It’s not just movies and furniture anymore.

At wowclothingclub.com parents who want to keep their child in designer dresses every month can rent them for a fee. Right now, it’s just girl’s clothing and the cost range from about $39 for up to three outfits to $67 a month for up to six.

How does it work?

According to the site, once you join the club and make your selections, the clothes are shipped to you. After 30 days you return them in a postage paid box.

You don’t have to wash the clothes before you send them back, since the company handles having the clothes laundered in fragrance-free detergent.

While this borrowing method may work for some, I can see possible hiccups in my house already. What if you lose a belt or jacket with the outfit, for instance?

And how do you handle the sentimental child who wants to wear that yellow dress way beyond the borrowing period?

Share your thoughts.

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Baby needed a new pair of shoes, so I headed to Stride Rite at Broward Mall.

And before I could enter the store, I had a WTF moment. There was three shelves of shoes by Jessica Simpson, for girls.

GIRLS.

And, yes, I'm talking about that tart Jessica Simpson who has taken being blond, busty and a bumbling idiot to the bank.

What kind of message is this sending to our girls. Have you gotten these shoes as a gift from the clueless aunt? Or did you, gasp, buy them yourself for your little darling in a moment of weakness??

Let's talk!

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Leave it to the federal government to create problems for the little guy while it tries to fix another.

In a laudable move to protect children, the Consumer Product Safety Commission wants all products aimed at children 12 and under tested for lead. That's the good part.

Now the bad part: Small businesses that sell handmade toys or thift stores could be forced to stop selling childrens products or in some case to close. See, big retailers can pay for the equipment, but the little guys can't afford it. The LA Times wrote about it.

We bought a bunch of toys and some children's furniture at local thrift stores. In fact, my wife helped extend our Christmas budget by buying Ana Isabel, 3, and Lucas Emilio, 8 months, toys at Baby Posh Garage in Aventura and Kids Palace Inc. in Plantation.

Isn't it the government's job to stop dangerous products from getting onto store shelves? I don't have a problem with asking businesses that can afford it to do their part. But it seems unfair that the small fry, like my children, could lose out.

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Remember those “quick trips” to the store?

They’re gone, along with Friday nights at the movies. Now every trip within 100 feet of Publix means you will soon be walking the aisles with a full cart and a soon-to-be empty wallet. No matter how much we shop, there’s never enough baby formula.

So there’s a little debate going on in the household about whether to join Costco and start buying in bulk. I hate paying for a membership, but it’s jarring that the folks at Publix and Whole Foods are getting to know us by name. Not that they aren’t lovely people, of course.

So here’s my question: what’s your grocery shopping strategy? Do you go during the week or save it for Sunday? Do you buy in bulk once a month? Does that really save you money?

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My 11-year-old is invited to a birthday party. Times three.

She is a close friend of one of the triplets, an acquaintance of one of the others, and not friendly with the third.

Although my impulse is to be generous and get them all a present, I am watching my pennies in this depressing economy. So anything I buy times three is money that could have been spent elsewhere.

I'm sure this comes up pretty frequently now that multiple births are so common. Do we need to buy three gifts for their birthday party? And if the answer is yes, does it have to be the same gift for all three?

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I'm not sure I agree with Randi Gorenberg's family suing Town Center Mall in Boca Raton, but I'm glad her murder is staying in the news.

Her husband's lawyers held a news conference today to announce the lawsuit. She was killed in March 2007 after she left the mall. Her body was dumped in a park west of Delray Beach.

A few months later, a mother and daughter were murdered and their bodies found at the mall after they had left it a few hours earlier. It seems like no one talks about these incidents anymore.

Does everyone realize there is a murderer or murderers on the loose? The only change is there seem to be more security and police cars roaming the mall parking lot. But I'm afraid something bad is going to happen again before the criminals are caught.

Have you changed your mall shopping behavior since these incidents happened?

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Our 16-year-old daughter, a vegetarian, has recently read the book The Omnivores Dilemma, by Michael Pollan.

This New York Times bestseller opened her eyes to food additives, including high fructose corn syrup, MSG, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners. Pollan, a science and food writer who has conducted tremendous research into where our food comes from, suggests a mantra we should all live by: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

By food, he means food that would be recognizable to your great-great grandparents in the 19th century. Food that comes from real plants and animals that are fed what nature intended for them to eat.

Abby vowed on Easter Sunday that she would no longer eat any bad food additives. Her chocolate bunny remains unopened. She printed a list for my reference from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a group of liberal, activist scientists concerned about our food supply .

Meanwhile, daughter No. 2, who will eat meat and has no compunctions regarding high-fructose, multicolored “food,” gets insanely painful migraines of unknown source. The neurologist’s recommendation: No food additives. No peanuts. No chocolate. No caffeine. No hard cheeses.

And my husband has slightly elevated blood pressure, so low-sodium for him.

I challenge you to walk in my shoes for just one trip to the grocery store. Try reading the labels on everything you buy. High fructose corn syrup is everywhere: In crackers. In jelly. In waffles and cereal. In strawberry cream cheese. Artificial sweeteners are in almost anything labeled “low” or “no” sugar. MSG is in packaged soups, taco seasoning, salad dressings and lots of mixed spices. You’ll see long lists of things that turn out to be benign vitamins in bread, but then there’s BHA or BHT. There are sulfites in bacon, sausage and frozen turkey and chicken products.

