Magazine

Confused mom looking at an iPad while her toddler plays with an organic cotton blanket

How searching for the best baby dragon evo decks cost me $142

It was Tuesday night, roughly 9:45 PM. I was standing in the kitchen wearing my husband Mark's gray sweatpants and a college t-shirt that literally still had dried oatmeal on the left shoulder from breakfast. I was holding my phone,...

Read more

Exhausted mom looking at a tiny baby bottle next to her sleeping newborn.

The panic over your baby's stomach size (and why I lost my mind)

I was standing barefoot on the freezing kitchen tile at three in the morning, wearing these horrific mesh hospital underwear and a nursing bra that smelled entirely like sour milk and sheer desperation. It was November, so the house was...

Read more

A chronological guide to helping family select a baby's headstone and processing the logistics of infant loss.

When Your Brother Asks You to Help Pick a Memorial Marker

The fluorescent lighting in the monument showroom was humming at a frequency that felt like a localized cyber-attack on my nervous system. I was sitting at a faux-wood desk next to my older brother, Dave, staring at a catalog of...

Read more

A vintage Rumba the Tiger sitting safely on a high nursery shelf away from the crib

Why My Kid's Vintage Birthday Twin Toy Is Banned From The Crib

My wife Sarah caught me in the glow of my dual monitors at 2:14 AM, hovering my cursor over a "Buy It Now" button for a twenty-one-year-old stuffed tiger. I was holding our eleven-month-old in my left arm, furiously typing...

Read more

Vintage Ty plush bear sitting safely on a wooden nursery shelf away from the crib

The Truth About Getting a December 15 Beanie Baby for Kids

My mother-in-law cornered me by the diaper pail on Tuesday morning. "You absolutely must get him the Ty toy with his exact birthday to keep in his crib," she announced, waving a screenshot from some Facebook collector's group. Three hours...

Read more

A dad looking confused while tangled in a long fabric wrap holding a baby

Why Most Baby Carriers Fail Dads and How We Finally Fixed It

Listen, I thought I was being a supportive, eco-conscious wife when I bought us a matching organic linen ring sling. It was a brisk April morning in Chicago, and I stood on our front porch watching Amit in the driveway....

Read more

A messy living room floor with a modern wooden play gym and safe baby toys

My Nightmare Hunting Down a January 18th Beanie Baby

It was 2:14 in the morning, the harsh blue light of my phone screen burning my retinas while I sat on the floor of my laundry room, folding the fourth load of toddler pants for the week. I had just...

Read more

A dad looking confused at a vintage plush dog sitting on a baby nursery shelf.

Troubleshooting the Nostalgia of a January 11th Beanie Baby Toy

It was 10:43 PM on a Tuesday, and I was deep into a terminal window trying to figure out why our staging environment kept throwing 502 gateway errors. My 11-month-old son, Leo, was finally asleep after what I can only...

Read more

A confused parent searching for organic infant clothing and finding craft whiskey

Hudson Baby Bourbon: The Nursery Mixup and Parenting Nightcaps

Listen. Don't show up to my cousin's baby shower in Naperville with a bottle of 92-proof craft whiskey just because you typed the registry name into your phone too fast. I've seen a thousand wild things during my shifts on...

Read more