Jen Shoop, Author at Magpie by Jen Shoop

By: Jen Shoop

I am absolutely in love with the children’s clothing line Oso + Me, whose ethos is equal parts luxe-traditional and practical. The line’s founder, Claire Hudson, explained to me that ALL (yes, in caps!) of their clothes are machine washable and dryable and “are perfect for playing in and getting messy and also dressing up.” She added that “mostly, we try to make clothes that last longer,” an imperative that led them to devise clever ways to design a fit they call “growable,” so that children can wear their clothes for more than a single season. For example, their boys shorts pull-on with an elastic waistband (though the styling suggests they have a hook!), are reversible (more versatile!), and can be rolled at the knee for extended use.

I’m smitten with their scalloped Claire dresses (shown above and below) in particular and love the idea that it can be worn at least two seasons/summers owing to its wrap style design, which closes in the back with an extra button to adjust to the perfect fit. The scalloped detailing is absolutely precious.

This party dress is also to die for! Claire let me know they would be releasing a long-sleeved version of the scalloped dress above for fall, and I can’t wait to take a peek!

Post-Scripts.

I’m likely going to enroll mini in a toddler ballet class this fall (we’re visiting the studio this week to check it out!). She’s already got her tutu covered, but I’m planning on ordering her a pair of these Bunnyhop slippers, a classic leotard, and — does she need a ballerina Barbie, too? I don’t know where you readers fall on the topic of Barbie; there’s been lots written about her impossible proportions and doll-playing and gender-specific toys in general, but my sisters and I LOVED Barbies and I happen to think they stirred our imaginations. We came up with all kinds of wild and twisted and emotional plotlines. We acted out dreams and emotions. So my girl will probably be a Barbie girl, too.

Have you heard of — or tried? — slow parenting before?

Mr. Magpie and I have been consciously avoiding over-buying toys in part because we don’t think she needs that much (and don’t want to spoil her) and in part because we lack space — but we’ve both noticed that she’s largely disengaged with her toys these days. The only toys she consistently plays with are her pull-a-long dog (named Pretzel), her two dollbabies and some of their feeding accessories, her duplos, and her plastic taxi. The others are fleeting interests at best, more often fun to dump on the floor than to actually interact with. We’ve come to the conclusion that she’s aged out of most of the toys she has, but we’re still months away from Christmas / her birthday, and so we decided instead to gradually introduce her to a new toy a month. (We’ll be saving some of the wow factor toys for Christmas, anyway — right now, at the top of my Christmas shopping list for her are a micro scooter and helmet (the ladybug KILLS ME) and a high chair for her babydoll, which she will lose her mind over. I can’t wait.) This month’s toy? A tea set. READ THE REVIEWS. People love this! I can’t wait for her to open it tomorrow morning. I think she’ll love “pouring” tea and having all the little parts to herself. I also bought her this board book to go with it.

Don’t you grow up in a hurry.

I finally am transitioning mini into the full-sized bath tub. She’s been ready for a good month or two, but it was mainly forgetfulness on my end to buy all the accoutrements for bath time in our big tub. I ordered a bathmat to prevent falls/slips, a spout cover (this has been driving me crazy for the last few months — she’s nearly clocked her head on the metal spout a dozen times), a new set of bath toys (the reviews are crazy for these inexpensive plastic boats!), and some Crayola bath drops, which I’m sure she’ll adore. Incidentally, my sister recently sent mini these, and she is OBSESSED with them. It’s all she does in the bath tub.

Apropos of bath: I would love to buy mini one of these embroidered bathrobes, but feel she’s between sizes and don’t want to invest in something that she’ll wear for only a few weeks. I might use one of these in the interim, especially with all the current promo codes! Plus, it’s precious.

And apropos of coloring: mini was so into drawing in the bath that I discovered and instantly bought one of these “Water Wow” magic coloring books. It’s genius. You fill up the little marker with water and the pages turn color — and can be reused! I’ll be keeping this in my diaper bag for trips to restaurants.

