BED

In state-of-the-art homes teeming with technological toys, the notion of a daybed is almost anachronistic. Even the word seems oddly old-fashioned. But despite its quaint label, the daybed has been inching its way back into the design lexicon and retail stores for the last few years. Often deeper than a sofa, or slim as a twin bed with or without sides, it's more a generous settee than a one-sided chaise. Designed for more than sitting, it beckons. Whether you sit, sprawl or flat out nap on it, the daybed is the ultimate piece of cocooning furniture.

Baltimore's only shelter for battered women has almost quadrupled its number of beds.The House of Ruth, a 22-year-old nonprofit organization at 2201 Argonne Drive, plans a ceremony Wednesday to dedicate its new 84-bed shelter, officials said."

The operator of a dump truck was killed yesterday when the loading bed collapsed on him as he tried to free the tarpaulin covering that became entangled in the bed's gears, police said.Eugene Black, 41, of the 3600 block of Brehms Lane in Northeast Baltimore was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident in the 5400 block of Belair Road, said Detective Cliff Macer.Macer said Black, a driver for Pulaski Roofers in Perry Hall, and a co-worker were working in the rear of the 5400 block of Belair Road about 4: 30 p.m. when the tarpaulin became entangled in the loading bed's control gears, preventing the loading bed from moving up or down.

Editor's note: Nathaniel Willy is scared silly by a squeaky door, so Gramma must put the farm animals in bed with him for company.Nathaniel Willy and his gramma lived in a creaky old house in the country. Every night at bedtime, Gramma came into Nathaniel Willy's room.She pulled up the blanket and tucked him in,then kissed him resoundingly -- smack! on the chin."Good-night -- eyes shut tight," she said.Then she went out and closed the door.But one bitter cold night, when Gramma closed the door -- Eeeeeeeek!

Q. My 6 1/2-year-old goddaughter, "Sally," relates to other children in a very contentious manner. She seems to enjoy picking fights with her playmates to get a rise out of them. Often, many of the children end up furious and crying. Sometimes she herself ends up in tears - but this doesn't stop the behavior.One example: Sally will say the sky is orange. When the other child responds that it is blue, she'll calmly continue to say it's orange until the other child is very upset. Sometimes she'll appear to be very competitive with the other child until it all ends in a fight.

IT IS MAY, and the kids will be out of school before we know it. It is our last chance to clean out closets and drawers and remove all the junk that has collected there since September, and to do it without the howls of protest that would follow us to Goodwill and to the curb on bulk-trash day.While raking the debris out from under my daughter's bed, I discovered the following mismatched bits of information best filed under the heading: "True Facts."*...

The Carroll County Board of Zoning Appeals has approved a request for a bed-and-breakfast at 3514 Kump Station Road in Taneytown.John A. and Mary Dawn Durange made the request to operate a bed-and-breakfast on 9.5 acres. The couple want to use two or three bedrooms and one bathroom of a home there for the business.The board approved the request with the conditions that a turnaround for vehicles be installed on the property and that the sewage disposal and water supply systems be modified.

Parents often want to know when they should start worrying about bed-wetting. Most children are able to stay dry during the day by age 3, but there is no predictable time for success at night. Though some see it as a problem if a child has not stopped wetting the bed by the age of 5, many children are not "ready" to stay dry when we expect them to.Some children have an immature bladder, which leads to difficult night control. There are also children whose sleep patterns are immature. Their arousal patterns in light (REM)

Many interior designers, myself included, will gladly reconfigure a bed whenever a style-conscious client requests it. Giving an old bed a new look can be a practical challenge as well as an opportunity to give form to a fantasy. That's why so many different designs -- from beds in the shapes of mythical swans to headboards that look like bookcases -- have been attempted at one time or another.The so-called Hollywood Bed of the 1930s ushered in one of the biggest changes in modern American bed design.

We have a 7-year-old son who is very normal and smart in school, but he is afraid to sleep alone in his own room. Since he was a baby, he has slept in our bed, and when we tell him he should sleep in his own room, he says he is afraid something will get him. I hope someone can help us.-- Mary Lucas Parma Heights, OhioIf parents are firm, consistent and reassuring, a 7-year-old can learn to fall asleep in his own bed -- and stay there -- within just a...

