Magazine
Why I Finally Stopped Fighting Blankets for Baby Sleeping Bags
It's 2:14 AM. I'm standing over a crib, attempting to fold a standard square blanket into some kind of secure, un-kickable origami structure around my eleven-month-old son. He is currently employing the evasive maneuvers of a startled squid. Every time...
Why I Ditched Fleece for Baby Wolle in the Freezing Chicago Winter
It was two in the morning in mid-February. The kind of Chicago night where the wind off Lake Michigan sounds like a structural failure. I reached into the crib and unzipped my son's heavy fleece sleep sack. His chest was...
Surviving the Night with a Baby Rassel: Why Simple Toys Win
The digital clock on the microwave glared at me in aggressive, glowing red numbers: 3:14 AM. I was standing barefoot in a puddle of something unidentifiable (let's optimistically call it water) while holding a screaming two-year-old who was currently producing...
Dear past Priya: A winter reality check about baby knits
Dear Priya from six months ago. You're currently standing in the baby aisle of a boutique in Lincoln Park, heavily pregnant, holding a chunky cable-knit wool outfit that costs more than your monthly parking spot. The wind is howling off...
The aesthetic feeding myth and why you need a lätzli mit ärmel
Instagram sells this absolute lie that babies learning to eat is a minimalist, beige-hued journey of discovery. The video always starts with a perfectly clean child in a ribbed neutral outfit, sitting in a wooden high chair. They gently mouth...
The Truth About Baby Blankets (And Why Your Crib Looks So Sad)
I remember standing in my oldest son's nursery at 38 weeks pregnant, crying actual hormonal tears of pride because the crib looked like a freaking Pottery Barn catalog. I had a thick quilt neatly folded at the bottom, a perfectly...
A Dad's Guide to Surviving the Chunky Knit Sweater Trend
It was a standard damp November Tuesday in Portland when my kid’s winter wardrobe triggered a minor family crisis. My mother texted me a photo of my son in a thin cotton bodysuit with the caption, "Put a thick sweater...
Debugging the Swaddle: When and How Long to Wrap Your Baby
My mom told me to wrap her tight enough to bounce a quarter off her stomach. The lactation consultant we saw on day three said her hands absolutely needed to be up by her face so she could self-soothe. Then...
Surviving the newborn clothing trap and the truth about baby shirts
The meconium was somehow behind his left ear. I was twenty-four hours postpartum, sitting in a dimly lit Chicago hospital room, trying to remove a rigid, non-stretch cotton collar from my son's wobbly, grapefruit-sized head without getting the black tar-like...