A Letter to Myself About the Toddler Blanket Transition
You're currently staring at the glowing screen of the Motorola video monitor on your bedside table, watching as Maya attempts a sort of aggressive, synchronised swimming routine inside her 2.5 TOG sleep sack. She looks like a deeply frustrated, slightly...
The Staring Contest: The Truth About Baby Blue Eyes
At exactly 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, I found myself holding Twin A directly under the hallway spotlight, trying to determine if her irises were the colour of the ocean or just the murky grey of the Thames at low...
The Truth About Taylor Swift and the Pressure on Women to Have Kids
When I was twenty-nine, I was sitting in a aggressively air-conditioned Starbucks wearing leggings that hadn't seen the inside of a washing machine since Tuesday, crying into a venti iced macchiato because I had just received three completely conflicting pieces...
The Real Reason Babies Never Actually Sleep With Custom Blankets
There's a massive disconnect between the baby gear you think you need before the kid arrives and the reality of keeping a tiny human alive. Before our son Leo was born, my mental image of fatherhood involved a lot of...
The Josh Naylor Playoff Baby Situation and MLB Paternity Leave
Don't attempt to fix a P1 production bug while your wife's contractions are exactly three minutes apart. I thought I could deploy a quick hotfix from the triage room at Providence Portland while we waited for a doctor. My wife,...
When Can Babies Sleep With A Blanket: A Mom's Honest Guide
I was standing in Maya's nursery at like 2 AM. She was maybe four months old, it was the dead of February, and our old house is drafty as hell. I was holding a lukewarm cup of coffeeβmy fourth of...
Does Ginny Keep the Baby? What Netflix Got Right About Parenting
Iβm standing here at the kitchen island, elbow-deep in a basket of aggressively stained toddler pants, half-watching Netflix on my iPad, when my oldest comes waltzing in covered in what I pray is chocolate. Let me tell you what NOT...
The Truth About That Heirloom Crochet Baby Blanket
I was thirty-seven weeks pregnant with my oldest, sweating completely through a gray maternity tank top in the middle of a Texas July, when my grandmother proudly pulled a massive, neon-yellow afghan out of a plastic grocery bag. It had...
So, are all babies born with blue eyes? What I actually learned
I was sitting in Mount Sinai hospital, room 412, wearing those horrific mesh underwear and a hospital gown that smelled vaguely of industrial bleach and desperation, holding my two-day-old son Leo. My husband, Dave, had just returned with the worst...