By: Jen Shoop

There’s a ramshackle outdoor cafe on the northside of Heckscher Ballfields in Central Park that I pass at least twice a day. A flimsy easel announces its menu highlights in garish neon lettering on the sidewalk just out front: “Frozen margaritas! Beer! And more!” Clusters of wire tables, the kind you can tell from afar are wobbly, with one leg shorter than the rest, ensuring that you are never quite comfortable when you eat or drink, are circled by warped white plastic chairs, some streaked with dirt and possibly sun damage, and many flecked with stray bits of sharp plastic chinks dangling off the legs like skin tags. The cafe looks to have been decorated by my grandfather’s friend so-and-so from the autobody shop: water-repellant, red-and-white checked plastic tablecloths likely bought in bulk with no consideration as to style or appeal top the tables. Plastic salt and pepper shakers dot the tables irregularly, looking worse for the wear and likely filled with gritty lumps of salt and pepper that will refuse egress. I haven’t yet ventured a look at the menu, but I’m certain of the fare: hot dogs on a grill, bags of Lays Classic potato chips, bottled water, Cokes.

It’s no frills. But it has its appeal.

The Ballfields Cafe is of a different era, redolent of a lunch stand from 1962 at a community pool in suburban Maryland–the frozen margaritas notwithstanding. Those, I imagine, were an addition in the late 90s, when a park employee might have lobbied, hard, for a Margaritaville machine, and voila. While my stomach turns at the thought of the anti-freeze-like neon bottled sour mix undoubtedly used in their cocktails, there is something pleasantly authentic about the cafe’s offerings, its garage sale decor, its decided un-cool-ness in a city whose casual dining scene screams overwrought and trendy, all matcha this and single-udder-butter that. It’s refreshingly straight-forward and un-ironic to the point of appealing, sort of like the squat red font above a fire department garage (HOOK & LADDER COMPANY NO. 12!) or the curlicue design on the back of a set of Bicycle playing cards. It’s fetching in its staunch disregard for the times.

In that vein, some of my favorite no frills fashion workhorses…

Dr. Scholl’s. I wore these constantly in middle school. I have to say I’m kind of drawn to these “jellie” versions, but I’m partial to stark white.

Polo shirt. Most of mine were Lacoste hand-me-downs from my older brother as a kiddo.

Levi’s. I mean, these have come so full circle that they’re mainstream high fashion now. Arguably nothing sexier on a woman than a pair of Levi’s and a white tee, right?!

GH Bass Weejuns. These have a kind of sexy librarian appeal to them nowadays — you can make them work. (See the snap at the top of this post!!) I bought an updated pair in white last year from J. Crew and lived in them. I liked wearing them with something a bit more feminine up top.

A house dress/shirt dress. Something about this style from Theory looks like something I might have worn in 1942. In a good way.

A yellow rain slicker.

Minnetonka Thunderbird Mocs. These are so kitschy and off-tone that they’re almost hipster.

Jean jacket. Timeless.

For Mr. Magpie: a leather bomber jacket. I remember this strongly from college, when peacoats were curiously trendy on men (didn’t every guy you knew wear a peacoat in navy?) and Mr. Magpie instead wore a chocolate brown leather bomber jacket. I always thought it was outrageously cool of him, resignedly agnostic to the trends. He also had a khaki coat similar to this that he wore in cool but not cold weather. The style felt so jarringly different from what was then in vogue, but I loved it. And still do. Also timeless: penny loafers, Sperry boat shoes, and gray New Balances. (Mr. Magpie never wore NBs ever ever ever, but I like them.)

For minis: jellies (mini has had two pair of these this summer), saddle shoes, Gloverall duffle coats, t-straps, and “party socks.” (Who else had those?!)

Post-Scripts.

PSA: There is a fantastic Tent Sale going on at Serena and Lily. Loving this heart sham (contemplating buying a set for mini’s future “big kid” bed!), this scalloped duvet, and these embroidered sheets.

What makes you feel good about yourself?

Well, I love you, too.

I like everything about this dress, including its under $70 pricetag…

Amazon goddess.

A season late, I’m very into the white bootie. I would love these.

By: Jen Shoop

Today, a couple of things at the tippy top of my wishlist — an abbreviated “10 picks” if you will:

Pick No. 1: The Banjanan Dress.

I am officially in love with every single dress from the relatively new label Banjanan, including the maxi shown on the uber chic Arabella Green Hill above. Also adore this maxi skirt (such a fun print — yellow is so unexpected and vivacious!), this discounted stunner, and this voluminous white dress (that neckline tho!)

Pick No. 2: The Celine Shades.

I am majorly lusting after these boxy, oversized Celine Butterfly shades. Will I be as cool as Joan Didion if I wear them?

