Today’s AOL front page has a story that I’m not sure I totally believe:

Everything from your birth order to the time of year you were born can have an impact on your current health. Summer babies are more likely to be nearsighted than winter ones, but they’re also at a higher risk for suicide. Firstborns are more likely to have asthma and a higher IQ, while younger siblings are more likely to face less harsher punishments.

I’m skeptical (perhaps they are mistaking correlation/causation, ignoring alternative causes). Make up your own mind - read the full story, here.

One of the questions that always pops into my mind when I sign-up for a new service is “Great! I can add a bunch of cool stuff. But is my data locked in forever?”. With TotSpot, we’re building a great place for you to build a page for your kid and share it with the people you care about. But we don’t want you to feel locked in, so we’re building an API!

What does that mean, I hear you ask? An API allows software developers to tap into the TotSpot data and functionality (if and only if you give the developer permission to do so) and create cool stuff - like, say, a desktop application to help you update photos to TotSpot, or maybe a screensaver with your baby’s photos. The possibilities are endless, which is why we’re very excited!

Developers: If you want to be involved in the API beta stage, drop us an email! We’ll be posting more information about the API really soon, and opening the developer information pages, so keep an eye out and prepare your OAuth and Data Portability chops. We’re excited about what you guys can build on top of TotSpot.

And, users, if you have ideas you’d like to see…start posting them in the comments here!

Strollerderby, the extensive and impressively oft-updated group blog at Babble, has a great post on the 10 Mysteries of Modern Parenthood. Here’s a sample:

2. Baby sign language - Is this is the biggest con sold to modern parents of all time or does it really help parents communicate with their kids?

Read the whole thing, here.

A number of users have sent us emails since our launch asking us “How does TotSpot make money?” Fair question!

While, right now we are entirely focused on building a fantastic product and getting as many people as possible to join the TotSpot community, we do intend to make some money to make sure our developers are paid and everyone gets to eat around here.

So how does TotSpot work as a business? 3 ways we’ll be looking to make this work:

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Proving that science is often catching up with common sense, the New York Times reports that Moms really like seeing the faces of their children:

Using a functional M.R.I. scanner to watch the brain in action, researchers have demonstrated that a picture of her own smiling baby activates the critical reward-processing regions of the mother’s brain much more strongly than seeing a picture of an unknown baby with the same happy look.

Pretty neat.

In an aptly titled (especially from TotSpot’s point-of-view) piece, ABC News reports that the United States is experiencing a new “Baby Boom:”

The National Center for Health Statistics — just reported a population milestone. In 2007, a record number of 4,315,000 babies were born in the United States. With more babies born last year than any other year in U.S. history, nearly doubling the number born century ago, signs point to a potential start of a new American baby boom.

The article forgot to mention that all of these newborn kids should have pages created for them on TotSpot ;).

It has been just over 1 month since we launched the public beta of TotSpot. Since then, nearly 8,500 pages have been created, about 50,000 photos uploaded, 15,000 firsts and favorites, and more. We’re really happy and it seems like you are too

Just as importantly, we’ve been delighted by all the feedback we’ve received (both directly and through the new help system at Get Satisfaction). Your comments and ideas (international support, photo tools) have powered our development process since launch and will continue to do so as we move forward.

In addition to patting ourselves (and you) on the back, we thought we’d use this moment to announce a slew of really important new features: Public Pages, a Theme Editor, and Photo Organizing tools.

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Realtechmom is a new blog about all things mommy & tech. She wrote an excellent overview and tutorial about TotSpot. If you haven’t signed up yet and want to learn more about us, this is the guide we should have written for you

Definitely consider adding Realtechmom to your must-read list. Besides writing about TotSpot, she has some great pointers on teething and, like us, she’s a big fan of Rockband. What more could you ask for?

Thanks Realtechmom!