Ok, come one--say it with me now: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Fraggle Rock is back. The Electric Company is too. And the eight to ten-year-old in me couldn't be more ecstatic. (The term I would have used as an eight-year-old would be 'spazzed' but I am now a respectable mother and adult so I'll stick with 'ecstatic.)

E News Online is reporting the return of the beloved shows to both television and the movies. Fraggle Rock will return to life as a live-action musical film. The Electric Company will be reprised on the small screen on PBS with new episodes.

You may recall current cinematic heavy-weight Morgan Freeman made his mark on The Electric Company, as did comic Rita Moreno. Fraggle Rock, which ran on HBO and was from mastermind Jim Henson.

Can't wait to see the new versions of these old favorites! Will you tune in? Maybe this time with your kids too!

Back in 2004, singer Beyoncé and her mother Tina started their own fashion line, House of Deréon. The look, dubbed "where the sidewalk and catwalk meet", is designed to embody sexy sophistication for the modern woman. Finding some success in dressing grown-up ladies, Deréon has now expanded to include clothing for girls. That's all well and good, except it seems they forgot that 'sexy' isn't exactly what most of us are looking for when it comes to dressing our daughters.

Check out this ad for Deréon Girls and you will notice sweet-faced little girls wearing high heeled pumps, feather boas and bright red lipstick. This ad campaign might be called "where the playground and prostitute meet." If you can manage to look past the inappropriate accessories and somewhat suggestive poses, the clothes themselves aren't that bad. Maybe a little on the tacky side, but not overtly sexual.

Just what message are they trying to send here? It is never to early to begin dressing like a fashion-impaired adult? Had they presented the clothing line in a more age-appropriate way, would parents have reacted with "well, that's just not sexy enough for my kid?"

Seriously, does sex really sell when it comes to children's clothing?

Hannah Montana star and, I guess, new Hollywood bad girl Miley Cyrus has been offered a spread in adult magazine Playboy. She'll have to be eighteen before she can pose nude for the magazine.

After seeing her controversial photo spread in Vanity Fair magazine last month, Playboy head honcho (and all around creepy old guy) Hugh Heffner says he would "welcome" Miley to the pages of the magazine once she is of legal age. Heff also called on America to stop being so "schizophrenic" about sexuality.

Miley Cyrus has since been forced to issue an apology for the photos in the Vanity Fair spread, taken by famed photographer Annie Lebovitz. No word from Miley's flack about her consideration of the Playboy offer.

Photo from Vanity Fair spread offered by gregwilker.

Sadly, there appears to be a dearth of movies that feature female leads at all, let alone mothers, except, perhaps, on the Lifetime channel. As XKCD points out, the ratio of male-to-female lead roles is definitely out of whack. Can you think of a big-budget film with a female lead (where the female wasn't just a love interest)? Sure, there's Tomb Raider and The Devil Wears Prada, but for every movie like that, there are literally dozens -- if not hundreds -- of movies with male leads.

Now consider the plight of the mother in Hollywood. Or, rather, lack thereof. Moms seem to be just an afterthought. Someone to give context to the male lead's homelife. Frankly, that kind of sucks. Still, I was able to come up with some maternal movies for Mother's day. Take a look at my list and then see if you can add any more in the comments.

A few years ago, my best friend decided to build her family through adoption. Recently, she became Mom to an amazing young boy. She's taught me so much over the last few years, both about the process but also about how how to be sensitive to adoptive parents and children.

So I was shocked when I read that a company called Teleflora, which is currently sponsoring an America's Favorite Mom contest for Mother's Day (Donnie and Marie Osmand will crown the winner on NBC's Primetime tomorrow night), categorized adoptive moms in their contest as "non-moms." An adoption blogger complained, and the company quickly realized their error. They've now change the category to "adopting moms" and issued an apology on their web page.

Are they funny? Are they creepy? Are they a little bit of both? Yeah--that last one. Pictures of manbabies have surfaced on the web, and they're a hit. Ah, what will they think of next?

This is the kind of thing that, when I see it, gives me a chuckle but also lets me know I have too much free internet surfing time on my hands. Still, these pics are pretty funny and perhaps worth a look. The idea is to take a picture of a man and his baby and switch their heads. The head of the baby is made bigger and the head of the man is made smaller to match the body sizes of both. Weird but true!

PopSugar was the first I've seen to get hold of the photos, which you can check out in a slideshow here. Want to get in on the action? All you have to do is provide your own family photo. While this seems more appropriate for Father's Day than the impending Mother's Day holiday, I thought it best to alert you to this site for your viewing enjoyment asap. ENJOY! Or, should I say, "Manjoy?"