Pick No. 3: The Bobbi Brown Skincare Kit.

I’m very comfortable with my current skincare routine, but have been eyeing this Bobbi Brown kit — an incredible deal right now. Bobbi Brown is a tried-and-true, no gimmick kind of brand for me; I’ve never found a product of theirs I don’t like, and have been wearing their blush in pale pink for years and years (maybe more than a decade?) and lip tint for months on end. Their products just work. As an added bonus, I love their simple branding and sophisticated packaging.

Pick No. 4: The Princess Charlotte Look.

I am still drooling over the absolutely perfect photos from Prince Louis’ christening, and especially the children’s picture-perfect outfits. Of course I was immediately drawn to Princess Charlotte’s sweet dress and have been inspired to track down similar styles for my own mini. I am pretty sure she is wearing a dress from Amaia Kids (almost all of the styles are currently sold out, which is a promising clue) or Pepa and Company. I might get a similar look with one of the following styles: timeless Luli and Me, a sweet, traditional confection from Alexandros, or this simpler style from Little English. Also adore this precious gingham style from Rachel Riley and this stunning smocked lovely from LE.

Pick No. 5: The Velvet Bow Kitten Heels.

Wow — these elegant velvet bow-towed kitten heels look like an Aquazzura but cost only $48?!?! What a steal! As Jonathan Van Hess would say: can you believe?!?!?!

Pick No. 6: The White Blouse.

I am straight up in love with this chic peplum white blouse. $65 and I will wear it constantly.

P.S. Are you a pragmatic cook?

P.P.S. What words do you hate?

By: Jen Shoop

At our engagement party nine years ago, Mr. Magpie’s lovely mother stood in the center of a rooftop deck across from the National Cathedral on a crisp September evening and said, in a strained voice and with a clipped sentence that made clear how difficult it was for her to speak, only this:

“Jen, you’re perfect for Landon, and you’re perfect for us.”

Then she raised a glass, dabbed her eye, and the festivities resumed.

I have carried this brief but brawny toast with me for the better part of the last decade. I was (am) moved by her sentiment. I was (and remain) ecstatic at her explicit stamp of approval. I was (and to this day feel) touched by her elegant way of letting me know that I was not just marrying Landon; I was marrying into his family, and we were altogether a seamless match.

But something else has lingered these many years later: the underlying concept that people are not perfect on their own, intrinsically, in a vacuum. Instead, they become perfect in the embrace of someone else. Even characteristics typically viewed as flaws or shortcomings can be perfect for the right somebody — and not just in a schmaltzy way, either. They can challenge a loved one, promoting balance or growth or the adoption of a new or widened perspective. And so two people can perfect one another, too, in a sense. Or so I tell myself when Mr. Magpie heaves a sigh at the front-loaded dishwasher (guilty as charged), the toothpaste squeezed from the wrong end of the tube (but who cares?), the habitually missed text or phone call (oops). All just part and parcel of the mutual perfection process, right?

What I mean to say is this:

There isn’t much I can say about Mr. Magpie that I haven’t already written. (Let’s not forget the M Series, too.) But today, we celebrate eight years of marriage, and I am thinking to myself: how radical, how astoundingly improbable, how wildly fortunate it is that I managed to find someone who is perfect for me. Me! Idiosyncratic me! Who has rules for herself and sometimes (always) dwells too much on lessons learned the hard way and can get all worked up over a punctuation mark. Who expects a lot of people, cries at the drop of a hat, and worries about everything on God’s green earth. And him, who is somehow the most passionate and dispassionate person I know: he is convicted in what he believes with an intensity I’ve rarely seen elsewhere (“I’d rather kill myself than get a tattoo,” he once stated flatly, pissing off the mixed crowd of tattooed and non-tattooed friends we were with — GULP) but he is also calm, even-keeled, analytical in the face of decisions, whereas I am prone towards fretful emotionality. Yes, idiosyncratic us. And yet we are absurdly well-suited to one another, miraculously adjacent puzzle pieces. We share the same values, ambitions, sensitivities. Our personalities play together easily. We have opposite but complementary skillsets in all facets of business and personal life. And where we don’t see eye to eye, we mind the gap. In our eight years of marriage and fourteen years of coupledom (fourteen!!!), we have evolved together and independently in a way that empowers me to be the fullest version of myself.

