Why buying nachhaltige kindergeschenke almost broke my spirit
I was sitting on the floor of my Chicago apartment at eleven at night, staring at a singing plastic dog that smelled vaguely of gasoline. It was the aftermath of my son's first birthday party. The living room looked like...
Dear Sarah: The Truth About That Bunny With Blanket Obsession
You're sitting on the cold kitchen floor right now, aren't you. It's 11:42 PM on a Tuesday, you're wearing Mark's oversized college track hoodie that smells vaguely of stale salsa from last week's taco night, and you've just reheated your...
Dear Tom: The truth about the long sleeve bubble romper
Dear Tom of six months ago, You're currently sweating through your t-shirt in the narrow hallway of our flat, desperately trying to wedge Twin Aβs voluminous, balloon-shaped bottom half into a pair of slim-fit corduroy trousers. She is screaming. You're...
The kinderwagen sack: A letter to myself about winter walks
You're currently sweating through your favorite oversized sweater, wrestling a screaming six-month-old into a puffy fleece snowsuit while your toddler dumps a box of Cheerios all over the mudroom floor. I know exactly how your back aches right now from...
Scoring Big at a Baby Merino Wool Sale Without Losing Your Mind
My mother-in-lawβwho's generally a lovely woman but keeps her thermostat set to what I can only describe as 'tropical terrarium'βtold me when Leo was born that I needed to dress him in thick wool from head to toe or he...
My Utterly Chaotic Guide to Surviving Your First Infant Winter
I'm standing in our icy driveway, and the wind is absolutely howling. It's November 2017, Maya is barely six months old, and I'm holding a lukewarm mug of dark roast in one hand while trying to wrestle a screaming, rigid...
The truth about newborn winter dresses and freezing temperatures
November in Chicago is a specific kind of brutal. The wind does that thing where it physically hurts your face. I was standing in my hallway holding my three-week-old daughter, who was stuffed into a thick velvet holiday dress, layered...
My Complete Breakdown Over The Trendy Baby Tee Crop Top Phase
It was exactly 9:43 AM on a Tuesday, and I was bent at a perfect ninety-degree angle over the damp sand at Centennial Park, frantically trying to dig what looked like a half-chewed cigarette butt out of my four-year-old Mayaβs...
Why The Wrong Infant Play Mat Will Ruin Your Tuesday Afternoon
It was 2:14 PM on a particularly bleak, rain-lashed London Tuesday, and a plastic, primary-coloured toucan was aggressively singing a distorted, tinny version of βLa Cucarachaβ while swinging precisely three inches above my daughterβs nose. I was sitting on the...