The Truth About Organic Infant Socks (and Peeling Ankles)
I was sitting right on the cracked linoleum of my laundry room floor, holding a tiny, sweaty polyester sock in one hand and staring at my six-month-old's ankles in sheer panic. Beau, my oldest, was happily gnawing on a plastic...
Why That Freezer Teether Ring Is Actually Making Your Baby Cry
It was three in the morning in the middle of a Chicago February. The kind of bitter cold that seeps right through the windowpanes and makes the old apartment radiator hiss like an angry cat. My toddler was cutting his...
Why That Ice-Solid Teething Toy Myth Needs to Die Immediately
It's 3 AM and you're staring into the abyss of your freezer. Next to the ancient bag of edamame and the breastmilk stash you're too paranoid to throw away, there's a plastic ring shaped like a starfish. It's frozen completely...
What I Wish I Knew About Knit Rompers Before Baby Number Three
Dear Jess from six months ago. You're currently standing in the middle of Target, eight months pregnant with your third baby, holding a mustard yellow acrylic one-piece and crying into your iced coffee. Your ankles are swollen to the size...
Why toddler boy khaki shorts are a pediatric nightmare
The biggest lie the childrenswear industry ever sold us is that a two-year-old boy needs to dress like a miniature golf pro. You see it in every catalog. A tiny guy standing there in a polo shirt and rigid, flat-front...
The Truth About the Toy Blanket (And Why Your Baby Needs One)
My older cousin stared at the graying, spit-up-stained square of muslin clutched in my toddler's fist and let out a long, theatrical sigh. We were at a family dinner, and she felt the need to inform me that letting my...
Dear Past Priya: The Truth About Bamboo Bassinet Sheets
It's 3:14 AM on a Tuesday in late January. The radiator in our Chicago apartment is clanking like a dying engine. You're standing over the bedside sleeper, holding a screaming, shivering infant who just engineered a blowout of catastrophic proportions....
Why japan kidswear completely ruined me for normal baby clothes
When I was pregnant with Leo, I made the mistake of crowdsourcing clothing advice. My mother-in-law cornered me in a Target aisle to aggressively whisper that I should exclusively buy 12-month sizes for my unborn infant and just roll the...
The Hard Truth About Buying Authentic Vintage Newborn Dresses
I'm currently staring at a yellowed, lace-covered, pintucked monstrosity hanging on the back of my laundry room door. It's my great-aunt's baptism gown from 1942, and my mother just drove it three hours across Texas in a garment bag like...