Today, a random roundup of some of my latest discoveries:
+I am obsessed with the entire outfit shown above, all from Nanos (another lovely Spanish clothing company), but I especially like the look of those knee-high socks with the Mary Janes. Super traditional and SO cute. But, I’ve been having a tough time finding those kinds of socks in the U.S. — they seem abundant abroad, and many of them are made by the Barcelona-based company Condor, but it seems a little too much even for a clotheshorse like myself to pay that much for baby socks.. I mean, those pom-pommed ones are TOO SCRUMPTIOUS, but I’m not about to ship those over the Atlantic. I managed to track down a handful of Condor socks on Amazon — these “triple roll” ones actually are knee-highs and come in so many colors (I’m drawn to the pale pink or the navy), and these are the exact socks Princess Charlotte wore to a birthday party earlier this year. Any other sock recs from my traditional mamas?
+I will soon be in a New Yorker carrying mini in her Lille Baby carrier quite a bit, and I’ve already found it a little cumbersome to wear her AND tote around my diaper bag, so have been looking into backpack alternatives. (Thoughts?) People go nuts over the Fawn Design diaper backpack/bag, but I’m concerned it will look enormous on my petite frame and, OK, I’ll say it, I’m much more a fan of wearing a bag I love and just converting it into a diaper bag. Gucci’s having a moment…?!?!?! Will I look like a tourist in it?! Pls discuss.
+GUYS. The Tot started carrying select pieces from one my favorite Spanish baby clothing brands, La Coqueta! YAY! This is huge because we won’t need to pay $30 in shipping anymore, or wait a few weeks for clothes to arrive! This will be in mini’s wardrobe once I finally get settled in NYC and have an address I can use. (P.S. More of my favorite special occasion baby wear.)
+OK, I know I’ve already thrown 12398238 potential holiday outfits your way, but THIS CORDUROY JUMPER WITH THE PLAID POCKETS IS TOO EPIC. It reminds me of something I might have worn in the early 80s and therefore I need it for mini.
+One of you (thank you, Lara!!!) wrote to recommend a shape sorter for mini at this age — I pretty much died when I saw this one. It seems that it may be a little advanced for mini for now, but it’s too good to pass up. The details! Like, those two little safari people?! The stripes on the front of the truck?!?! GET OUT. I love when toys are well-made like this. (And it’s so much prettier than bulky plastic.)
+Lara also mentioned the toy company Janod, which I’d not heard of — how adorable is this fishing game set?! This train set is also sweet.
+I’ve heard great things about the jammies from the company MilkBarn. These are adorable. (More of my favorite minimagpie sleepwear.)
+Super cute Ralph Lauren sweater on sale for 50% off!
+We’re a ways out, but all the toddlers in Manhattan zip around on little scooters. When the time comes, I’ll be orderering mini one of these in a fun color like red or orange. Read the reviews! People love this brand!
+A pair of classic pink Keds?! Such a sweet throwback to my youth.
+I will never stop buying mini books. These from Xavier Deneux are beautiful and innovative — read about their unique cutouts and raised letters! — so I just got mini this. (BTW, for a stretch, I was renting board books from our local library every two weeks or so, which was a nice way to avoid overspending on books and to diversify our collection, but our library had a tiny kids section and about 1/3 of the board books were Spanish and the other 1/3 were in Polish!!! (We live in Ukrainian Village, which is an up-and-coming Chicago neighborhood with a dense population of Eastern Europeans.) So, we managed to rent every single book in English that seemed age appropriate within the span of two months. Also, and I’m trying really hard not to be this mom, but some of the books were kind of gross — markings, stains, etc. — and I couldn’t help but imagine all the little paws and gums that had been all over them in the past. I mean, what can you do? There are germs everywhere. But there was an annoying little overconcerned mom voice in my head that maybe wanted to sterilize them in some way…)