Magazine

Newborn baby wearing a layered winter dress and cotton tights

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...

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A baby wearing a white cropped baby tee while lying on a playmat.

Why the cropped baby tee saved my sanity and his cord stump

Day five postpartum. Three in the morning. July in Chicago. The window unit AC was rattling like a dying lawnmower, the ambient humidity was somewhere around ninety percent, and my son was screaming with the kind of intensity that makes...

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A folded pile of soft, stretchy ribbed baby shirts in muted earth tones.

Why I Tossed Half My Baby Shirts (And Exactly What I Buy Now)

I was sitting on the floor of my oldest’s nursery, staring at a rigid, non-stretching denim baby button-down that some well-meaning relative had gifted us, realizing there was zero chance I was getting it over his giant 99th-percentile head without...

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Baby wearing a thin organic cotton sweater over a base layer in a car seat

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...

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Toddler wearing a chunky oversized sweater looking away from camera

The survival guide to the baby knit pullover

It was thirty degrees in Chicago last November, and my fourteen-month-old was doing the alligator death roll on the living room rug. I was attempting to line up three microscopic buttons on a very trendy, very stiff denim jacket his...

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A tired mom holding an organic cotton pink flutter sleeve bodysuit surrounded by messy toddler toys

When the Pink Bubble Pops: Surviving the Baby Glinda Obsession

It was 7:14 AM on a Tuesday, and I was standing in the kitchen wearing my husband's stained college sweatpants, desperately trying to scrape dried oatmeal off the counter with my thumbnail, when Maya marched in. My seven-year-old had a...

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A toddler standing barefoot on a carpet holding a pair of stiff baby sneakers

The truth about the best baby shoes and why ours went in the trash

It was a Tuesday morning, probably around 9 AM, and I was sitting on our living room rug wearing black yoga pants that featured a very distinct, crusted-over smear of smashed avocado on the left knee. Maya was ten months...

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Messy pile of organic baby clothing on a nursery floor next to a half-empty coffee cup

What I Got Completely Wrong About Building My First Baby's Layette

I was standing in the middle of our driveway in a pair of Dave's gym shorts that I'd aggressively rolled down underneath my 38-week pregnant belly, holding a tiny, stiff denim jacket with functional metal buttons, and I was just...

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Exhausted mom holding a coffee cup looking at baby clothes on her phone

Half Angel Baby Anime Trends: My 2 AM Online Shopping Confession

Dear Sarah from last October. It’s 2:14 AM. You’re sitting on the cold kitchen tiles in those grey yoga pants with the mysterious yogurt stain on the left knee, drinking coffee that went cold six hours ago. Maya, who's somehow...

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