Terrible Twos

In Dayton, OH, a 4-year-old boy was found wandering near a rest stop. A pair of travelers found him, kept him safe in their car until authorities arrived. The young boy was able to tell the officers that somebody entered their home and shot his mother. His mother was found dead in their home.

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In Texas, a woman locked her child in her car while she went out drinking. She was eventually arrested due to public intoxication. Her daughter was safely removed from the vehicle and the mother was charged with child endangerment as well as possession of Xanax. The daughter is currently under the care of grandparents.

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In West Palm Beach, FL, a 12-month-old toddler accidentally pushed the screen out of a window while standing on her parents bed. She fell outside of the window 3 stories, into some bushes and just a few inches away from a metal transformer. A medical check-up confirmed that the baby survived unscathed. Police are calling the incident an accident.

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In Sanford, FL, a homeless man named Andrew Sheppard attempted to pry a 3-year-old from his mother’s arms at a McDonald’s. He also attempted to take her purse from her while she was standing near the counter. He told her that if she was decent she would give him money. She ran outside of the restaurant and called the police. He followed her and started banging on her car. She went through the Drive-Thru to warn the other people in the restaurant about the incident. Sheppard was found near the McDonald’s by the police and is currently held on $7,200 bond.

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a 15-year-old girl living in Coventry (in the UK) saved the life of her 3 year old sister. Chantal braved fire and smoke inhalation to rescue her sleeping sister from the bedroom. Chantal was able to get them to safety. Her neighbor was attempting to put out the fire while she went in to get her sister. Everyone is now safe.

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In Atteridgeville, South Africa, a 2-year-old boy touched a an electrical stove that was turned on to boil some water. He was immediately electrocuted. His mother was in the bathroom during the incident. Allegedly, the boy’s uncle illegally re-connected the family’s electricity after it had been shut down — causing the voltage to be extremely high.

You’re probably not thinking about buying your little one a Burberry coat that he’ll soon grow out of. But Burberry does make an adorable toddler line for those who are curious. Maybe dads can get mom and babe matching coats for an extra special gift.

Or maybe achieve the same idea and look with brands like American Apparel, which offers hoodies and mini-me hoodies — a great gift idea for a new mom and dad, and baby.

*A surgeon removed a tumor from the brain of an infant. In the tumor were a perfectly formed foot and hand and thigh — a rare and extremely unique occurrence. It is speculated that it is a complex congenital tumor, or perhaps “fetus in fetu”, which occurs when a twin develops inside the other twin. For it to occur in the brain, however, is unheard of. The infant is recovering fine but will return for follow up visits to make sure no other tumors occur.

*In New Jersey, a cake decorator refused to decorate a cake with the three-year-old birthday boy’s name, Adolf Hitler Campbell. The mother claims that it’s “unfortunate” that a boy can’t even have his own name on his cake…

*The skeletal remains of Caylee Anthony were found.

*A thief stole a vehicle containing a toddler while the father ran inside a restaurant to pick up a food order. The car was found 20 minutes later, the car and heat still running and the toddler safe and sound asleep. Police had received an anonymous call letting them know where to find the kid.

Kelly Rutherford is proud to continue breastfeeding her 2-year-old son, Hermes. The Gossip Girl star jokes that it is probably helping her keep her figure.

She has received heat for deciding to continue to breastfeed, however, according to sources such as the World Health Organization and pediatrics specialists, there is no upwards limit to how long a mother should breastfeed. In fact, it is recommended that a mother breastfeed her child for at least two years, and it does not psychologically traumatize a baby who still wants to breastfeed.

Three-year-old Jaylynn Thorp managed to sneak away from his babysitter with the intention of going hunting and fishing with his puppies.

He wound up getting lost for over 21 hours in freezing temperature. Hundreds of people searched for the boy, worried because he was not dressed warmly.

He was found in the woods, about a half a mile from where he wandered off. Bootsie and Dipstick, his two family puppies, were with him. Jaylynn told his mother that the puppies snuggled him to keep him warm. They watched over him and did not leave his side.

A hospital visit ensured that the young boy was fine, aside from an irregular heartbeat. He polished off cheeseburgers, soda, and ice cream.

A man using his daughter as a shield during a shooting with the LAPD died from gunshot wounds. His daughter also died from an LAPD bullet to the head. It is the second time in the SWAT team’s history that a hostage died during a standoff.

Jose Raul Pena had been threatening his wife, his 17-year-old stepdaughter, and the toddler. He was threatening to kill them all. His stepdaughter called the authorities multiple times to alert them of his threats. When the police arrived at the auto dealership where the threats were happening, Pena immediately opened fire. His stepdaughter claimed he was high on cocaine and alcohol. Despite attempts at negotiations, Pena used his daughter, Suzy, as a shield against the LAPD’s bullets.

At 6:30pm, the stand-off ended with Pena and Suzy dead.

Sandra Samuel heard little Moishe cry, “Sandra! Sandra!” from the second floor of a building that was invaded by armed terrorists. She bravely left her hiding spot to find the young toddler standing beside the bodies of his parents, Gaby and Rivkah Holtzberg. She saved Moishe from the building and brought him to safety.

Sandra was granted a visa to enter Israel because of her heroic act.

Little Moishe, who cries out for his Ima and Abba (Hebrew for mother and father), responds only mostly to Sandra.

The family is devasted for the loss of his parents, but are grateful that Moishe was saved. At the memorial, Moishe’s grandfather said, “”With her great resourcefulness, Sandra saves my grandson’s life. If she hadn’t grabbed him, he would surely have been murdered.”

Moishe was able to celebrate his second birthday.

After melamine was found in milk products from China, the Food and Drug Administration decided to test domestic formulas for traces of it. Melamine contamination was found in one brand. The F.D.A. declines to release the name of the formula. “The F.D.A. allows anything below 250 parts per billion of melamine in infant formula, and the sample contained less than that,” Judy Leon said. Ms. Leon is a Food and Drug Administration agent.

Melamine is a chemical that has flame retardant properties. It is sometimes illegally added to food as it can make it appear that it has more protein than it actually does.

It is suspected that the trace melamine was an accident — perhaps the formula accidentally came in contact with a can liner that was affected.

In low doses, melamine is nontoxic. However, in China it has been the cause of death of 4 infants who drank contaminated formula and sickened tens of thousands more.

Robin Gail Reed pleaded not guilty in her granddaughter’s methadone overdose.

Reed was taking daily doses of methadone to help combat heroine addiction. Her 2-year-old grandchild found a bottle of the cherry flavored drug in her bag and drank it. She was dead by the time the paramedics arrived.

Reed was charged with second-degree manslaughter. A defendant charged with second degree manslaughter is thought to have acted recklessly, which resulted in the death of a human being.

She was under contract with the hospital to make sure that she kept the methadone in a lock box that was provided for her. Normally, the methadone dose was to be taken in the hospital under supervision, but during the weekend, she was given a dose to take at home. The dose that her granddaughter, Allison, accidentally ingested was the remainder of a dose from the previous weekend. Another part of her contract was that she was to take the full dose.

A scream was heard in the living room.

Nicholas Holderman’s parents rush in to see that their toddler impaled his face on a set of keys, one penetrating through this eyelid and piercing his brain.

Nicholas was airlifted to the hospital where he underwent surgery. The key was safely removed from being lodged in his brain. If that weren’t enough to be thankful for, the surgeons soon realized 15 minutes after surgery that the toddler’s eyesight was unaffected.

It is two months later and he has completely recovered. People look at him and cannot tell which eye was injured.