Magazine

Priya holding a stainless steel toddler plate with leftover mac and cheese on a messy kitchen counter

The soapy nightmare that led us to stainless steel toddler plates

Tuesday night, 6:43 PM. Kabir had just aggressively rejected a batch of organic mac and cheese that I spent twenty minutes hiding pureed cauliflower inside. I was standing over the kitchen sink, eating the lukewarm leftovers directly off his favorite...

Read more

A baby in a comfortable green ribbed cotton bodysuit instead of itchy newborn holiday clothes.

The Truth About Newborn Holiday Clothes (And Velvet Disasters)

It was Thanksgiving 2017 and Maya was exactly two months old. I had spent forty-five dollars at a big box store on this tiny, stiff, maroon velvet dress with a metallic gold Peter Pan collar because I was a first-time...

Read more

A pile of scattered organic infant socks on a wooden floor next to a half-empty coffee cup.

The medical reality of organic cotton baby socks for infants

The day we brought my son home from the hospital, I received three distinct, entirely contradictory mandates about his feet. My mother, wielding her generational aunty logic, informed me that exposing his bare toes to the Chicago autumn would invite...

Read more

A tired dad inspecting a silicone teether while twin toddlers gnaw on furniture

The Great Silicone Panic and What Goes In My Twins' Mouths

I was standing in the middle of our cramped London kitchen, clutching a mint green weaning spoon, when the conflicting advice reached a deafening crescendo. My mother-in-law had just confidently declared over FaceTime that anything squishy was inherently toxic and...

Read more

Frustrated mom holding a pile of mismatched baby christmas pjs in her living room.

Why Buying Baby Christmas PJs Nearly Broke My Spirit This Year

I was sitting waist-deep in a pile of aggressively red, synthetic fleece at 11 PM on a Tuesday, completely drenched in sweat. My oldest, Wyatt, was screaming in the background, my husband was staring at me like I'd completely lost...

Read more

Baby boy crawling on a rug in a soft green organic cotton jumpsuit with front pockets

Decoding the Organic Baby Boy Jumpsuit: A Tired Dad's Field Notes

Dear Marcus from six months ago. Right now, you're standing over the changing table at 3:14 AM. You're sweating in the drafty Portland winter air. Leo is screaming with the exact pitch and intensity of a dial-up modem trying to...

Read more

Toddler twins wearing traditional Spanish baby clothes sitting on a rug

The Catastrophic Christening That Sold Me On Spanish Baby Clothes

The great christening disaster of last October began not with a dropped cake or a forgotten prayer book, but with a synthetic ruffle. We were sitting in the slightly damp function room of a local gastropub, attempting to celebrate my...

Read more

Baby wearing a retro ringer tee playing with wooden toys on a coffee stained rug

Wholesale Vintage T Shirts: The Toxic Secret You Need To Know

The biggest myth in modern parenting is that you're somehow failing the planet if you aren't dressing your toddler in authentic, perfectly faded 1980s band tees you scored from a thrift bin. I believed this myth so deeply that two...

Read more

A natural wooden baby play gym sitting in a minimalist Portland living room.

Debugging the Playroom: An Honest Dad's Guide to Toy Wooden Toys

My mother-in-law was standing in our kitchen holding a neon plastic command center that apparently taught conversational Spanish through flashing LEDs, while my neighbor from the Portland farmer's market was actively telling me that anything other than raw, untreated birch...

Read more