In a never-ending quest to plumb the mysteries of men, women and sex, the journal Human Nature has published a study that minces no words in concluding that women "have higher standards" when engaging in a one-night stand. Sure, sure, we've all heard the evolutionary argument: With the dangers of prospective childbirth and years of child care hanging in the balance, women would be expected to be choosier than men about whom they will mate with. Bound by no such commitments and keen to maximize the propagation of their DNA, men will mate, shall we say, more indiscriminately.

From what I can tell, in just the few minutes I've spent watching her at work, the physical therapist is everything you'd want in one - patient and positive, even cheerful, experienced at working with the old and infirm, empathetic but not a push-over. The PT wants something out of her patient today, and she's determined to get at least some of it. "Come on now, Louie," she tells the old man, as he lay on his bed on Saturday morning. "Let's do leg lifts, and let's bend those knees." The old man has been through hell recently, a streak of health problems that have taken their toll in energy and attitude.

Kimberly Edmonds moved with her energetic 2-year-old son into a Baltimore County homeless shelter two months ago. "I was upset, and I cried a lot," the 41-year-old former Rosedale resident said. "My son and I should not be in this situation. I would not wish it on my worst enemy." Surrounded by trees and spacious lawns, the two-story brick building housing the Hannah More shelter on Reisterstown Road resembles a college dorm. The 75-bed shelter is clean and well-maintained. A nearby playground with brightly colored slides and swings helps occupy her son, Christian.

A local father who reads the Charm City Moms blog asked me: "How do we get our 3-year-old out of our bed?" Kim West, a Severna Park social worker who tackles children's sleep problems as "The Sleep Lady," says that many of her clients start out committed to "co-sleeping" with their young kids, but find it doesn't quite work out for them. "I also encounter lots of 'we didn't plan it this way' couples seeking help in finally breaking the pattern. These families end up missing their privacy, or they end up just not getting very much sleep."

We recently purchased a vacation house with a beautiful view of a harbor -- at least from the living room. In the master bedroom, all we see is sky when sitting in chairs or lying in bed. That's because the windows, while average in size, were placed higher than usual on the wall so that a dresser could fit under them. A friend advised us to build a platform for the bed and seating area. But wouldn't that make the room look smaller and disjointed? Do you have other suggestions? Lots of people buy houses mainly on the basis of the views they offer.

Is your bed a wallflower or a boudoir star? Ironically, the piece of furniture we lean on the most -- physically and emotionally -- gets the least amount of our attention and interior design resources. "As soon as you look in the room, you want the bed to be the focal point," said interior designer Danie Dunn, owner of Danie Dunn Designs in Kansas City, Mo. "People spend more money on their kitchen and don't even know how to cook. Your bedroom should be your most important priority." Sure, it's important that your bed fit the room and your body.

As I removed yet another Lego block that had become painfully embedded in the bare arch of my right foot, I scanned what had once been our living room, now a minefield of plastic droppings from my five free-range children. When my first child was born more than 15 years ago, my wife and I considered several parenting styles, including authoritative, authoritarian, assertive-democratic and Jong-Ilian. Our discussions began with a brief analysis and evaluation of how each of us was parented.

In state-of-the-art homes teeming with technological toys, the notion of a daybed is almost anachronistic. Even the word seems oddly old-fashioned. But despite its quaint label, the daybed has been inching its way back into the design lexicon and retail stores for the last few years. Often deeper than a sofa, or slim as a twin bed with or without sides, it's more a generous settee than a one-sided chaise. Designed for more than sitting, it beckons. Whether you sit, sprawl or flat out nap on it, the daybed is the ultimate piece of cocooning furniture.

FEELING A LITTLE GROGGY this morning and blaming the switch to daylight-saving time? Maybe you ought to look at the person on the other side of the bed instead. Americans aren't sleeping well. About 70 million of us have problems sleeping, according to the National Institutes of Health. In spite of our dual-control beds covered in high thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets, Breathe Right nasal strips to eliminate snoring and, of course, the magic Lunesta butterfly and other potent sleeping aids, we still aren't getting our recommended z's. What's even worse, our bed partners are often to blame.

The Northwest Baltimore man accused of punishing a teen-age girl by chaining her to a bed and leaving her for 60 hours pleaded guilty in Circuit Court yesterday to a charge of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison. Samuel David Pounds Jr., 30, will serve his sentence concurrently with a two-year term for violating probation from an unrelated marijuana distribution charge. Judge Joseph H. H. Kaplan also ordered Pounds to attend a six-month course in fatherhood, receive drug counseling, complete an anger management course and stay away from the 15-year-old-victim and her 8-year-old brother.