Well for one they both speak with very cool accents (alternatively, they both think I speak with a very cool, Philly girl goes to DC and looses her accent after multiple classes in voice and diction) accent.

Next, they are fashion forward, cute as a button and have great hair especially pregnant.

Also, they are smart enough to hang out with me – which means they get the inside line on what’s new and noteworthy in pregnancy fashion

Both are craving all sorts of silly foods (Jules is quite addicted to the pasta salad from the Chevy Chase Market for example).

What’s more – both are radiant and glowing (Jules is using Basq to get her glow on Jenni got a big box in the mail from Belli)

And I believe both are having girls – Jenni’s girlie bundle of  joy  is confirmed, Jules’ TBA baby-girl is just my expert opinion

And what else? Well,  they are both are ordering the newest piece from the NOM colection at BellyDance Maternity — really this one is the perfect spring dress – I am an instant fan!

NOM Bree Beaded Dress

I will post pictures of both Jenni and Jules in this piece soon – stay tuned!

Jenni Hogan in Maternal Amercia from Belly Dance

Here is Jenni Hogan in a rich chocolate brown Maternal America Dress. Thank you, thank you Belly Dance Maternity for finding this gem for our belly beauty! I think this is my favorite Fashion Friday yet! I would like to see a little more layering on the necklaces and some great textured tights – but Jenni informs me she is having accessory anxiety at the moment. We will let it slide!

Jenni you are a glowing Goddess — enough said!

Jenni Hogan

All of my super wonderful friends offered up the best bump-fashion around and then went above and beyond – they all agrees to donate back to American Heart Association for anyone who used the code AHA. Talk about heart!

Here are the contenders – prepare to drool over these maternity dresses! And, the voting is still going on – join us pick, click and help us raise money for the American Heart Association…

Wrap Dress by Due Maternity

Pickles & Ice Cream Berry Red Turtleneck Dress

Olian Cranberry Wrap Dress for Belly Dance

This story is not new. In fact the only thing new and wonderful about it is the image – I simply adore the image of this couple breastfeeding at home – and I can think of about three better stories to go with it. This is an old story, leaving me to wonder –

Are we really having this conversation again? I am quite sure I did an interview for NPR and later GMA on this topic – oh you know – the new mother-slim down myth about 4 years ago. The one where we confuse and deflate new mothers by swapping out their job as a new mother (which absolutely includes feeding her baby and yes breastfeeding is the absolute goal) with that of a woman who uses her body and physical attributes to make a living (and by that I mean you Rebecca Romijn –actress who has a fleet of people helping you to lose weight WHILE you breastfeed). When interviewed years ago for GMA my quote was about looking in the mirror and seeing and accepting a newly born mother, beautiful as she was rather than looking in the mirror and seeing the pounds and subsequent shame. But wait, now there is more – now we will layer in breastfeeding and garble up the issue and confuse women some more. So in the spirit of my mood while reading Cathrine St. Louis’ piece from today’s New  York Times, I will simply say: NO NO NO – not okay.

I love breastfeeding. I support breastfeeding; I am educated, articulate and active in my support of women and their individual successes as a mother. I have spent so much time and energy on the topic – surrounded by intelligent, concerned and certianly connected women and organizations who consider the care and feeding of new mothers to be a near calling. One of my proudest accomplishments is the recent establishment of the Bravado Breastfeeding Information Council with my client Bravado Designs. We have brought our years of passion, commitment, and connection together in an effort to raise the level of dialog  to a place where women are not given mixed or harsh messages in the media around this important topic. What we have set out to do is empower women and I don’t see that articles like this do anything of the sort. This is not kind, nor  is it respectful, nor does it help to simply a complicated time in a woman’s life. Most of all it does not focus on the real issues at hand.

Tuesday I helped to launch the BBIC – the plan, the goal the intention is to help the media cover the category of breastfeeding in a responsible, non-judgmental and informed manner. Please watch the whole of it here. And as evidenced by the New York Times  today (yeah, ok it has only been two days) we have far to go…

At ABC kids I spent a great deal of my time with publishers and group publishing heads discussing what many felt was already a fait accompli – the end of Cookie. Much of the conversation centered on their ad pages and their obvious failure to pull in revenue and meet projections especially within the category. And while I am always happy to discuss circulation and ad pages (I am an old magazine girl with publishing blood coursing through my veins) – what really strikes me is the rise and the fall of the Cookie brand. Because really – Cookie defined so much of the modern parent movement – and gave us all a stake in something well beyond our means.

Cookie, the bible of aspirational parenting (as I call it) – hit the scene in 2005. Ad pages were mostly filled with lifestyle ads well outside of the juvenile category. Fashion pages were the main “cross-over” (none of us ever believed these were more than bonus pages, no matter) and the book looked good. It was not honest (who lived like the moms in the pages of Cookie?), but it was fun! Cookie was high style and high imagination for main street parents. This beautifully presented insiders look at parenting on Melrose and Madison was in perfect synchronicity with America’s near obsession with celebrity pregnancy and baby. It gave readers access to a world well beyond their means, and before Cookie – outside of even their fantasy zone. It also paved the way for a new generation of luxury goods within the category and defined a new psychographic category of mom (a Cookie Mom was a spender, a trend-setter and a woman with a very clear aesthetic –not to mention a nanny and great shoes). Manufacturers who catered to this category were suddenly understood and adored. This tricked down in a very real economic way to Main Street Moms who made it their business not only to know what was happening on Melrose and Madison but also to have a little piece of it themselves. Cookie was all that was shiny and hip about parenting. It was bold and unapologetic – and now it is gone.

I want to consider what will come next. It is a conversation that is going to be had over and again and I will be a part of it. Only, not yet – not today. Today is a day to quietly consider the indelible mark Cookie left on the parenting category and hope that the death of Cookie is not the death of dreaming out loud within this category that I love so very much.

Goodbye Cookie – and especially to all of you with whom I have worked over the years – thank you for what you have shared with me of yourselves, your creativity and your contagious energy. I look forward to our paths crossing again very soon!