 Your children may be too young to text with you now, but the day will come when they too might submit your messages to When Parents Text

 Over at Slate, Brian Palmer looks at whether secondhand car seats are safe and other eco-riddles for expecting parents.

 This week in her GOOP newsletter, Gwyneth Paltrow interviews Mary Hartzell, the director of the First Presbyterian Nursery School in Santa Monica, about her theories on parenting.

 Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Boing tries out Papertoy Monsters (pictured above), the new book that comes with 50 die-cut templates for creating your own cardboard monsters. All you need is glue.

 A new survey has found that the majority of teens are not reluctant to friend their parents on Facebook.

 The internet is buzzing about Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, after a New York Times review and profile of Amy Chua and her memoir about the art of tough Chinese parenting.

 For a limited time, get a one year subscription to Parents magazine for $1 from Barnes & Noble using coupon code K9B9J4H. (At checkout, choose Apply a Gift Card.)

Although I hold clear memories of singing “Buddy Holly” on the playground, it’s still hard to believe that Weezer has been rocking out since my grade school days. In the past nineteen years, the Rivers Cuomo fronted nerd-rock garage band has sold nine million albums in the United States alone and has revitalized the horn-rimmed glasses market in the process. With Rockabye Baby’s Lullaby Renditions of Weezer’s biggest hits, you can share soothing versions of your favorite Weezer jams with a new generation of fans. These are the stories behind each song on the album:

My Name is Jonas: Cuomo wrote this 1994 “Blue Album” classic about issues his brother was having with his insurance company after getting into a car accident.

Island in the Sun: The band didn’t plan on putting this track on their 2001 “Green Album,” but the album’s producer, former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, liked the song and fought for its inclusion, and he won.

Susanne: This song’s line “Even Izzy, Slash, and Axl Rose, when I call you put ‘em all on hold,” refers to three members of  Guns ‘N Roses.

Say it Ain’t So: Cuomo wrote the lyrics to this song about his fear that his mother and stepfather might divorce. Music website Pitchfork ranked the song at number 10 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s

Across the Sea: This Pinkerton track was inspired by a letter Cuomo received from a Japanese fan while he was attending Harvard University. Cuomo has never contacted the girl.

Buddy Holly: This “Blue Album” classic was released on September 7, 1994, which would have been Buddy Holly’s 58^th birthday.

Beverly Hills: The video for this Make Believe track was shot at The Playboy Mansion, which is not actually in Beverly Hills.

El Scorcho: This Pinkerton track is rumored to have been named after a packet of hot sauce from fast food chain Del Taco named Del Scorcho. Cuomo has neither confirmed nor denied this claim.

Undone – The Sweater Song: Weezer’s first music video was for “Undone,” from the “Blue Album.” The video was shot by a young Spike Jonze for a modest $60,000 and was a major MTV hit.

In the Garage: This track appears on Weezer, better known as “The Blue Album.” The record was recorded at New York’s legendary Electric Lady Studios, a facility originally built by Jimi Hendrix.

The Good Life: This Pinkerton track was the album’s second single. It was rush ordered by the record company in an effort to save the commercially failing LP. The tactic did not work, although the album remains a critical hit and cult favorite.

Only in Dreams: Weezer’s final track has run time of seven minutes and 59 seconds, making it the album’s longest song.

(Psst!…And don’t forget: This little bundle of joy is arriving on February 15th, 2011!!)

I’m a single guy in my early thirties — the notion of being a father is about as foreign to me as being the owner of a pet giraffe.  Actually, having watched a fair amount of Discovery Channel I’d probably make for a better giraffe owner than father.  A giraffe needs relatively high-growing leaves and twigs.  A baby needs to be burped and fed and changed and, see, I don’t even know what else a baby needs.

That said, I’m a big fan of babies.  I catch their glances on airplanes and in supermarket checkout lines and can almost always make them laugh.  (I’m exceptional at peek-a-boo.)  I’m even pretty good with the basics of holding babies, which is to say I’ve never dropped one.  So when my brother and sister-in-law asked me to feed their daughter, my 15month-old niece, I was pretty sure I was up for the task.  After all, I’ve been feeding myself for thirty years.

So there we were, Eleanor and I, sitting alone in the kitchen with a tiny plate of various tiny foods between us. In retrospect, it seems Eleanor was simply not hungry.  Unbeknownst to me, she rarely eats a big dinner and had inhaled a relatively late lunch a couple hours earlier.  But at the time, the fact that I couldn’t coerce her into opening up for even one strawberry felt like a real failure.  The fact that the plate ended up on the floor didn’t help.

Eleanor and I sat in silence.  It was awkward, and we both felt it.  I attempted a quick game of peek-a-boo but she just looked at me, blankly, as if to say “Why do you keep covering your face with your hands like an idiot.” I was out of options.  And then, for some reason, I decided to blow her a kiss.  One of those really loud, puckering kisses.  I did it again and again, because I was beginning to get a laugh out of her.  Then, just as my brother and sister-in-law walked in, Eleanor blew a kiss back.  Well, not the blowing part, but she definitely kissed.  My brother, dumbfounded, said that was the first time she’d ever done that.  Then he asked why Eleanor’s dinner was on the floor.

One day I’m pretty sure I’ll have a kid of my own, and I look forward to it.  For now, let me just say how much I respect all you mothers and fathers out there — I look forward to making your babies laugh as you struggle to get through the TSA checkpoint.  Just don’t ask me to feed them.