And so eight years in, I think back to that night on the rooftop in Northwest D.C., and I think: “Yes. He was perfect for me then. But he is more perfect for me now.”

P.S. What I would change about my wedding day. (Hint: not a lot.)

P.P.S. What I’m wearing to our anniversary dinner tonight.

P.P.P.S. We decided to forgo anniversary gifts this year, but on the short list of over the top gifts I would love to receive: this timeless ultra-covetable BV, diamond Tiffany bow earrings, a Burberry trench, and a Cartier love bracelet. On the shortlist of more realistic gifts I would love to receive: a pair of Stubbs and Wootton slippers, a vintage Hermes Kelly watch in a cool color, a massage, and new bedding.

By: Jen Shoop

We still have a lovely month or two of summer left, and I’m certainly not chomping on the bit for fall, but I must say that I’ve begun to compile a clothing wishlist for cooler weather.

At the top of my list are autumn-appropriate dresses. I always gravitate towards a dress whenever possible, and reluctantly wear jeans the rest of the year. If I could wear a dress every day of the year, I would. A couple of my favorite dresses for these transitioning-into-fall months:

+This striped shirtdress, which I’d wear with sandals now and smart-looking flats later (on sale for under $40!)

+This boho dress, to be worn with booties!

+Yes, it’s white. Yes, it will be worn after Labor Day. I just love it so much and could see myself pairing it with light brown leather accents.

+Classic black wrap dress, with huge black shades! (I love love love Saloni.)

+This dress, with slingbacks!

Of course, a woman cannot exist on dresses alone, so…

My Favorite Fall Picks.

+Ralph Lauren Beaded Fair Isle Sweater (on sale!)

+M Gemi Mocs

+Wandler Handbag — my best friend raves about this up-and-coming label, which has a super high-end, Celine-like look

+J. Crew Point Sur Wide Leg Crops — really into this shape for fall

+Lee Matthews Plaid Maxi — nailing that muumuu vibe I’ve been all about!

+Paravel Crossbody — personalizable with hand-painted

+K Jacques Sandals — adore these!

+Tory Burch Cashmere Sweater — on sale!; get the look for less with this button-side sweater for under $70 or this chic turtleneck sweater

+Vintage Hermes Watch

+Gucci iPhone Case

+Cuyana Tote — love this new color!

+Veronica Beard Trousers (on sale!)

+Leather-Trimmed Vejas

+Gucci Wallet

+Plaid Coat (on super sale!)

+Stubbs + Wootton Loafers

P.S. What’s the deal with these things? People love them?! Tell me if you’re a fan!

P.P.S. Lessons from the kitchen and lessons from Lee.

P.P.P.S. I think I might order a few of these to organize some of the bulky items we currently just have in stacks in our closet — like boots, extra blankets, etc.

By: Jen Shoop

My Latest Snag: The Saloni Ruth Dress.

I couldn’t help but snag Saloni’s Ruth dress, shown above, earlier this week when its price dropped to $140 (!!!). I bought it in the red. Va va voom! I’ll be wearing mine to my eight year (!) anniversary this upcoming Tuesday, but I’m also considering it for a rehearsal dinner in a few weeks. (More great wedding guest dress picks here.)

You’re Sooooo Popular: The Gingham Jumpsuit.

The most popular items on Le Blog this week:

+A darling gingham jumpsuit.

+The dress I CANNOT stop wearing. I now own this in two colorways and wear them at least once a week.

+My favorite bath towels.

+A chic, affordable, boxy sweatshirt — perfect for running Saturday morning errands.

+The cutest (monogrammable!) sneaks for your mini. My daughter owns a pair in white and I adore them!

+I would love to own this ring.

+These have made my bedside table so much easier to navigate in the middle of the night — remotes, hair elastics, hand lotions, pens are all so readily available 🙂

+Super cute sweater for fall.

+I’m in love with these Aquazzuras.

#Turbothot: On Listening.

One of my mother’s many beautiful strengths is her ability to listen. She will solution with me and comfort me and occasionally tell me to get a grip (in far more elegant, gentle words) when I need to hear that, too — but mainly, she listens. Sometimes she listens so well that I pause, breathless — “Mom? Are you there?”

“Yes, yes — keep going. What happened next?”

