(I wrote some apologies to my kids four years ago -- I thought it was time for a followup.)

Riley,

I'm sorry I don't always have the patience to endure the near-constant barrage of pshew pshew pshew sound effects that come out of your noise-hole. I don't know what mental movie is playing so frequently in your active little brain, but I suspect it's directed by Michael Bay and gets a one-and-a-half-star rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm sorry if I sometimes fail to assemble my facial features into a properly stunned expression when you show me your latest Lego creation, and I'm sorry for that one time I deadpanned, "Boy, I can't WAIT to step on that thing in the dead of night" instead of marveling over your building skills, which are in fact quite impressive.

Is it just me, or does it feel like disdain for Mother's Day and Father's Day has been growing in recent years? For what are supposed to be a couple of sweet days of celebration for some people in our life, there's been a storm of backlash, including this latest move from a school that has eliminated both days altogether and replaced them with Family Day. 

According to CTV, Astral Drive Elementary School in Nova Scotia has chosen to do away with any projects for (no cute hand-print cards!) or mention of either traditional holiday and instead now celebrates the International Day of Families, so non-traditional families are included. School officials said they did it to avoid children feeling isolated, which is lovely in theory ... but complete overkill in general. 

Most of the time when people get makeovers, it's a happy thing. A boost to the self-esteem. A stellar moment bringing out a better you, in turn giving you more confidence. But when a Disney princess gets a makeover, some kids might shed tears, and parents, well, we do what's expected of us -- have an adult-sized temper tantrum.

I'm the one who loves Tattoo Barbie and Drag Queen Barbie, so I'm not going to have an issue with Brave's Merida showing a little more decolletage. But her makeover is more than just a little more skin.

Last night in an editorial that has left the world stunned, Angelina Jolie announced that in February she underwent a double mastectomy. She said that after her mother's death at 56 from ovarian cancer, she got tested for the BRCA1 gene, and when it was positive, she decided to do whatever was necessary to prevent her six children from losing their mother too.

In the powerful and brave piece, the 37-year-old actress wrote, "I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer." 

When photographer Jamie Moore was looking for inspiration for a portrait series for her daughter's fifth birthday she saw a lot of princesses. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Moore says she loves princesses. It's just that... "It started me thinking about all the REAL women for my daughter to know about and look up too," she writes in her blog. "REAL women who without ever meeting Emma have changed her life for the better."

So Moore went through photos of brave women who changed the world so that her daughter could be anything she wants to be -- an astronaut, a President, a doctor. She narrowed the list down to "five amazing, strong women" and used the photos to take portraits of her daughter inspired by the originals. The result is an incredible visual love letter to all our little girls and the women who paved the way for us all. You have to see this portrait series, "Not Just a Girl."

It's a brilliant idea. The Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation (ANAR) created anti-abuse ads with secret messages just for kids. The giant posters show a photo of a child's face. From an adult-sized person's perspective, the message reads "Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it." But if you're a kid (or the size of a kid), the child's face in the photos is bruised, and the message reads, "If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you," with that number. The signs have a "lenticular" top layer visible only from certain levels.

So the idea is, if a child is with an abusive parent or other dangerous adult, they can learn how to get help without the adult even knowing! I love it. We all know there are children who need help, but feel powerless. This is just one little tool that helps them out. But, just one little thing...

If you take a car ride with either of my daughters you will certainly know my life story by the end of it and probably my mother's and grandmother's as well. I've got two over-sharers and while it can be charming it can also be awkward. Especially when things I'd rather not broadcast end up illuminated in art projects or included in their classroom journals.

I recently spotted a journal entry illustrating the "castle" we live in (not true), the time I took them on a late-night ice cream run in their pajamas (OK, once) and a rendering of the four of us sleeping in the same bed like a pile of monkeys. If only I could have added a footnote: "Actually, this rarely happens because if both girls come in our room in the middle of the night, I'll head back into one of their beds. Best sleep ever!"

From an entirely informal survey of parents' in the same boat, here are the 9 topics of revelation that sting the most.

Parents, there is some fungus amongus! Researchers found five, FIVE different types of fungus in Capri Sun juice packs. You know, those pouches moms and dads throw into their kids' lunches every day? Fungus. And you thought your kids hated mushrooms ...

The study was prompted when people complained about finding bits of what looked like mold (ew!) in the juice. They were actually mats of fungus, but gross nonetheless. But wait, I've never heard of anyone ever actually getting sick from drinking from one of those juice pouches. Why not?