Budget Thursday: Ponte-Knit Flocked-Dot Blazer
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When it’s early in the morning and I’m in my closet trying to match blazers to shirts to pants, I curse myself for falling victim to cute blazers with varying necklines, patterns, and colors. Although it can get overwhelming while bleary eyed, how can you pass up something this cute? I love that it is a classic blazer cut but in ponte knit with polka dots to make it fun. This blazer is a new addition to Old Navy’s ponte blazer collection, and it is available for $44.99 in sizes XS–XXL, along with a plus-size version. Against my better judgment, I am likely going to buy this — matching it with the rest of my wardrobe is a problem for future April to figure out. Ponte-Knit Flocked-Dot Blazer
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Sales of note for 1/16:
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Cashmere on sale; AllSaints, Free People, Nike, Tory Burch, and Vince up to 60%; beauty deals up to 25% off
- AllSaints – now up to 60% off (some of the best leather jackets!)
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase; extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles with code — readers love this blazer, these dresses, and their double-layer line of tees
- DeMellier – Sale now on, free shipping and returns — includes select options like Montreal, Vancouver, and Venice
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; extra 50% off all clearance, plus ELOQUII X kate spade new york collab just dropped
- Everlane – Sale of the year, up to 70% off — reader favorites include their scoop tee, Dream Pant, ReNew Transit backpack, silk blouses and oversized blazers! New markdowns just added
- Hannah Andersson – Up to 30% off all pajamas;
- J.Crew – Up to 40% off select styles; up to 50% off cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 40-70% off everything
- L.K. Bennett – Archive sale, almost everything 70% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Tag sale for a limited time — jardigans and dresses $200, pants $150, tops $95, T-shirts $50
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – Semi-Annual Red Door Sale – 50% off + extra 20% off, sale on sale, plus free shipping on $150+
And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- The concept of “backup care” is so stupid…
- I need tips on managing employees in BigLaw who have to leave for daycare pickup…
- I’m thinking of leaning out to spend more time with my family – how can I find the perfect job for that?
- I’m now a SAHM and my husband needs to step up…
- How can I change my thinking to better recognize some of my husband’s contributions as important, like organizing the shed?
- What are your tips to having a good weekend with kids, especially with little kids? Do you have a set routine or plan?
I’m sure this is a stupid question…but, those of you who have had au pairs…do they drive? Can you make that a requirement?
When do you first cut baby’s hair? My 7 month old’s hair mostly fell out around 4 months (and subsequently grew back) but there are a few strands of newborn hair that didn’t fall out and now almost reach her eyebrows. Do I take her for a cut? Or just try to trim them at home? She has major stranger danger (like, I didn’t even know babies her age could be this shy and freaked out about being away from their parents) so I think taking her to a salon would make her hysterical :/
Someone posted yesterday about having 3 kids unplanned. Didn’t get a chance to respond yesterday and OP received lots of good advice. I’m including my best advice for what makes our life with three work. Would love to get ideas from other moms of three as well. DH and I both grew up in families of two kids so we feel like we don’t know what we’re doing a lot of the time.
1. Relax your parenting expectations for yourself. Our friends referred to this as ‘zone defense’ and not ‘man to man’ because the kids now outnumber you. Lots of days I reminded myself that if only 1 out of 3 kids was crying I was still winning because 66% of my kids were not crying. My third was not EBF like my first, I just couldn’t make it work.
2. Get help. All the help. Ask for it or pay for it. For me that was a postpartum doula for 3 hours, 3 times a week plus my mom coming over for two hours every morning during a rush out the door. My car is ancient but I pay someone to fold all the kids laundry.
3. Childcare finances change – we did daycare with our oldest but a nanny suddenly becomes more affordable when you are looking at three daycare bills. When ages vary, you can also have the nanny care for the two youngest during daytime and also do afterschool care for older kid. Or an aupair during the school years when you need someone to help 7-9am and 3-6pm.
4. Accept the minivan – at least until they are all out of car/booster seats. It’s just easier.
5. The world is built for families of 4 but you can find exceptions. Hotel rooms usually say they accommodate 4 max but if you read the fine print, you can often have an extra folding bed added.
6. Enjoy the sibling relationships. We have twins but we’ve made an effort to foster the relationships between each of the three kids. They are like a little team and they have each other’s backs all the time. It’s super cute. I’m not close with my only sibling and I’m glad that my kids have an extra chance to have sibling that they will close with.
7. Babywearing – all the babywearing. You now have more kids than hands, baby or toddler wearing is like having an extra hand to hold a kid. Often a kid will be settled just by being worn. Giving one kid physical attention via being worn while having my hands free to hold hands or otherwise help the other two was a huge help.
My 1.5 year old has super fine, thin hair so it falls in her face if it’s not put up somehow. She’ll happily sit for us or daycare to do her hair, but then she constantly fidgets with it and pulls it out a few minutes later. We’ve tried the tiny rubber bands and flat metal clips, neither of which she leaves in for very long. Any suggestions on other things to try so we dont have to redo it multiple times a day?