I can just imagine her sitting on the settee of her well-appointed sitting room, iPhone to her ear, gears turning, heart open–but mouth closed. What a gift. Often, all I really need is an empathetic ear, someone to vent to; I’m not looking for Pollyanna or Ms. Fix-It. I simply need to get everything off my chest so that I can see how I feel about it, so that I can assess its shape in front of me as I simultaneously imagine what my mother might be thinking about it and therefore hold myself to a higher level of accountability. When I’m mulling things over internally, I can easily and invisibly suppress the voices of reason and opposition to which I should probably attend. But when I say something out loud, in front of the audience of my mother, I am forced to determine how level-headed I am being. And more often than not, halfway through my tirade, I’ll find myself shifting perspectives or recognizing that this is actually not such a big deal or realizing, all at once, my foolhardiness or blindness or wrongdoing. By listening, she gives me space to sort through all of that on my own.

After I’ve run out of steam, she’ll support me (“yes, you are doing the right thing, honey”), console me (“tsk tsk, I’m so sorry”), gently suggest an alternative, or — and this is when I know I’ve crossed a threshold into overly intense and probably unwarranted emotion or, worse, misjudged a situation — she’ll ask: “Do you want to hear my opinion?”

She is deeply solicitous in this, too, framing her reaction as an opinion rather than a truth and offering me an opportunity to decline her perspective if I don’t want to listen to it–something, incidentally, that I’ve never done, since she’s almost always right, even when it’s not something I want to hear.

I have been trying to model her unbelievable empathy in the conversations I’ve been having with friends and loved ones more recently–friends going through surrogacy, challenging workplace changes, IVF, illness, momentous professional decisions–and have discovered the tremendous restraint and focus it requires. If I’m not mindful, I am liable to shift into solutioning mode, or to heap apologies or condolences on them, or to play Pollyanna, and I know from experience that they are more likely to appreciate a good vent session with a benevolent, non-judgmental, open hearted listener than anything else. Though I often lean on a couple of the elegant turns of phrase I have picked up over the course of my thirty four years when facing a situation in which I don’t know what to say, I have been striving, to the best of my ability, to zip my lips and just listen, present but silent.

Are you a good listener? How do you do it?!

#Shopaholic: The Embroidered Blouse.

+Love the colors in this embroidered blouse for fall!

+OMG EXTRA 40% OFF RT SALE. I finally bought this. I’m debating whether I also need this!

+Have been hearing great stuff about Julep’s undereye concealer. I’m now a diehard Cle de Peau gal but…

+Intrigued by this cult classic hair oil, a pre-shampoo treatment for dry hair.

+Such a great oversized bow!

+Donsje just launched a bunch of new-for-fall kiddo booties — mini had a pair last year, and I might need this set for this year!

+What’s not to love about a striped shirtdress? Yes pls.

+RESTOCKED!

By: Jen Shoop

Three urgent matters to discuss this morning:

Item No. 1: J. Crew just came out with a super classic, super elegant shirtdress in a variety of excellent colors and stripes. I snagged one in the khaki color, inspired by Grace Kelly in High Society (she wore a couple of khaki-colored outfits in it), though I am not kidding when I say I sat in my desk chair debating between navy and khaki for a good twenty or twenty five minutes. If I like the fit of the khaki, I’ll certainly be ordering it in other shades. To me, a poplin shirtdress is perfection for weekday attire — comfortable and unfussy enough for running around town with mini, but pulled together enough to feel appropriate at cocktails or dinner. I’ve been inspired by the entire getup Natalie Joos is wearing in the photo above for years, having repinned it about two dozen times. There’s something at once retro feminine and unfussily chic about it, especially with those elegant bow-towed kitten heels. I’d love to recreate the look with these or these.

Item No. 2: I had been dragging my way through Catherine Steadman’s wildly popular Something in the Water (Reese Witherspoon bought the rights to this, I think?) and was contemplating abandoning it. It was slow-moving and I hated the narrator’s clipped, vague way of speaking. Then she arrived at Bora Bora for her honeymoon and WOAH — suddenly I found myself breathlessly, anxiously turning the pages. This couple makes one bad decision after the next, leaving me in the “don’t go in there!” posture that so many horror movies elicit. It is a delicious ride at the moment. Please read if you need a roller coaster of a book (thrilling, evanescent), but beware the tedious start.