And, yes, that is a normal picture of a man and his baby. You'll have to check out the ManBabies website if you want the real thing.

On the dashboard of the software that powers ParentDish, there's a little box that tells each blogger how many words and how many posts he or she has written.

The dashboard tells me tonight: you have written 527,463 words and 1854 posts. That is a lot of words; that's an unfathomable amount of posts.

I started writing here to supplement my income when things were tight financially during my maternity leave with my infant. My son was just a tiny baby, not yet walking, not yet talking. This blog has taken me through Nolan's first steps, my many parenting blunders, and provided me with perspective and sustenance during what was certainly the most emotionally wrenching year of my life. During my tenure here, in the beginning, I was my fiance's partner -- now I am just my son's Mother. We're doing so well, our hearts are full, I'm on a journey of learning to be a better parent.

Your comments, over the years, have helped immeasurably. I consider many of you friends, and sometimes I lie awake in bed thinking about Anji's suggestion or Meagan's words of solidarity and your sharing has helped me be a better Mother -- and in many instances, a better person. Even some of the crazy trolls have helped -- I've grown a thicker skin, become more secure in my own convictions and strength.

This is a slightly long winded way...

Social networking websites like Facebook are all the rage with teenagers these days. Unfortunately, they're also popular with those who would prey on teenagers. Facebook, the second largest such site, has just gotten safer, however. Working with states' attorneys general, the company has agreed to make changes to become less perilous for kids.

Last January, MySpace, the largest social networking site in the world, came to a similar agreement. Some of the changes Facebook are to prevent alcohol and tobacco ads from reaching those too young to purchase those items, to disallow groups related to incest, pedophilia, and bullying, and to issue a warning when a child is about to provide personal information to an adult.

"Social networks that encourage kids to come to their sites have a responsibility to keep those kids safe," North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said. "We've now gotten the two largest social networking sites to agree to take significant steps to protect children from predators and pornography." Forty-nine states and Washington D.C. have approved the agreements.

Richard Blumenthal, the Attorney General from Connecticut, hailed the agreement as the start of "a new era in social networking safety." It's a new world inside the computer and it's good that steps are being made in making it a safer environment for kids.

It's the time of year when, walking along wooded trails in New England you can often spot the bright orange of the Red Spotted Newt or Red Eft. Kids call them salamanders (you can learn the difference between the two here) and the whimsical book The Salamander Room definitely captures the wonder and affection many kids feel towards these small creatures.

In the story a little boy named Brian carries home a small red salamander. He makes it a bed of leaves in his room with crickets and bullfrogs to sing it to sleep... and with each turn of the page his room becomes more and more magical as it is transformed into a forest habitat as the boy imagines how he will care for his small new pet.

It's the kind of story I remember imagining as a kid, lying in bed when I couldn't fall asleep: what if the ceiling were removed so that I could see the sky? What if I could sleep among the trees? Written by Anne Mazer, this gentle story is a lovely bedtime book. It's also a great story to read if your child happens to find a newt and wants to bring it home. Which my three year old son happened to do just yesterday.

Clutching it carefully in his palm, eyes wide, Bean begged to be allowed to keep the little Red Spotted newt as a pet. After some quick research, I found that these critters are actually easy pets to keep for a while. If he's going to have a pet, this one seems almost ideal. Better, at least than the earth worms he's always trying to put in his pockets. Although hand washing is a must. Here's why.

It's my opinion that three year olds aren't really able to keep any any kind of pet that requires actual, but the newt only requires a few small earth worms every so often, and a little terrarium to live in. So after a quick trip to the pet store, and a scamper through the woods to gather moss and bark for the newt's new habitat, Bean spent almost an hour tonight narrating a wonderfully elaborate story about what his new friend Leafy was doing in it's little home. (Other names he contemplated: Violet, Speckles, Louie and Spot.)

Does your child have a favorite nature book or a pet from the woods?

Marci Milfs was shocked! Shocked, I tell you! She went into an Urban Outfitters clothing store in Northwestern Washington State to buy some hip, trendy clothing for her teenage son when she spotted some books on a table in the store. In addition to such subversive works as Stephen Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You)", she found a book entitled "Porn for Women" which featured pictures of -- gasp! -- men doing housework.

Apparently, the store also carried "Pornogami: A Guide to the Ancient Art of Paper-Folding for Adults" which is wholly unsuitable for teenaged pieces of paper. "When I saw it, I was shocked," Milfs said. The books were apparently right there in plain sight where anyone -- teenagers included -- could see them. She is planning to file a complaint with the city and has already contacted her state representative.

