnant when viewed from behind. Or from the front. You have to see her from the side to appreciate the fact that there is a baby on board. Basically, her pregnant belly looks like mine after a large meal. How does she do that?

As everyone knows, Kidman isn't the first celebrity to pose naked while pregnant. Demi Moore started the trend back in 1991 when she bared all for Vanity Fair magazine. Since then we've seen Britney, Christina and even Lisa Rinna. But what about regular moms? Did you post nude while pregnant? If so, where do you display that photo?