Item No. 3: I had to let you know about the Shopbop sale currently raging with all.the.amazing.things.

DARLING BOW-SHOULDERED SUNDRESS (NOW $118!)

THE COOLEST STATEMENT BLOUSE (UNDER $70, PERFECTION WITH WHITE JEANS)

A $22 BACKYARD BBQ DRESS

AN EVERYDAY DRESS (UNDER $60!) THAT I’D WEAR WHILE CHASING MINI

ULLA JOHNSON MAGIC FOR $80 (MY TOP PICK; CURRENTLY IN CART!!!)

ANY OF THESE DREAMY DISCOUNTED PIECES FROM BANJANAN

TWO EPIC DRESSES FROM MY WEDDING GUEST ATTIRE ROUNDUP, NOW DISCOUNTED: THIS STRIPED STUNNER AND THIS SAUCY ALICE MCCALL

P.S. An ode to the em-dash.

P.P.S. Re-reading my chronicle of the botched move to NYC almost leaves me in hives. I re-read it now through a glass, with the kind of emotional numbness that comes from time and a will to move on, but it was so, so hard. Still: worth it. (Even with a baby.)

P.P.P.S. My favorite new cocktail napkins and mini’s new cutlery. I’ve found that she prefers an implement that can actually spear a piece of food versus the dull ends on her Beabas, which were EXCELLENT just a couple of months back, as they are easy for her to hold and maneuver.

By: Jen Shoop

Do you remember the old Audrey Wood book The Napping House? I just added it to my shopping cart the other day in hasty pursuit of a new bundle of books to add to mini’s burgeoning collection, and I thought to myself, as I glanced down at the Kindle on my lap and the littering of books across the carpet of our living room, that though we are not a napping house (why do I never learn to nap when mini naps to make up for the consistent 5:30 a.m. wake up calls she’s been treating us to for the last many weeks?), we do qualify as a reading house. I worry, though, that mini sees Mr. Magpie and I reading on our digital devices and does not understand that we, too, are reading. My parents were never an arm’s length away from a physical book at any given time. I’d routinely find my mother reading in the carpool lane as her car idled in the handful of minutes before the end-of-day bell, and my father would often bring whatever hefty historical tome he was into at the moment to venues as ill-suited to reading as parent-teacher conferences and Christmas pageants. At the time, this embarrassed me, but the truth is this: the fact that they were so commonly found sneaking in a few pages whenever they could squirrel away a minute or two of vacant time modeled a voracious and omnivorous appetite for all kinds of literature that my siblings and I in turn cultivated on our own. We saw the way they prized the books in their lives and the unanticipated and fleeting opportunities to read them amidst a whirlwind of five children and their attendant and incessant needs. Through the model of our parents, we came to understand reading as a part of the fabric of quotidian life: eat, sleep, read. I hope to be establishing the same in my daughter, but I grapple with the unique challenge of modeling readership in the digital age in front of a wide-eyed daughter who might be interpreting my time on the Kindle as something else entirely.

Regardless, at a very minimum, I trust that I am instilling a love of books in her (an intention I set early on) by reading to her routinely, multiple times a day, and at virtually any request of hers. (Though I have occasionally drawn the line on the fifth or seventh reading in a row of Goodnight Moon, one of her current favorites.)

Below, I thought I’d share some of her absolute favorite books now that she is just shy of a year and a half–ones that, importantly, I enjoy as well. One tip my sister shared with me that helped when mini was a bit younger and less capable of sitting through any of the longer books: it’s OK to abbreviate some of the text on the pages. For example, mini loves the book Corduroy, but some of the pages are a touch text-heavy and I find it easier to abridge the writing and sort of summarize what happens on the page instead of laboring through an entire paragraph while mini wrestles to turn the page or loses interest. Maybe that advice will be helpful to some of you, too.

The Best Books for 1.5 Year Olds.

+Corduroy. Something about the illustrations in this book speak to mini, and I think the simple story of a misfit toy venturing out to better his life and then finding the friend and home he always wanted is simple and poignant.

+The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I mean, who doesn’t love this book? I like counting out the fruit with mini, and she enjoys pushing her finger through the cut-out in the board book version. Though the book does not rhyme, it has a good rhythm to it.

+Curious George. This book is a little long for mini right now, but my goodness does she love the 10 or 15 pages we manage to get through before she loses interest. What baby doesn’t love pointing out bananas and monkeys?!

