Regardless as to how you felt about those final four words, Netflix's Gilmore Girls brought back your favorite mother-daughter duo for another year of reminiscing. Lorelai, Rory, and Emily reminded us how great (and difficult) motherhood can be at every age. Fuller House also revived another sweet family, bringing back all the memories and all the feels.

Though the most recent Zika virus outbreak started in May 2015, 2016 showed the impact of the virus, specifically in the uptick in microcephaly cases in newborns. Parents everywhere kept up to date on the virus' spread, taking precautions to keep their families safe.

The Cincinnati Zoo gorilla turned martyr turned meme was shot after a little boy fell into his enclosure, prompting a widespread backlash against the boy's already-traumatized mother and initiating a wider discussion on how we judge other parent's perceived missteps or actions.

In horrific and tragic news, an alligator also drowned a 2-year-old-boy, after grabbing him from the beach where his family was relaxing at a Walt Disney World hotel in Florida. Little Lane Graves' parents were forced unwillingly into the spotlight, but the public was largely respectful of their need to grieve privately. Graves was laid to rest in late June.

Two heart-stealing celebrity babies that top our list? Michael Phelps and Nicole Johnson's son Boomer and Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's daughter Luna. This year, Boomer cheered his dad on all Olympics long, rocking patriotic earmuffs, while Luna modeled Halloween's best costume picks. Looking forward to more cuteness in 2017!

With 600 million downloads, Pokemon Go was an unexpectedly popular summer trend. The interactive app got people moving, keeping players fit and (with parental parameters) pretty safe.

Six kids, 12 years of being together, and two years of marriage later, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt filed for divorce in September. In the proceedings, Jolie asked that Pitt have joint legal custody only, prompting longtime fans to speak out in defense of their children, who had become the unwilling focus of a drawn out battle, and in defense of Jolie's request for physical custody.

The Kardashians were in the news plenty this year in varying, silly degrees. Kim Kardashian's robbery at gunpoint, though, was seriously scary and led many to chide the public about laughing over the attack on the mother of two. North and Saint West's mother has kept an uncharacteristically low profile since the harrowing break-in in Paris this past October.

Omran Daqneesh became a symbol for the high-costs of war in Syria's Aleppo, specifically its effects on children. Though he managed to survive one of the region's many attacks, 6 million Syrian children still desperately need immediate aid, protection, and assistance to ensure their futures. Parents, too, became an important focus, as mothers who were unable to produce enough breastmilk for their hungry children and families who couldn't prove their children's births for lack of proper birth certification captured the world's attention. (Rightfully so.)

Say what you will about the results, but 2016 brought us the first mother (and grandmother!) to be given a nomination for a major party for president. What's more, she was also the first mother and grandmother to win the popular vote. Hillary Clinton's candidacy, as her concession speech noted, served to inspire "all the little girls watching," letting them know that they could truly be capable of anything.

Among the sadder topics of the year, several high-profile hot car death cases —included that of Justin Ross Harris who was convicted of killing his 22-month-old toddler, Cooper, by leaving him in a hot car for several hours in 2014 — were at the forefront of the parenting discussion. Though not a new trend, cases like Harris' and several others proved a heartbreaking reality: According to an ongoing study by Jan Null from San Jose State University's Department of Meterology & Climate Science, "the number of deaths in 2016 is up from 24 children in 2015, and is not far off from the 31 deaths in 2014 [... putting] the 2016 total at 29 ... " according to Romper's own Alana Romain and NBC News.

2016 was arguably bookended by one major story: Hatchimals. The fuzzy toy animals that hatch from eggs when cared for took the world by storm — so much so that many retailers and shops sold out within hours of every new shipment. By the week before Christmas, almost no one was selling the toy online, minus a few over-zealous resale users charging hundreds for a single item, and parents were being told that their kids would have to wait until the new year to get their hands on one.