Mothers

Up to half of sexually active young people will get a sexually transmitted disease by the time they are 25, yet many don't seek testing because it may be difficult, costly or embarrassing. Public health officials nationally and in particularly affected cities like Baltimore, however, say they've found a method that seems to address the major hurdles — a website that supplies free in-home testing kits for three of the most commonly reported STDs. "The highest prevalence is in young adults, and we knew we had to reach these kids," said Charlotte A. Gaydos, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Morgan Lane Arnold, an emotionally frail 14-year-old freshman, navigated the hallways of her Howard County high school each day filled with anxiety, unable because of a learning disorder to decipher the social cues, jokes and emotions of her peers. Her preferred environment, often accented by a Japanese anime soundtrack streaming through snug earplugs, featured a mix of fairies, mermaids and vampires, according to her mother. They were the protagonists of a digital realm where she said she was "practicing making friends" through role-playing games and social media.

Moms are feeding their babies solid foods before their bodies are developed enough to handle it, a new study by the Centers For Disease Control has found. The American Academy of Pediatrics has long advised that babies don't get solid food until they are four to six months-old. But 40 percent of the nearly 1,300 mothers surveyed in the study said they introduced food before that. Babies are better developed at 4 to 6 months of age, including having the ability to hold their heads up and open their mouths for food.

Mothers are very important people. They give us hugs and kisses; they put Band-Aids on our wounds; they hide special notes in our lunch boxes. They're so special and important that they even get their own day. Today, my two brothers - Matthew and Jacob - and I will celebrate our mothers for Mother's Day. We'll plot how to surprise our moms and talk about what we should make for a special breakfast, then go do something fun with them. But this Mother's Day will be even more special than all of the others because we'll plan all our surprises knowing that soon after, on May 18 (one week before their 30th anniversary)

While I totally respect Chris Bolgiano's right to decide "not to be" ("An overpopulated, over-consuming world needs people willing not to procreate", May 9) and truly admire her global motivation, as for me, I would rather see (and the world would surely need) a child created and nurtured by someone so intelligent and talented as she is, than 10 children born to others who are not. Marge Mitchell, Cub Hill

I'm not going to lie: Mother's Day has taken me by surprise this year. Maybe it's all the hoopla of returning to the office this week after maternity leave and getting this blog launched, but I'm definitely not ready. For the moms in my life, I'm sorry: Your presents have been ordered, but they won't be delivered in time for me to get them to you on Sunday. But you have my unending gratitude for all your love and support, especially through the challenges of the past year. And readers, thankfully, my colleagues have you covered.

I have just one comment on the unfortunate Hillary Rosen's remarks concerning Ann Romney ("Strategist's Ann Romney remarks touch off a storm," April 13). Women who choose to stay at home not only raise their children and run their households are usually a strong supporter of their spouse, the wage earner. They continue to be aware of social and economic issues while working as homemakers. Many have given up careers, some permanently, but they do not stop learning, and they continue to be assets in our society.

Laura Marsico and girlfriends Cheryl Bernard-Smith and Laura Durington didn't give a second thought to leaving their children with their husbands for a weekend of couture, celebrities and the overall fabulousness that is New York Fashion Week. The three attended the Rebecca Taylor fashion show Sunday in Lincoln Center. It was the first time the trio had taken an overnight excursion together sans children in the past six years. It was also an opportunity for the working mothers to let their collective hair down while revisiting their big-city roots.

It was a bleak moment for Angela Bethea when she realized she couldn't have a child. But the child arrived nonetheless — born to a distant relative and left behind in the hospital. "We opened the door of our hearts as God saw fit, and in came Brea," said Bethea, holding the 23-month-old girl in her lap, husband Jerome Bethea beside her. "She has been a tremendous blessing." The city's Department of Social Services invited foster families such as the Betheas to a brunch Sunday, thanking them on Mother's Day for the care they give to city children birthed by others.

My mother was a legal secretary back in the day, and when she left for work, her purse matched her shoes and she wore a hat and gloves. She was a legal secretary in the mold of Della Street, for those of you who remember the Perry Mason show, but she gave up all of that when she married and started having children. Years later, when I was a young reporter for the Associated Press, my boss at the time demanded that I carry a gun when I worked the night shift. I refused. And when he declared that he would send me to an assignment where I could be murdered but not to one where I could be raped, I was too stunned to ask whether I had a choice.

