The Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus is heading this way and that means the annual elephant march is too. On Tuesday, March 18th at around nidnight the elephants will march through the mid-town tunnel and across 34th Street to Madison Square Garden. Yes it's late, yes it's a school night, but this is one of our 100 things to do with your kids in NY before they grow up, so if not this year definitely put it on your to do list.

Links to the best of everything kid and parenting related in the NYC media for the last week.

Bad Baby Names
Will having an unusual name make your baby do poorly in school, be unpopular or even possibly become a criminal or a delinquent? A new book Bad Baby Names investigates??”NY Times

Coney Island Amusements Now Open
The Brooklyn Paper reports that Coney Island amusement parks opened this weekend, almost a month early. It's possible this will be the last year of Coney Island as we know it, so take advantage of the early opening to get in some extra trips out there.

We all love a good kiddie show. Sure. But every once in a while it's great to go to a real grown up museum and see real art and remember what it feels like to have a full working brain, and speak a sentence that has more than three words and isn't about scrambled eggs.

Through some confluence of the gods there happens to be quite a few art exhibits running right now (real art exhibits in real museums) that not only can you get away with bringing your kids to, but they might actually really enjoy. Art exhibits where children will experience them on a kid level and you can enjoy them on another level with that part of your brain you'd forgotten you had.

Below is a summary of 5 different art exhibits worth checking out??”for yourself and with your kids:

Yesterday we posted about some of the basic baby necessities new mommies will be needing as they venture into the frontier of parenthood. Today we've got a great giveaway for some products you maybe didn't know you needed until you saw them.

Like, until you saw this image you might not have realized the gaping void in your life caused by not having a handmade baby hat with bunny ears.

Or the danger you are risking by not carrying these cute, comfy cotton BabySpareWear separates which come in their own little tote to tuck into your bag.

And what about after the little problem that made you need a change? Without a Wet Happened bag you would be forced to tote your pee-soaked togs in something as unfashionable as a plastic bag.

Getting ready for a baby is overwhelming, especially these days where ingenious moms have come up with products for every possible move your baby will make. I'll never forget the day that I forced my husband to take me to Buy Buy Baby where we spent hours walking around in a daze and eventually left in tears. I couldn't figure out what we actually needed and what was some marketing ploy and I was determined not to fill up our apartment with a lot of crappy looking stuff that would never be used.

After conducting extensive research (ie emailing all our friends with babies) we have come up with a list of essential things to have that first year. We've updated our store with great ideas for all your baby essentials perfect for your next shower, registry or if you just need to stock up yourself.

If you've walked through Grand Central Station or in lower Manhattan's Foley Square, you may have seen the StoryCorps booth sitting there and wondered what it is for.

What is Story Corps? Here's what the website says:

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another??™s lives through listening.

By recording the stories of our lives with the people we care about, we experience our history, hopes, and humanity. Since 2003, tens of thousands of everyday people have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share, and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to our award-winning broadcasts on public radio and the Internet. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, creating a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans.

Everything you would have read last week...if there were 3 of you. We picked out the cream of the crop from last week's press for NYC parents, online or in print, informative, fun, or just laugh-out-loud funny.

Want to share a link? Leave it in the comments or if you want to contribute to next week??™s round-up send an email.

Learn to juggle or just watch the fun, see Irish short films for kids, see a children's version of the opera Carmen and more all for free with our weekly list of free family activities for New York kids.

NYC 7th Annual Juggling Festival:
JUGGLE THIS! - NYC 2008
Friday March 7-Sunday March 9, 2008

Adults and kids can learn to juggle or just come and watch. Three days of open juggling, workshops, juggling games, and more. The main event will be the juggling spectacular