Kids say the cutest things. Nothing can melt a parent’s heart more than hearing “I love you, Daddy” or “You’re the best mommy” from a 5-year-old.

Once they get in public, however, some of the things that come out of their mouths aren’t so cute. In fact, they’re downright embarrassing, or worse, hurtful to an intended target. I mean, how can you prevent your kid from announcing to the world you wore your holey underwear today because you haven’t done the wash in a week?

I’ve always loved going to concerts. In college, I became a music reviewer so I could get free tickets to all the shows and hang out with the bands. When Mr. P and I were dating, we regularly hit The Duck Room and Scottrade Center to see our favorite performers.

But when the Little Ps made their debuts, our pseudo rock star lifestyle gave its final curtain call. For instance, I’m dying to see The Black Keys at The Pageant on Thursday, but I feel 3-year-olds probably don’t belong in a sweaty, booze-infused dance pit in front of the stage.

Whenever I read the latest health news, I feel a little surge of pride when a new study comes out of Washington University in St. Louis. This latest one also stirs emotion in my heart for more personal reasons.

First, the study: Researchers found that only a third of teen girls ages 13 to 17 in the six states surveyed received the vaccine against the human papillomavirus, or HPV. While in adolescence HPV is thought of primarily as a sexually transmitted disease, in older women it becomes a factor in most cases of cervical cancer, which was diagnosed in 11,000 American women last year and will eventually be fatal to 4,000 of them.

At my son’s school, today was orientation day for returning families. When it came time to talk to the lunch coordinator, I asked the same question I’ve been bombarding her with since the year began: Why aren’t there more vegetarian options? My 7-year-old chooses to avoid meat, and I dutifully support him, but with only two or three meatless meals offered over the course of a month, and peanuts off the table as an option due to allergy concerns, I wind up packing a LOT of cheese sticks and crackers.

She replied that it depends on your definition of vegetarian – some pizza companies still use mozzarella and parmesan made with animal rennet, so technically that wouldn’t really be vegetarian either. As I sat pondering how to respond to this non-answer, the mom next to me paused in her paperwork and asked, “What’s rennet?”