Weekly Ketchup (updated): Important Autism News and Random Interwebz Nonsense

Here's what I've been up to over the last week:

Today on NickMom I have "Top 9 Things I Expect to Hear While Watching the Kids Choice Awards."

I also contribute to the daily "Take 5" spin on the news. My favorite story of the week was the cringe-inducing video of Alicia Silverstone chewing her son's food for him, and then feeding him mouth-to-mouth.

For Redbook magazine's Mamarama, I wrote 6 Spring Activities for the Non-Sporty Family. As you guys know, our major sport here is Therapy. Pretty sure my kids are going to letter in it this year.

For Strollerderby, I covered a couple of important autism- and education-related stories:

• The CDC released new numbers reflecting the current rate of autism diagnoses, and it's now at 1 in 88, up from 1 in 110 in 2006. During that time, the rate of autism diagnoses in children in my house went from 0 in 4 to 2 in 4.

• A study out of the Kennedy Krieger Institute shows that autistic kids face three times the bullying of their typically-developing siblings. The study is particularly helpful in that it details where, when, why, and how these kids are being bullied, and looks at a variety of educational settings. Regardless of your child's placement, it's really important information to share with your school.

• Speaking of bullying, a horrible new Facebook app now allows users to add "enemies." I almost didn't cover it, because I'm loathe to give this thing the publicity, but I think it's yet another thing parents need to be aware of in monitoring their kids' Internet usage.

YouTube's VenusAngelic is
laughing her way to the
bank (in a very high-pitched
girly giggle, I assume). 

In random Internet weirdness, I also covered:

• A story of a 15-year-old London girl who makes insanely successful YouTube tutorials on how to make yourself look like a doll. It's really cool except for the girl's "doll" voice. Go ahead and check it out, then let me know exactly how many seconds you could watch it before wanting to throw your laptop out the window.

• My take on Alicia Silverstone's vegan, pre-chewed breakfast with her baby: I'll Just Have Coffee and a Bagel, Thanks.

I also have a post about principals cracking down on risque prom wear, with some extremely specific examples given by actual high schools. Take home message: do not model your prom look on "Dancing With The Stars." I'm feeling rather grateful that the craziest thing going on at my prom was the extreme overuse of hair spray.

On the lighter side, I also created a slideshow (demonstrating my mad skillz with MS Paint) of my predictions 24 Children's Books That Scream Out for Product Placement. Because now that the Lorax is shilling SUVs for Mazda, I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing some of these soon.

Check my slideshow at Strollerderby. And yes, David Beckham does make a fine Captain Underpants.