As a mother, Howard Community College student Sonia Halboni believes she always has her children's best interests at heart, yet she can remember once when her peers didn't concur. When her daughter, Daliah, graduated from Marriotts Ridge High School two years ago and couldn't assemble enough financial aid to enroll at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Sonia suggested she enroll at HCC - where mom was already both a student and an office assistant in the school's science division office.

When Jill Smokler - more widely known as Scary Mommy - starts talking about motherhood, you'll hear a lot about sleepless nights, green snot and having kids walk into the master bedroom at the most inopportune times. Does she think her children are amazing and love them to death? Definitely. But mothering them didn't come naturally. As she says in her new book, "Motherhood Comes Naturally (and Other Vicious Lies)," what does come naturally is "Food. Sleep. Comfort. Privacy.

MINNEAPOLIS - An annual Major League Baseball undertaking to provide exposure and money to cancer-awareness charities became embroiled in a bit of a controversy Friday, with an Oriole being one of the players inadvertently involved. On Sunday, as part of its Mother's Day celebration, participating players will wear and use pink equipment - to bring more awareness to breast cancer issues - as they have since 2006. The items will then be auctioned off with proceeds going to charities including Susan G. Komen For The Cure, which has championed breast cancer research for decades.

With Mother's Day approaching, that suggested a motherly, guilt trip-y theme for Midweek Madness. Here's the great comic duo Elaine May and Mike Nichols, presenting a classic case of a mother whose son never calls.

One of the most appealing things about liquor is its ability to absorb flavors. Whether bacon, fruit or oak, the process of infusion can make any run-of-the-mill vodka a taste sensation, given the right proportions and enough time. While leather-infused bourbon may seem like an unapproachable or acquired taste (it does exist, for the record), you can never go wrong with a good old fashioned fruit infusion. Many drinkeries around the Baltimore area have their own varieties. In Federal Hill, Mother's Grille has the Summertime Infusion.

How do you keep your kids from doing things you don't want them to do? Barack and Michelle Obama try reverse psychology. The president told an interviewer on the Today show that's the approach he and Michelle are taking when it comes to tattoos. “What we've said to the girls is, 'If you guys ever decided you're going to get a tattoo, then mommy and me will get the exact same tattoo in the same place. And we'll go on YouTube and show it off as a family tattoo,'” President Obama said.

Patti James was in Toronto with her husband when she got the call no parent wants to receive. Her football-playing son was in a Little Rock, Ark., hospital after collapsing in practice with heat stroke. "I thought I would get to the hospital and find him sitting on the side of the bed eating Jell-O with an IV in his arm," she said at the Youth Sports Safety Alliance symposium in Washington Tuesday. Instead, he was in a drug-induced coma and on a respirator. His liver and kidneys were failing.

MOTHER'S DAY is a troubling holiday for me. My own mother was entirely satisfactory, and my own mothering has been more growth-producing than frustrating. Yet the second Sunday in May always bothers me.I dislike the sentimental image of sainted motherhood slickly promoted by greeting cards and advertisers. The perfect mother makes no connection with the love and anger or the joy and pain I experience both as mother and daughter. Mother-as-saint just doesn't ring true for me as I reflect on my life or as I observe my world.

The call came into the Baltimore County emergency dispatch center just after midnight. An unidentified woman asked police respond to a home in Parkville. She didn't say why. When officers arrived in the first minutes of Sunday, they found 26-year-old Paul White Jr., who had been released from the county jail less than three months earlier, leaving his family's home, police said. Inside, White's mother was found unconscious and bleeding from at least one stab wound from a kitchen knife, and his sister was also found stabbed and bleeding, police said.

The successful relationship between WWE and Susan G. Komen will continue, as a special Mother's Day campaign has been launched. “Make Mom Proud” is an awareness campaign to support the fight against breast cancer. The TV and digital campaign, which coincides with Mother's Day, calls on supporters to do something meaningful for their moms and the other important women in their lives. As part of the campaign, WWE will urge fans to support moms by taking steps to educate themselves about the disease, participate in local Susan G. Komen Races in their communities, and donate to Komen, the world's largest nonprofit funder of breast cancer research and community outreach programs.