Photo by 920Wendy

CafeMom TheTravelMama (aka Colleen Lanin) is an expert at traveling with kids, but only because she's had her share of past fiascoes to learn from along the way. Colleen is a travel writer and founder of the Travel Mamas blog, the resource for everything and anything related to traveling with children.

Today the mom of 20 month year old Leo and 4 year old Karissa shares three of her own biggest traveling disasters and how she learned to prevent them the next time she hit the road:

Fiasco #1: Kids Tend to Throw Up

You never know when motion sickness or the stomach flu may strike. During a road trip to an amusement park, my preschooler, Karissa, woke 20 minutes before our destination and announced from the backseat, "I'm gonna throw up!" I whipped around from the passenger seat and frantically searched for any type of vessel. I grabbed a box of Kleenex, ripped the tissue from it, and thrust it beneath her chin, narrowly evading a smelly disaster.

Kids around the country have been making Christmas cards for 5 year old Noah Biorkman. Watch the video to meet him. He's a Michigan boy in the final stages of neuroblastoma, a cancer of the body's nervous system that strikes in infancy and childhood.

One CafeMom user posted in Stay at Home Moms that because he does not have long to live, Noah will be celebrating Christmas early. He loves opening Christmas cards, so his mother had been asking people everywhere to send them to him.

Following more cards than she could have ever dreamed off, plus her son's deteriorating health, she's since asked people to kindly stop, though a donation to the "C.S. Mott Children's Hospital" to be used for neuroblastoma research is still appreciated.

Photo by lulamae123

The other day we kept my son home from school because he was sick. My husband took the day off to be with him, but typical us, neither of us thought to call the school to let them know. We had a foggy notion of some policy about that, but all we thought about in the morning was, "Well, our kid is sick, so he's not going in."

I get a call from the school nurse about 10:30, both alarmed and perturbed that we hadn't called him in.

I can't blame her. While she was thrilled that I was actually keeping him and his germs at home, she also needed to make sure my son was where he was supposed to be and didn't end up in the trunk of some pedophile's car on his way to school. I appreciate that.

Photo by ventichaitea

I'm just so impressed with the 11 year old girl who helped to deliver her mother's baby at home. She's just five years older than my son. He's only mastering opening the door with the key. It's amazing to think what he'll be capable of in a couple of years.

Kierra Nubin called 911 when her laboring mom reported that the baby was starting to come out.

"I need an ambulance now," the girl told the 911 operator.

The operator told the girl to tell her mom to assume the most comfortable position, and have her to take deep breaths between contractions. Nubin continued to relay the information to her mom.

CafeMom RaeLynn1221 does not vaccinate her children against the seasonal flu, nor did she want her little girl immunized against H1N1. She just doesn't believe the illness is as bad as the media is making out to warrant it.

And yet, the school vaccinated her daughter without her consent. There have been stories of this happening other places, but this is the first I've heard involving a CafeMom.

RaeLynn1221 is sharing her experience her to let other moms know that while it may not be common, mistakes are being made:

This is one of those sad but sweet stories that makes me take pause and not worry so much about the Legos and the laundry.

Elena Desserich was diagnosed with brain cancer just before her sixth birthday, and was only given about four months to live. She lived a bit longer than that, and during that time she hid little loves notes to her parents and little sister Grace all over the house, where her family later found them after she died.

Click the upcoming link and scroll to the bottom of that page to see some of Elena's hidden notes.

Many CafeMoms are in no rush to line up for the controversial swine flu vaccine. Some say the Obamas weren't either. Malia and Sasha apparently waited two weeks to get their shots along with other school children in Washington D.C. Seems like a non-issue, right?

Some people are commenting on blogs and the web that the Obama girls got preferential treatment for access to the vaccine, given to them by the White House doctor last week.

It started when a man from Texas, with two compromised special needs kids living in his home, complained he hasn't been able to get the vaccine for the children, who would be given priority over healthy children. But different areas are getting the vaccine at different times. There's no shortage in Washington, D.C.

When you think about teens and drugs, pot and alcohol come quickly to mind. But if you take a peek in Answers, you'll see that teen prescription drug abuse is also a huge problem. It's scary to read some of the comments from moms who are living it.

"I knew a girl who overdosed and died on methadone two years ago. She was 17."

"I'm dealing with it now. My 16 year old and three of her friends were caught exchanging pills."

"I'm 18 now. When I was maybe 13 or 14 I knew A LOT of people that would take like five Lortabs and other crap. I wasn't into that crap but had some friends that did and knew a lot that did."

Right now I'm thankful for the temper tantrums and fights over toys.

Photo by AshBayGrammy

I hate to mention sick kids and school in the same sentence, because as hard as I try not to be, I'm superstitious. I don't want it to interfere with the wishful thinking spell I've placed on both my kids to make it through winter without any sick days.

But I have to let you in on a very interesting discussion going on in Answers about moms who send their sick children to school. There are two pretty passionate sides about when it's okay.

On one side, moms who believe children should be kept home when they have any symptoms at all.

On the other side, moms who kids with minor cold or allergy symptoms should go to school.

I love hearing stories like these. Not stories about people choking -- I'd never wish that on anyone. But stories about the heroes who save them from dying, especially when they are children with special needs.

It reminds us that they can do anything and everything that typically functioning kids do.

Here's a clip of Kyle Forbes, an autistic child who saved his teacher from choking on an apple by delivering the Heimlich maneuver he learned in Cub Scouts.

Thanks to the ladies in the Newcomer's Club for pointing this one out.