Birthday Girls Need Princess Gear

Because it's her birthday, I let Baby Herald (I know, no longer a baby) wear her Halloween costume this morning.

Trying really hard to smile for the camera!

For the last two months, she has insisted on being a princess for Halloween. I'd be much happier if she were wearing a Gloria Steinem or Eleanor Roosevelt costume, but she's 3. So I'm going to have to settle for a princess. And princesses need crowns and princess shoes. This is why princess moms go to H&M, Kmart, or jcpenney, because all three are good princess-gear destinations. The above tiara I found at H&M, where I also picked her up a new pair of princess shoes (below), because we grew out of our last two pairs. 

This princess dress is a hand-me-down, but trust me: you're not going to have any trouble finding a princess dress, or a tutu on 34th Street. Nowadays it's totally acceptable to go out in a tutu any time of year if you're under the age of 10. Unless you're Betsey Johnson, then you can wear them every day and to bed.

Happy birthday to my Arm Baby! If she ever is Eleanor Roosevelt for Halloween, I promise to post a photo then, too. And it wouldn't be a Baby Herald birthday post if I didn't post this photo of us when she was less than a month old:

Yup, she's beautiful to me no matter what she's wearing. Past birthday posts here, here and here. 

H&M Herald Square

34th Street and Broadway

Kmart Penn Plaza

34th Street and Seventh Avenue

jcpenney Manhattan Mall

33rd Street and Sixth Avenue

Happy Birthday, Baby Herald!

JCPenney recently asked me to participate in a birthstone promotion for October and I said yes because that's the month my girl was born. JCPenney sent us this necklace (left) and a gift card for $50, and I went shopping, inspired by my girl's whole October birth month thing.



I'd like to start this post by showing you my most scary maternity pictures. Below, I am going to the hospital almost a week past my due date (terrible quality shots, they were taken with my mom's ancient digital).

As you can see, I was big. So big that men would yell at me as I walked down the street "How many you got in there?" The nice Russian girl who did my sonograms each month would say, "Wow, that's a BIG baby, a big, BIG baby." Oddly, none of this annoyed me. I let people touch my belly, I yelled back "Just one!" to all those guys on the street, and at each test I'd say "Yes, we have big babies in my family." Also, EVERYONE said to me "You're going to have a boy." We heard this so often we began to believe it, and although we didn't know the sex, I started buying blue baby things.

Of course, I had a girl.

We both have our eyes closed, it's genetic. Dress and sweater are I Heart Ronson from JCPenney, shoes are Zara last season.

My girl's October birthstone is opal, and the JCPenney version is delicate and feminine and girly and everything that I'm not. I would have never bought something like this for myself. But it suits her perfectly, as she is my perfect little opposite baby. Note the photographic evidence.

MNG by Mango dress, I Heart Ronson sweater, Gap boots. Her: JCP American Living dress.

Blond, with blue eyes, and looks adorable in pink which I never wear. So when I was shopping for us at JCPenney, I tried to buy things I wouldn't normally buy, namely, dresses. I also went for colorful prints, like the I Heart Ronson dress above, but cheated a little and also did black and white with the MNG by Mango dress. But hey, it's a print, and there's a ruffle on the collar. I'm pushing my boundaries.

I could get all mushy and talk about how she pushes me daily to go beyond my boundaries, but I'll end instead with a picture of us a few weeks after she was born.

This photo first appeared here. I was really hormonal.

Haha, see, she's wearing blue! Which is why I love how the opal in the necklace has a little blue color play. Now I have to go have a little cry because oh my god, they grow so fast.


p.s. hey, pregnant women: JCPenney also has awesome maternity jeans. And you can stop hyperventilating after seeing my maternity pictures now, because as you see I was half that size like immediately. And I was really, really big. 


JCPenney Manhattan Mall lower levels 1&2, 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue