I mean, I certainly did my fair share of eye-rolling at the second cookbook especially, with all its focus on elimination diets (and then turning around and including a bunch of recipes featuring ingredients she advises avoiding - I’m looking at you, “deep water fish”). And I have found a few of the recipes to be…

They wipe them down and swaddle them pretty fast! I have a bunch of photos of my daughter from immediately after her birth, but I don’t think my husband managed to get any from before she was cleaned off.

I very conveniently started having contractions while midway through blowing out my hair, so my hair looked great in all my post birth photos. However, my active labor was VERY fast (baby’s heart rate was dipping dramatically with every contraction, so they gave me 10 minutes to push her low enough that they could…

Exactly! Any prep instructions that are referred to in the ingredient list rather than the instructions (e.g. 1 onion, chopped) are not included in the prep time. So almost any recipe will take significantly longer than stated if you aren’t aware of that fact (and you don’t have all your various pantry ingredients…

Totally! A couple of my favorites are online:

It seems like most “30 minute meals” assume you have all your chopping done before the clock starts, which is just misleading...

Much as I hate defending Gwyneth Paltrow, I have both her previous cookbooks and have cooked extensively from them, and the recipes are overwhelmingly both accessible and delicious. I can think of six or seven in particular just off the top of my head that have become part of my regular weeknight rotation. She may be…

Lili Anolik also wrote that bizarrely teenybopperish article on Taylor Kitsch in last month’s Elle, if memory serves...

It’s probably weird but I LOVE getting extractions. Sure, it hurts, but the payoff is huge compared to other beauty procedures, especially when you do them often. Whenever my facialist stops I’m like, “Really? No more?!”

I have been getting regular Brazilian waxes for years, to the point that it really doesn’t hurt that much any more. I’ve had facial peels that hurt more than my average wax. That said, I did it once while pregnant, and that shit was no joke. It was exponentially more painful than usual. Would not do again.

It’s this one: http://www.allurebridals.com/products/C207

I’ve heard people complain about how there aren’t many non-strapless options, but I think it’s more a matter of dress shop employees steering brides toward them because they are so much easier to fit and alter. I was clear from the start that I would not try on anything strapless, and still had plenty to choose from.…

I can’t imagine that anyone could possibly put up with fleas on their person for any longer than it took to identify and get rid of them. Last year a stray cat managed to somehow transfer a small flea colony to our car through the ventilation system while it was parked in an off-airport lot in Oakland for a week (we…

Haha, no - Juniper, from the book Wise Child. Waaaaaaaay less ubiquitous than Atticus...in fact I don’t even think the book is in print any more; when I went to order her a copy I had to buy it used.

My mom is incapable of discovering a single-use kitchen tool without buying it for me...sometimes she forgets she bought something the first time and buys it for me again! My personal favorite (not) is the avocado tool:

I named my daughter after the white witch in my favorite 1980s children’s book, so I really can’t hate on anyone who names their kid after Atticus Finch. Although in our case, everyone thinks we’re just a couple of weirdo hipsters who named their baby after a shrubbery...

My 56-year old mom’s middle name is Marie, as is mine (I am almost 32), as is my baby daughter’s. I think it is a classic middle name that spans generations due to the Bibical connection, but had a brief period of mainstream über popularity in the ‘80s.

Maybe it’s because when you have a new baby, shopping for and cooking fresh, healthy meals becomes significantly more complicated, so mom and dad rely more on takeout/delivery and convenience foods? We have a seven week old and we just manage to get a decent meal on the table most days, but only because we live in a…

I booked my caterer before I booked my venue because it was hands down the most important detail of the wedding to me. There is only one big city-caliber restaurant in my small hometown so I made sure to lock that down early. The food (we did kind of a pan-Mediterranean buffet - a plated salad then a chicken dish, a…

I wish I would get black eyeliners; I might actually use them! I always get purple or blue.