+The Pout Pout Fish. One of her all-time favorites. A super catchy rhyming book that Mr. Magpie and I can recite to one another from memory, and of course mini dies at the “SMOOOOCH” part at the end.

+The Sleepy Little Alphabet. This book is lovely because it introduces ABCs and features a lot of images/objects mini can identify: a rubber duck, an octopus, a car, etc. It also has a great, soothing rhythm to it and it makes me sleepy just thinking about it. A perfect bedtime book.

+The Runaway Bunny. OMG, mini has a deep and fierce love of this book. She loves to help me find the baby bunny in the pictures (they’re kind of hidden) and we linger for a good couple of minutes over the page with the circus setup. She needs to point out the dog, the horse, the clowns, etc. every single time.

+Is Your Mama a Llama. I was skeptical of this book at first because the images are less bright and distinct than most childrens’ books — but my goodness does mini adore this. Again, it has a strong rhythm and rhyme that she will sort of sing along to.

+Dear Zoo. A great lift-the-flap book with easy-to-identify zoo animals. She just never tires of this one; she’s loved it since maybe eight months?

+Pig the Pug. Adorable book about sharing, also with a strong rhyme sequence. The illustrations are wonderful.

+Christmas in the Manger. Do not ask me why, but mini adores this simple Christmas book.

+Please Mr. Panda. Mini laughs every time I get to the climax of this story and yell: PLEEEEEEEEASE, MR. PANDA?! A clever story about manners.

+I’m Going to Give You a Bear Hug. Mini loves the marching rhythm of this book and all of the different animals in it; we often pause at each page to make the animal noises together.

+Brush Brush Brush. This is not exactly great literature but I bought it for mini just after we went to her first dental appointment. She’s very into brushing her teeth at the moment especially given this new book and her own special toothbrush. She’ll often ask us for it by pointing to the drawer in which we keep her toothbrush and then at her mouth!

My Current Book Wishlist for Mini.

+Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. A rhyming alphabet book.

+Where’s My Teddy? “A fast-paced comedy of errors” that has apparently been in print for over 25 years. I’ve never read it!

+Should I Share My Ice Cream? My sister (an early childhood reading specialist) mentioned that she loves all Mo Willems books recently.

+Hug. I know just from the colors and existence of a monkey that mini will love this one.

+Ten Black Dots. My sister says she reads this book to her son nearly every day. I like that it’s a counting book — we’ve got so many alphabet ones already!

+Dragons Love Tacos. A current best-seller.

P.S. A great kiddo raincoat on sale, a precious (and heavily, heavily discounted) swimsuit, and a sophisticated dress for a little one from one of my favorite designers — on sale, too!

P.P.S. These would be cute school shoes for an older gal, especially if she wore this with them on her first day. Gucci vibes!

P.P.P.S. These massive beach towels are so eye-catching — and so on sale!

By: Jen Shoop

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

This quote made me sit upright in my chair: wow. It brought to mind Alison’s response to my jagged musings on 2017: “Some years pass kind of quietly and others you come out at the end a completely different person than when you started. It’s clear this one was the latter!”

Last year asked a lot of questions. Come to think of it, last year asked a lot of me, full-stop. It was an intense, unwieldy, incessant series of swoops and dips into stress, emotions, and challenges I’d not anticipated. I became a mother, I recovered from a c-section, I closed a business, I moved cities, I bungled through a botched move, I parted ways with a home, I metamorphosed into an entirely new kind of work. I did not always handle the turbulence elegantly. I remember stepping into the glass-walled shower of our old Chicago home about eight or nine days after mini was born, turning on the water, and sobbing for no reason and every reason. I am a crier by nature, but this was different: I could not give a name to the intensity of what I was feeling. “Why am I crying?” I wondered, groping for the familiar shapes of disappointment, or frustration, or hurt, or tenderness and emerging empty-handed.

Now I know: it was the agony of change, offset by painkillers and hormones from mini’s delivery, shot through with the thrill and potency of new parenthood.

I wouldn’t say that 2018 has presented me with answers, exactly, as I still have only the haziest idea of what the future will hold. But 2018 is an answer, even if I haven’t yet discerned its meaning. It has the feel of resolution, of a page turned. “Here, then: the next chapter.”

What about you? Is 2018 a year that is asking questions or answering?