I’m 38 weeks pregnant and finally working from home full time. My maternity leave doesn’t officially start until I actually give birth (I literally have to call the insurance company from the hospital), but work is really winding down. I’m basically just binge watching episodes of ER and staring at my belly all day. Any tips for making it thru these last few weeks? Wish I had the energy to clean or go on date nights. Freezer is full of food and hospital bag is packed. I’m starting to be too exhausted to do anything but google “is X a sign of labor?” It’s at once so exciting and so boring!
Paging the poster who was going to have the separation talk with her absent husband…how did it go? Have been thinking about you!
I cancelled my dentist appointment a few weeks ago because I was terribly sick. It’s rescheduled for today and…I’ve been sick since Saturday. I feel fine this time but I’ve just had a lot of congestion in my head and today I can’t breathe through my mouth. Should I cancel again? I don’t know if I’m contagious, but obviously they are going to be in my mouth.
You still out there? I was MIA for a couple months so maybe I missed something, but I feel like I haven’t seen anything from you for awhile. Always enjoyed your contributions, so I hope all is well.
Probably a stupid question, but how do you transition to bathing babies in the regular tub? My big 7 month old seems to be outgrowing her infant tub. But I have no idea how to bathe her in a normal tub – do I need to get in there with her? She can sit pretty well, but will topple over once in a while so we usually still put pillows behind her head. All the baby bathing YouTubes I can find are for infant tubs.
How comfortable do you feel with grandparents watching multiple kids for days at a time? I have a 2.5 year-old and a 9-month-old and our five-year anniversary is coming up in June. I would love to go away somewhere with my husband but I’m having trouble figuring out the logistics.
My mom lives nearby and is wonderful and brilliant but sometimes absentminded (in fact, she is literally an absentminded professor). When my daughter was a baby, this was actually risky (she’d sit the baby up on a hard tile floor with no pillow behind her when she was still super wobbly, she’d go in the kitchen and get distracted making tea while the baby crawled towards various cords, etc) and so we didn’t really have her babysit. Now that our oldest is a toddler it manifests in annoying but not life-threatening ways (forgetting to put a diaper on for naps, resulting in a very wet kid and crib), and we’ve had her babysit the toddler for ~6 hours at a time. But I definitely don’t feel comfortable leaving her with two kids, especially when one is a crawling baby.
I guess my question is…what do we do? Not travel until both kids are more accident-proof? Insist my mom have someone else come in to help watch the kids? Stop being so paranoid and just trust her? I feel like many of you must have dealt with similar situations…
(oh, in case it’s relevant, my MIL is great but lives halfway across the country, as does my father).
Moms who have had natural births, what do you wish you had done differently or known? This is my third (epidurals both times before) and I’m going to try for unmedicated this time. I truly cannot understand why I feel compelled to do this, I guess it’s just that this will probably be my last chance to do it like this. I’ve hired a doula. Any advice would be appreciated, especially about transition.
Two weeks ago, I posted that my 2 y/o was 100% potty trained for pee and 0% potty trained for poop. Well, a quick update that we had a breakthrough (I spent a Friday night literally in the bathroom with her as she had not pooped in 2 days and I knew she had to), and lo and behold she finally relaxed enough to poop and from then on she has pooped in the toilet. So she’s potty trained! Woo hoo!!
I thought we weren’t going to make it after 2 weeks of cleaning poop out of her pants, but she inherited her stubbornness from her mama and ive had 33 more years to practice.
I have hit a wall with overnight potty training. I’ve read Oh Crap and tried waking every other hour, all sorts of things.
I feel that we are on the path to just accepting that it’s primary eneuresis (when you just aren’t dry at night and just have to grow out of it), but I wonder if there is any life hack to try while we just keep getting kid up at 10pm and 5am (another potty break makes me non-functional in the am) and wearing a pullup in between? [We’ve tried the nekkid sleeping / sleeping in just a t-shirt, kid is just a really heavy sleeper and it didn’t make a difference; kid #1 (same gender) basically trained herself overnight by the time she was 3).]
We went camping last weekend and I’m wondering if 100 years ago before disposables and pullups this happened (as much). FWIW, there is some family history on husband’s side of primary eneuresis (and they grow out of it around age 10-12). I don’t want to throw in the towel, but kid is old enough not to want her friends to know that she still wears pullups overnight.
Any recommendations for an umbrella stroller? We use a CityMini GT for everyday use but it’s pretty hefty and I don’t want to fly with it.
So in a sleep-deprived haze last night I accidentally gave my teething baby two 5 mL doses of Tylenol four hours apart – the dropper is 5 mL and I totally blanked on the fact that her pediatrician said only 3 mL each time for her age/weight. I called poison control and they said it was no big deal (and they were so nice and non-judgy!) but man, do I feel like a bad mom. And then I packed a lunch for the first time in forever and dumped it all over the parking lot this morning. Ready for the weekend now, please.