Sodium is loaded into soups, canned vegetables and almost every prepared food. Cold cuts have all kinds of complicated-sounding preservatives. Tuna has traces of toxic metals such as mercury which might trigger migraines.

Do you know how hard it is in the 21st century to sustain yourself on a 19th-century diet?

We’re managing so far. But even with the no-additives diet, our younger daughter has been sidelined with a migraine for the past two days.

I guess I really am going to have to take that no-peanuts edict seriously. But what do you put in a lunchbox for a kid who cannot eat cheese, peanut butter, cold cuts or tuna?

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OMG, Cabbage Patch Kids are back!

Not the new-fangled corn-silk-haired dolls or those freaky premies, but the old-school cabbies with yarn for hair.

When the dolls were released in 1983, my dad was among the mass of parents, at a Toys R Us off Biscayne Blvd and 125th St., in the queue to "adopt" a Cabbage Patch Kid.

Rachel is still with me. After years of living on a closet shelf, she now has a loving home in my daughter's toy chest.

Baby loves to pluck Rachel from the chest and drag her (by the hair) around the room, stopping to kiss the doll's cheek or sit on her stomach.

Since the Cabbage Patch phenomenon, there has been mania over Barney, Tickle Me Elmo and Dora the Explorer.

What doll did your kid HAVE to have?

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I have given up on buying birthday cards for the seemingly endless parties my kids attend.

I've found an alternative: calling cards.

The pre-printed cards give my kids' name, address, phone number and e-mail address. They are the size of business cards and can be tossed into a gift with little effort on my part.

Birthday cards are too expensive. I could tell my kids to make a card, but making sure they get it done becomes another thing on my never-ending to-do list.

I looked on-line and many of the cards ended up costing $1 a piece with the printing and mailing fees, which would not amount to a significant savings over store-bought cards. I bought the least expensive ones I could find that were decent-looking from DreamPress. They cost $12.99 for 50 cards plus mailing charges.

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As you know, I have been stressed about going back to Town Center Mall after the murders last month. I've been brainstorming ways to make me and my family safer. The e-mail below came at a timely moment and offers some useful safety tips. I especially liked the one about crashing your car! Let me know what you think.

Crucial

Because of recent abductions

in daylight hours, refresh yourself

of these things to do

in an emergency situation...

This is for you,

and for you to share

with your wife,

your children,

everyone you know.

After reading these 9 crucial tips,

forward them to someone you care about.

It never hurts to be careful

in this crazy world we live in.

1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do :

The elbow is the strongest point

on your body.

If you are close enough to use it, do!

2. Learned this from a tourist guide

in New Orleans

If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse,

DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM.

Toss it away from you....

chances are that he is more interested

in your wallet and/or purse than you,

and he will go for the wallet/purse.

RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!

3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car,

kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole

and start waving like crazy.

The driver won't see you, but everybody else will.

This has saved lives.

4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars

after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit

(doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc.

DON'T DO THIS!)

The predator will be watching you, and this

is the perfect opportunity for him to get in

on the passenger side, put a gun to your head,

and tell you where to go.

AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR ,

LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE.

If someone

is in the car

with a gun

to your head

DO NOT DRIVE OFF,

repeat:

DO NOT DRIVE OFF!

Instead gun the engine

and speed into anything, wrecking the car.

Your Air Bag will save you.

If the person is in the back seat

they will get the worst of it .

As soon as the car crashes

bail out and run.

It is better than having them find your body

in a remote location.

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Lily is a corporate advertising director's dream girl. She's only 5, but every single thing she sees on a television commercial, she wants.

That includes a $350 stuffed horse that you can 'ride.' I try to provide some guidance by saying "that's a stupid toy. You would never play with it.'

So now when a commercial comes on, she asks me, "Is that toy stupid?''

Well, she saw the toy that she truly must have, the other day. It's one that goes straight to the top of her list to Santa.

It's a baby boy doll, one of the Baby Alive versions that drinks and pees. We already have a peeing and pooping Baby Alive doll, but this one is a baby boy. And she realllllly wants it.

Trouble is, at the end of the commercial, in white letters that are not very noticeable, the following words flashed on the screen:

ANATOMICALLY CORRECT.

Really? I don't know if Lily is ready for an anatomy lesson yet. I mean, in this day and age, the thing could be computerized or something. I mean, how "correct" is it?

I tooled around online to try to find out, but Hasbro does not reveal what the baby boy looks like naked. In fact, on the Hasbro website, they only mention that little Wets N Wiggles does need diaper changing, and then there's this cryptic line:
"But when you change the doll’s diaper, watch out – babies can be full of surprises!''

Yes, I'll bet they can!

The website also mentions that this doll runs on 4 AA batteries. Um, for what????

What do you think, Santa?

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The lack of places to buy kids' shoes in South Florida is driving me crazy.

I've tried Target and Payless, but you have to be lucky that they will have something semi-fashionable and in your kid's size. My 11-year-old, Rachel, inevitably finds a style she likes that is in every size but hers.

I've been wondering why most department stores don't sell kids' shoes. Or why there aren't more kids' shoe chains. Don't you think it would be extremely profitable?

The only place I've found that's pretty consistent is Nordstrom. They have every size, but the prices are so much higher.

I heard www.zappos.com is good for kids' shoes, but I never know what size my kids are, so I'm not sure that would work.

Can you make a recommendation for a great kids' shoe store?

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