So Mother’s Day is coming up, traditionally the time of year when lots of women secretly hope for amazingly thoughtful gifts from their spouses and receive . . . well, it’s the thought that counts, right? My own husband has a poor track record with this holiday, one year claiming that it didn’t ‘make any sense’ to get me anything until our son was old enough to pick it out.

(Aw, sweetie, guess what else doesn’t make sense? HAVING SEX AGAIN EVER.)

I don’t lust too heavily after gifts consisting of little blue Tiffany boxes because to be honest, I’d rather have a whole crapload of Amazon gift certificates so I can buy all the makeup, comic books, and DVDs that I want. However, ’tis the season to talk jewelry, so I thought I’d run down some of the top ticket traditional sparkly-things, and see what you think about them:
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Back in 2005 I bought myself a Mommytags necklace when Riley was born, and now that I’ve got a second child (is that ever going to seem completely normal to me, the notion that I have not a child but children?) I need to get myself a third tag with Dylan’s birth date on there. I suppose at that point it won’t quite have the same military vibe (which I love, because hello, as mothers have we not all joined some sort of poop-smeared Special Forces Brute Squad?), but I dig that piece of jewelry. It’s got just the right feel for me: not too froufrou, perfect for t-shirts and dresses alike.

I like the idea of customized jewelry but there’s a lot of cheesy stuff out there, apparently targeting the cheery holiday sweater crowd. I did some browsing around to see what was available that didn’t seem like it should come with a shot of insulin (note to jewelry makers: if your website automatically starts playing sappy music upon loading, most of us can’t hit the Back button fast enough. Welcome to 2008, where web design should not hold a person down and dry-hump their leg); here are a few of the items that caught my eye:
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I’m kind of stepping into Susan’s territory with today’s subject, but I’m hoping to once again use my own need for help as a launchpad for a Milk & Cookies entry. Sure, if I were some sort of “expert” with “useful advice”, I might actually provide “decent blog content”, but —

Uh, yeah. I’ve got nowhere to go with that. Let’s just segue directly to the topic at hand, okay? I want to talk about clothes, specifically the sort of uber-comfortable clothing you wear around the house. Even more specifically, the sort of uber-comfortable clothing that actually makes you feel pretty good about how you look, and that you could wear outside of the house if need be without shame.

See, I’m about to go on maternity leave, and I’m thinking ahead to those days of being at home . . . and I’d like to avoid falling into the trap I did last time, when I continually waited until 4 PM to brush my teeth and slopped around in giant baggy sweatpants all day. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—and it is in fact a survival necessity in those first weeks—but man, it gets depressing after a while. I’d like to stock up on some pretty, comfy essentials for staying home for the next few months, when I’ll be taking care of a baby, a toddler, working when possible, and hopefully staying sane in the process.

Some non-ugly, forgiving-to-the-post-partum-body items I’ve come across:
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I was so interested in your comments and suggestions about infant carriers, I hope you don’t mind if I bring up another baby gear topic: diaper bags. I don’t really need to buy a new diaper bag, but I do like considering the various possibilities, and who knows—maybe the Perfect Bag is out there, just calling my name.

The bag I chose before Riley was born is a plain black messenger-type style, easy to wipe clean and not too big. It works just fine, although I found I didn’t really carry it all that often; most of the time I just crammed what I needed (a diaper kit [diaper and wipes stashed in a Ziplock bag, which doubles as your garbage container], a washcloth or two, a bottle) in my normal purse. Or stashed a go-to bag in my car that also contained a larger selection of stuff: change of clothes, Tylenol, bibs, etc. I didn’t really want to put everything I might possibly need in one giant accessory and haul that around, but I can see that even lightly packing for both a toddler and a baby might necessitate a larger carryall.

Diaper bags seem kind of like weddings—you can go the utilitarian route or the fancy blowout extravaganza, and whether it’s collectively agreed upon as practical or not doesn’t really matter as long as you’re happy with your choice. I find myself lusting a bit over the more baroque, expensive options, just because some of them are so damn pretty, but I have to remind myself: do I normally carry an overly decorative, fancy-ass purse? No, because I like accessories that can go with a ratty pair of jeans and Danner boots, if necessary. So in my case, simple is probably better, despite the tempting cuteness of some of the higher end brands.

Enough blah-blah, let’s go to the bags!

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