Every once in a while, a nation gets inspired. And who better than a guitar-wielding, super-geek astronaut with a groovy 'stache?

Chris Hadfield returned to Earth on Monday night, but hopefully his legacy will inspire kids and adults to continue to look to the stars.

Chris Hadfield may just be the coolest astronaut that has ever lived. He doesn't have a catch phrase and a golf club, but communicated the simple pleasures and beauty of the earth while suspended in orbit for five months, 2,336 orbits, 146 days and 16 sunrises and sunsets per day. 

I saw a woman at Loblaws yesterday bending over with a baby in a front carrier trying to reach something. She laughed as I helped her, "It's a learned skill," she said.

"Yes." I replied, remembering the soft thump of my baby's head on my chest. "But you blink and then your child is 13." I said. I pointed to him reaching up to grab something from the shelf.

How did he go from the soft, fuzzy baby at my chest, to a fully-formed teen reaching higher than me?

Parent years are like dog years but squeezed. I try, but I can't really put a finger on how long it feels like I have been a parent, but it has been 13 years.

I always feel a little maudlin at the big birthdays, as the time goes by so quickly and I haven't done enough to savour it. And 13 is particularly scary as the TEEN years are here. So with the threats of sex, drugs and rock n' roll (or texting n' video games) hanging over my head, I will offer up the 13 things I want my son to know on his 13th birthday.

I love Honest Toddler so much that sometimes I go to her Twitter page just to read over her tweets for the day. Her passive-aggressive outbursts make me laugh, and squirm with recognition that toddlers have feelings too. 

If Honest Toddler was in a movie, it would be Baby Geniuses where the two-year-olds know the meaning of life until they "cross over". They pity us grown-ups with our minutiae and focus on unimportant parts of our day, you know like limiting juice and wearing pants.

The voice behind the hilarious and popular Honest Toddler Twitter feed and blog has been a mystery...until now.

[Spoiler Alert!]

You may remember slam poet Shane Koyczan from his moving poem We Are More at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver. That poem may have been what introduced him to the world, but this seven-minute poem and video may change it.

He is a handsome man. And #TeamAdam was definitely out in support.

"Mum, why is that woman holding up a pair of underpants to Adam?"

Concert-going with kids does bring up some interesting issues. We took the kids to Maroon 5 last night. It was their first official "rock" concert. As first concerts go, Maroon 5 was a good choice. Just enough street cred to be cool for my 12-year-old, and yet tame enough so that we didn't have to explain too many funny smells or bad outfits to the kids.

In my 13 years of parenting, I have watched more hours of kids TV than I can count. Often the shows don't even register anymore. Or at least they only register when they are offensive because of overly sexualized and rude conversations (see Zack and Cody and many others).

When my daughter started watching Doc McStuffins, I thought, that's pleasant. And forgot about it. But after reading this article about how Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins has started a movement amongst African-American female doctors in the U.S., I'm planning to putting it on 24/7.

The video has gone "viral" (I'm starting to loathe that world, and not just when it comes to flu), raking up over 2.9 million hits -- and for good reason. While it is on the lengthy side, the British mama raps about things we can all relate to including breastfeeding, diaper changing, baby vomit and eating leftovers for dinner -- and she does it all with an enticing British accent. 

I am probably in the minority in my love for political conventions. It doesn't even matter what party it is -- I love the intrigue, the last minute deals, and most of all I love the feeling of hope. 

The Ontario Liberal Convention this weekend was all of that and more. At the end of the third ballot with two women in the lead, Kathleen Wynne was elected Liberal party leader and the Premier-designate of Ontario. She also happens to be a lesbian. 

She addressed the issue head-on in her speech:

Is Ontario ready for a gay premier? You've all heard that question... Not surprisingly, I have an answer to that question," Wynne said. "I do not believe that the people of Ontario judge their leaders on the basis of race, sexual orientation, colour or religion. I don't believe they hold that prejudice in their hearts.They judge us on our merits.

I don't know how long Wynne will remain in the Premier's office, but in the meantime, I hope to pass on to my kids a few reasons why it is a great thing that Wynne is out and proud:

Teen McKenna Pope walked into her 4-year-old brother's room to find him cooking tortillas on top of a light bulb. She knew then and there that she would get him an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas.

That is, until she went shopping and realized that the pink oven was overly girly and her brother wouldn't like it. She wanted to show him that it's "it's not 'wrong' for him to want to be a chef." So she did what an enterprising teen does these days.

She started a petition and Change.org and then she went viral.

I wish we were better at family photos. We do endeavour to take one a year of the three kids sitting together in the summer, but as I write this I realize that we may not have one from this year.

And if we do, it is sitting in a folder on my desktop computer languishing with all the other photos from years past. We just aren't that creative with family photos.

But some families are!