Urban Outfitters, for their part, wants to be "the brand of choice for well-educated, urban-minded young adults." They do this by "creating a differential shopping experience, which creates an emotional bond with the 18 to 30 year old target customer we serve." The store's corporate office told Milfs that the books are not sex books but art books.

I can see the art book argument with the Pornogami book, but the Porn for Women book is just plain humour. It features pictures of clothed men doing housework and saying things such as "Ooh, look. The NFL playoffs are today. I bet we'll have no trouble parking at the crafts fair." It seems to me that if that's the raciest thing a college-aged girl sees, she's doing something wrong.

You've seen the tabloid covers. Bikini-clad celebrities on luxurious vacations treated to the ultimate in tabloid humiliations: the close-up, sharpie circled cellulite photo. AAAGHHH!!!!!

The latest victim is the sultry 22 year-old Mischa Barton on vacation with her mom in Australia. While donning panties on her hotel balcony, photographers captured her dimpled bottom and thighs, prompting a cruel Daily Telegraph headline about losing the cellulite battle.

She's hardly alone. Jennifer Love Hewitt, recently on vacation with her fiance, was also photographed from an unflattering angle, sparking lots of online chatter about what is beautiful, normal, and fair in the age of the paparazzi. Jennifer's feisty response to the expose endeared her to women and may explain why she remains a Jockey Underwear model and spokesperson despite the flap.

A few months ago, I was complaining to my sister about my ever-expanding pregnant belly. "My belly feels heavier", I lamented. "The doctor says the baby is the same size as all the other ones, I must have no ab muscles left. This is going to be the pregnancy that does my belly in for good". A short while later,she sent me what I thought was a very thoughtful and sisterly e-mail: A picture of super-model Cindy Crawford in a bikini coming out of the ocean with a surprisingly loose post-baby belly. I'd be lying if I told you that it didn't lift my spirits just a little.

The comments that followed the Mischa story admonished the British tabloid to "Just leave her alone!!". Hear, hear.

But while the intentions of the tabloids are clear (they're cruel bastards), women enjoy the photos for reasons that are hardly malicious. Celebrity "fat and cellulite" revelations, while embarrassing for the stars, generates body acceptance and even a sense of gender solidarity among the greater female population. A cursory look at the internet comments overwhelmingly reveals women rallying around the stars. Countless women will look at themselves a little less harshly in the mirror after viewing celebrity cellulite.

Cindy's belly undeniably provided some comfort to this pregnant mom. Is that so bad?

In the few years I've been writing at ParentDish, I've linked to Rebecca Woolf's blog on numerous occasions. Rebecca, otherwise known as the dynamic voice behind the blog Girl's Gone Child, has an indescribable talent for putting very complex topics into simple, provocative words. She's been one of my favorite bloggers since 2004, when I first discovered this medium.

So, I was excited but unsurprised to hear that Rebecca had landed a book deal, and delighted to learn that she would be embarking on a book tour that would stop in my own city. I marked the date on the calendar and placed a call in to the shy babysitter down the road.

On the night of Rebecca's pit stop in Vancouver, I received a call from a suddenly sickly babysitter. Though the book signing started at 7:30, smack in the middle of my son's bedtime, I looked at him and asked: "Wanna meet some pretty ladies at a book store?"
"Yes!" he cried, though the "s" was a "th", and then we were off.

He's been potty trained for several weeks, almost a month, and so I didn't think too much about the fact that he was wearing his hilarious old-man briefs and no diaper. I kept asking him on the way to the store: gotta go, Nolan? Tell me if you gotta go."

Although initially excited about our destination, a two-and-a-half year old's enthusiasm is a fickle thing, and by the time we got to the store, my son was manic and destructive with alternating glee, boredom, and a fierce determination to wet-willy an unsuspecting participant.

We had to leave before we got to hear Rebecca read. Nolan had an accident in the middle of the bookstore. Rebecca, adorned in chiffon and softness, presented us with some wet naps. And, cringing, I bought a few books and limped out of the bookstore. On the way home I sneaked glances at the book during red lights and when I got home, I put Nolan to bed and inhaled the whole book.

Even if I didn't really like Rebecca as a person and respect her immensely as a blogger, I would still have to say this: Rockabye is perhaps the best book on Mothering I've ever read. And it's certainly the best memoir. Alternating between streaming-eye touching and stomach-hurting funny, the book is one of the first honest books I've read about the bumpy journey from woman to Mother. I feel proud that Rebecca is one of the blogosphere's own, and the trip to meet her and try to support her reading was definitely worth the accident on the steps of the bookstore.

