When You Become the Default Human Holder for Your Baby
It was four in the morning in mid-February, the kind of Chicago winter night where the radiators hiss aggressively and the air feels like dry ice. Maya was six weeks old and deep in the trenches of her peak colic...
What Parents Actually Want When You Buy Baby Gifts for Girls
My sister-in-law cornered me by the kettle just before the twins arrived, waving a mug of herbal tea, and firmly stated that I must only buy neutral organic linen so my girls wouldn't be forced into oppressive gender roles before...
Why The Best Baby Gifts For Boys Donβt Have Batteries Or Sirens
I'm currently sitting on my living room rug, surrounded by what I can only describe as a localized explosion of primary-colored plastic, wondering who decided that every single present for a male infant needs to simulate a construction site emergency....
Raising A Baby Goth Without Losing Your Mind Or Your Aesthetic
The grand, sweeping myth of alternative parenting is that we're all gliding around dimly lit Victorian manors, raising miniature vampires who only listen to Bauhaus and politely refuse to play with brightly coloured plastic. The depressing reality is that I'm...
The 3 AM Pajama Panic (And How I Finally Figured Out Baby Sleepwear)
It was 2:14 AM and the red numbers on my alarm clock were basically mocking me while I stood in the middle of our drafty farmhouse nursery trying not to have a complete meltdown. My oldest son was four weeks...
Why The Sudden Obsession With Baby Rosalina Threw Me For A Loop
It was exactly 4:12 PM on a rainy Thursday, and I was wearing my husband Dave's oversized college sweatshirt which smells faintly of old garlic and desperation, staring completely dead-eyed at our living room TV. Maya, my seven-year-old, was sobbing...
Hang In There Baby: Surviving The Fourth Trimester Beta Test
The digital thermometer on the nursery wall read exactly 68.4 degrees. It was 3:14 AM on Day 42 of our daughter's life, and she was executing a continuous, high-pitch audio loop that I was pretty sure violated several international treaties....
The Henry Cavill Baby Era: What I Wish I Knew Before the Chaos
It was 6:14 AM on a Tuesday, and I was standing barefoot on my freezing kitchen tiles, wearing my husband Tomβs oversized gray sweatpantsβthe ones with an unidentified, crusty yogurt stain on the left thigh that I keep forgetting to...
Why I Swallowed My Pride and Bought Himalaya Dolphin Baby Yarn
I was sitting on the cold linoleum of my laundry roomβwhich doubles as the shipping department for my tiny Etsy shopβstaring at an $80 pile of imported raw wool that had just turned my oldest sonβs neck into a patchy,...