Magazine

Exhausted mother holding a moody toddler looking just like the viral picture

My Honest Take On That Half Baby Half Kid Meme Phase of Parenting

I was sitting on the cold tile of my bathroom floor in Chicago at two in the morning. My son was outside the door, doing that specific hyperventilating sob because I had peeled his banana. He asked me to peel...

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Close up of a sleeping infant's ear with a tiny yellow gold stud

Choosing safe gold earrings studs for babies without panicking

My mother-in-law cornered me in the kitchen with a pair of twenty-two karat hoops, telling me it was tradition and that I was overthinking it. A few hours later, my old charge nurse texted me to say that piercing a...

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A mom looking stressed holding a vintage 90s plush toy in a messy baby nursery

To Past Jess: What to Know About That September 24th Birthday Plush

Dear Jess of six months ago: Right now, you're sitting cross-legged on the sticky floor of the Goodwill on Highway 84, aggressively Googling plush toy birthdates while your youngest tries to eat a rogue Cheeto off your shoe. You just...

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A dad holding a baby near a pellet smoker on a backyard patio

Before and After: Smoking Baby Back Ribs With An 11-Month-Old

It's 6:14 AM on a damp Portland Saturday, exactly 43.7 degrees outside, and I'm standing on my patio holding a squirming eleven-month-old in my left arm and a slippery rack of raw pork in my right. I'm staring at the...

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Toddler girl wearing a cloth baby doll carrier holding a stuffed bear

The Absolute Absurdity of the Baby Doll Carrier (And Why We Own Two)

My mother-in-law firmly believes that giving a two-year-old their own miniature baby wearing apparatus is mildly ridiculous and encourages them to grow up entirely too fast. The woman at our Tuesday morning playgroup—who wears floor-length unbleached linen in the dead...

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Mom sitting on a nursery floor playing pretty little baby chords while baby watches

Why Learning Pretty Little Baby Chords Beats Playing Mozart

Three years ago, I was sitting on my cheap living room rug, sweating through my nursing tank top, frantically trying to sync a Bluetooth speaker to a twelve-hour Spotify playlist called "Mozart For Genius Brain Development." My oldest son, the...

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Vintage cat plush toy sitting on a wooden nursery shelf next to baby books.

The Truth About Gifting an October 24th Birthday Twin

My mother-in-law unzipped her floral weekender bag and pulled out a vacuum-sealed plastic pouch with the solemnity of someone handling a transplant organ. Inside was a slightly crushed, orange and black plush cat. She had spent three weeks scouring the...

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Vintage Ty plush toy sitting safely on a high wooden nursery bookshelf

October 16 Beanie Baby Nostalgia: Cute Decor or Safety Hazard?

I was twenty-eight weeks pregnant, sweating through my maternity shorts in my mom’s un-air-conditioned Texas attic, when she pulled out the holy grail of our 1990s retirement plan: a massive, cracked plastic tub full of Beanie Babies. I was up...

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A vintage rainbow chameleon plush toy sitting on a modern wooden nursing chair

The 3 AM Hunt for the October 14th Beanie Baby

The screen of my laptop was basically burning my retinas, but I couldn't look away. It was 3:14 AM. I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant with Leo, sweating through a pair of maternity leggings that I had been wearing for, oh...

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