Since discovering the Mama blog world some time in 2004, I've pretty much stopped watching TV. I rarely read the newspaper, instead finding relevant tidbits about the world through the blogs that resonate most with me.

I read about 70 blogs a day, most of them parenting blogs. Many of them are funny, most are well-written, all are provocative. Of my seventy favorite bloggers, three have lost babies in the last two years.

The first time I read about a normal, everyday Mama losing her newborn, I cried. Alone in front of my computer, tears streamed for hours in hurt, horror and dismay. I had not yet given birth to my own son, but even at eight months pregnant, I understood that there can be nothing worse in this world than losing a child. Karla has remained one of my favorite bloggers, and there is rarely a day when I don't think of her lost baby girl Ava, and all she meant to her parents.

I died a little inside when I read about Kate's loss of her baby boy last year, and then again recently when my blog friend Jen lost her brand new girl. It's not a topic we like to talk about, the death of an innocent new soul, but it is one that needs to be acknowledged and addressed, supported and discussed, in order that healing might begin. Until now, there have been few online resources that have even attempted to address these kinds of unfathomable loss.

Kate emailed me the other day to tell me about the birth of a new site: Glow in the Woods. The site is, according to its mission statement:

"For mamas of still babies, tiny babies, lost potential of all kinds.

In the beginning you stagger, disoriented, through this storm.

We want to be a glow through the trees, a golden refuge of log and glass. Stumble up the steps, shake off the snow and the crust and the stiffness, cross the threshold to be encircled by figures welcoming, nodding, easing you to a roaring fire and piping hot tea and wine and whoopie pies and whatever else warms you from the inside out."

It is an example of something good and well-meaning and hopeful in this tangled forest of blogs, and I already know its presence will help aching souls who are experiencing the deepest dread of any parent.

I have the utmost respect and admiration for the women who have come together to bravely share their stories and experience, in hope that others might take comfort. That's what Mama love is all about.

Barbie, the iconic American fashion doll, is destroying the youth and the culture of Iran. So says Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi, anyway. Najafabadi is Iran's Prosecutor General and he wants restrictions on the importation of Western toys in order to preserve Iran's Islamic culture. Iran is, according to Najafabadi, the third biggest importer of toys in the world.

It's not just Barbie, of course; Batman, Spiderman, and Harry Potter are subjects of Najafabadi's ire as well. "The irregular importation of such toys, which unfortunately arrive through unofficial sources and smuggling, is destructive culturally and a social danger," he wrote in a letter to Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi.

Iran requires women to be very conservative in their dress and Barbie, of course, does not meet that expectation. There have been attempts to create alternatives that do conform to Islamic law, but they have not been successful. "We need to find substitutes to ward off this onslaught, which aims at children and young people whose personality is in the process of being formed," Mr Najafabadi said.

I'm not sure if it is possible to prevent the influx of Western culture or even if they should even try, but I suspect ultimately it will be the children that will decide what sort of toys they really want to play with.

Thirteen years ago, University of Iowa professor Gigi Durham began research for a book about the sexualization of young girls. Immersing herself in the same world our girls live in, she sought to reveal the motive behind the marketing of sex to 8 to 12-year-olds. Surely it didn't take 13 years of research to understand that it is all about money.

Her new book, The Lolita Effect, explores why and how the adage "sex sells" doesn't just apply to adults anymore. She believes that this sexualization of tween girls is part of marketer's larger efforts to create cradle-to-grave consumers. "A lot of very sexual products are being marketed to very young kids," she said. "I'm criticizing the unhealthy and damaging representations of girls' sexuality, and how the media present girls' sexuality in a way that's tied to their profit motives. The body ideals presented in the media are virtually impossible to attain, but girls don't always realize that, and they'll buy an awful lot of products to try to achieve those bodies. There's endless consumerism built around that."

Durham doesn't just point the finger at the big, bad marketers and suggest we wait for them to change. She shares five media-created myths of sexuality and gives practical advice on how to battle them. Her first suggestion is to start the conversation early. "There's this hesitance to talk about these issues, especially before kids reach adolescence," Durham said. "But often, when parents finally do bring it up, it's too late. Kids have already had their sexual understanding shaped by media. We need to be having a lot of open discussions about the sexualization of childhood and what constitutes healthy sexuality. I don't think we should neglect our responsibility as adults and leave them to navigate this terrain on their own."

As the parent of a seven-year-old girl, I can attest to the fact that Durham knows of what she speaks. I am regularly appalled at the images and ideas Ellie is exposed to and welcome some good, solid advice on combating it. The Lolita Effect will be released May 1 and I intend to read it.