We happen to love the egomaniacal side of birthday parties. As far as we’re concerned, the more places you can print, stamp, stick, or otherwise emblazon your kid’s name, the better. So we kinda flipped when we discovered the adorable custom party decorations from Ciao Bambino.

Mother’s Day gift guides befuddle us. It’s not like all the husbands out there are secretly reading the glossies and mom blogs to figure out what to buy their wives (or are they?) And it’s not like the moms who are actually reading those glossies and blogs need someone else to tell them what they want for Mother’s Day (or do they?).

The “Sip & See” trend is gaining some serious momentum. Typically held 2-6 weeks after the baby arrives (open-house style with a timeframe of 3-4 hours for guests to drop by as they please), the mid-afternoon shindigs are often held in lieu of a baby shower. We love them for their efficiency: invite everyone over all at once to see the baby, so your home doesn’t feel like a revolving door of visitors during those already stressful just-home-from-the-hospital weeks.

No one has a better sense of what new moms want than giggle founder Ali Wing. So when we found ourselves with a list of nine pregnant friends for whom we needed to buy baby gifts, we asked Ali to tell us her favorite earth-friendly gifts for expecting moms .  .  .