My Latest Snag: Mango Gray Sweater.
OK, this isn’t actually my “latest” snag, but I have been wearing this Mango sweater (seen above) on repeat lately. Especially love it with white jeans. Did I mention it’s on sale for $30?! (P.S. How beautiful is the model wearing it?!)
While you’re there, check out the entire sale section: this pink striped midi dress is under $40 and dreamy for warm summer adventures; the fit of these jeans reminds me of my Agoldes; and this sweatshirt looks an awful lot like the nearly-always-sold-out Rebecca Minkoff Janine.
P.S. More great sale scores.
You’re Sooooo Popular: The Best Bath Towels.
The most popular items on the blog this past week:
+My favorite bath towels. (Incidentally, a great housewarming gift!)
+Classic shirtdress you’ll wear forever.
+One of my favorite candles ($25 — Japanese Quince scent!)
+THE best maternity pajamas ever. Worth every penny. Loved them so much I had three sets this last pregnancy and wore them constantly, from around five months pregnant to above three months post-partum. No joke. (Great for nursing too.)
+These napkins (currently on serious sale) are the SOFTEST. Love them and use them often.
+Kids’ Patagonia coats, ON SALE!
#Turbothot: A Motherhood Tenderness.
Of the many tendernesses of motherhood, this cuts right to my core:
Hill often falls asleep staring at me. I noticed this first when he was itty bitty — maybe ten or eleven days old — and I wasn’t even sure if he could make out my facial features yet. But he would stare, drowsily, at me, almost as if comforted by my shape, until his eyelids would flutter closed.
He still does this, at nearly nine months old. I often feed him his goodnight bottle sitting on the floor of his nursery with my back against the slats of his crib, his warm body cradled in my arms, his long legs draped over my own. We say his goodnight prayers together, I whisper his affirmations, and then I sing him one of two lullabies. Often he is languorously rubbing his eyes or drifting in and out of slumber at this point, but just as often, he is calmly, drowsily staring at my face until he slow-blinks himself to sleep.
It is heart-rendingly intimate. Can you imagine falling asleep while someone is looking directly at you? The level of comfort and the lack of self-consciousness it implies astounds and humbles me–and, more often than not, leaves me holding him for just a few minutes longer, sneaking in an extra kiss, squeezing him a little closer.
Little children are exhausting. Bedtime can take the wind right out of me. Sometimes I have to take a few deep breaths in the quiet of my own room before mini sprints through our apartment door, home from school, at 3:42 p.m. (almost always, every single day, at 3:42 p.m.) in order to gather the strength to accomplish everything that needs to be accomplished between 4-6:30 p.m.–hours I am almost always on my own with the children.
But, my God. When you sit on the floor of your son’s nursery and he falls asleep while locked in a loving gaze with you, you think: It is a gift to be needed. It is a privilege to be a mother. I want for nothing.
Post-Scripts: An Affordable Vitamin C Serum!
+Awhile ago, someone asked for a vitamin c serum that would not break the bank: this is getting great reviews and is under $30! (Discovered via Caitlin!)
+More affordable beauty buys here.
+This $67 dress has my name all over it.
+Chic and affordable scores for your home.
+Adore these ruffled slides for everyday summer attire!
+Loving this skirt for summer, even as a cover up at the beach (imagine with this).
+ALERT. Insane Tory Burch sale going on right now. Dying over this classic camel coat, this tweed mini, and these heels.
+OMG, this outdoor table set for little ones! The cushions and umbrella! SO DARLING.
+These earrings are so fun for spring.
+Putting this scented oval in my closet!
The tender moments of motherhood recharge us don’t they? I miss the days of rocking my oldest to sleep with a bottle and nursing my second to sleep. They would often stair at me too and rub my hair. Still now at 2.5 and 4.5 if one wakes with a nightmare I’ll climb into their bed to cuddle and the way they melt into me, the power of my presence to soothe them back to sleep floors me. To mean so much to these two little men… it is so lovely to be reminded at times isn’t it? Motherhood isn’t easy but goodness it is beautiful!
Aw – rub your hair?! How precious. So sweet 🙂