modern day dad

My new favorite kid's t-shirt.

Finding a cool t-shirt is one of the few things the internet is really good for. But finding one for your kid is even twice as sweet. This one from Threadless is my new favorite. Alas poor unicorn, you are SOL.

Get Biblical Disaster from Threadless for $17.

Tricky & Titch

MDD reader Sarah sent me a link a few weeks ago to yet another online baby boutique, but this one is pretty good. Tricky & Titch describe themselves as "Fresh and modern on a smaller scale" and I have to say the designs definitely reflect that. Like pretty much every other online kid store, they sell baby clothes, bibs, hats and blankets with cute messages, but what I like is that they're not too cutesy, just really simple. There are shirts that say "big brother" or "little sister" or, my favorite, "{gorgeous}". If they made a "Monkey" t-shirt for a girl then that one would be my favorite, but I guess they figure "monkey" is more of a boy appellation. They haven't met my Madame obviously.

They're Canadian, so you'll have to figure out how much "$30 CDN" is. Though the upside is, as Sarah pointed out to me, they make the products themselves and don't just slap a design on an already pre-made shirt. And isn't that really what you want when you're paying $30 CDN?

Tricky & Titch [via Sarah - thanks]

Going to t-shirt hell.

I've written about some funny t-shirts and kid's clothes in the past, but I don't think I've found a more crass (some most might say offensive) on-line kid's t-shirt store than this place - T-Shirt Hell. A lot of the shirts are simple bumper-sticker comedy, but a couple of them genuinely provoke a "I can't believe someone actually put that on a kid's t-shirt and I'm laughing" response. I'd never in a million years put this shirt on my kid, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't crack me up when I first saw it. A few of my favorites are the "Are You My Daddy?", "Now that I'm Safe, I'm Pro Choice!" and just in time for Christmas - "Cuter Than Baby Jesus"

T Shirt Hell.com via DaddyTypes.

Search for more kid's T-Shirts and clothing on Modern Day Dad.

 

Infantile t-shirts.

I'm not exactly sure where, but last week I came across a new online children's t-shirt boutique called Infantile. Unlike most of these online  children's clothing stores, this one focuses on the designers themselves. As I don't really know much about cutting edge graphic design I can't really comment on the designers, but the site has some pretty cool shirts - all with that NYC-graphic-design-t-shirt-fetish sensibility. My favorites are "Ready Set Grow" (pictured) and "M is for Mosey." At $22 a piece they're not the cheapest, but they're cooler than Carter's. 

Star Wars snapsuits. A hot topic.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about how I couldn't find any Star Wars onesies (or snapsuits, or bodysuits, or whatever), but yesterday MDD reader Kate J tipped me to where they had some - mall store Hot Topic.

Wait a minute. Hot Topic? The same store where pre-teen kids who just discovered punk rock buy their Dead Kennedys hats? The same store where I felt old for being in there when I was 21? Well, yes. And I must admit, these were the bodysuits I was looking for. I'm kind of partial to the Princess Leia, but they've also got "Daddy's Little Ewok", "Stormpoopers" and the Darth Vader themed "Who's Your Daddy?"

Check them out at the Hot Topic on-line store. Which is more my speed really, as I think I'd still feel weird going into one at the mall. [via Kate J - thanks!]

This is not a Fugazi snapsuit.

I had a pretty funny idea for an infant "snapsuit" a couple of months ago, and for once it was an idea I thought I might be able to make some spare cash off of. So I worked out the design, uploaded it to Cafepress.com and set up the Modern Day Dad store. But my cash cow was not to be, because Cafepress froze the selling of the item because of copyright issues (they must be concerned about the Gerber onesie police). So this morning I was thinking about it and I figured, screw it, I should just give it away.

I'm not going to explain it - if you don't get it immediately you won't be interested in the first place. Use the file to make your own iron-on. It comes out pretty good.

Download thisisnotaonesie.png

May the force be with you. Just not in 12-18 mos.

We're going to the midnight showing of Star Wars tonight. I know. I'm a geek fan who has been burned twice before, but I still can't help myself. Although we won't be taking Madame (of course), my sister still wanted to know if I had any sweet Star Wars gear to dress her in today. It was a good idea I thought, but I don't have anything, and I can't say that I've ever seen anything in a store or online. So even though it's too late, I went shopping online last night to see what's out there.

The quick answer is almost nothing. There are some t-shirts for older boys at Target, and the official Star Wars Shop has some lame kids t-shirts with an M&M tie-in (I guess one brand just isn't enough). Other than that and one Star Wars "Celebration III" onesie I found over at Rebelscum.com, it seem Star Wars clothes for babies are pretty much the domain of eBay DIYers. The tshirts and onesies seem like something I might be able to do with my meager Photoshop skills and some iron-on paper, but I did think the Darth Vader baby costume was kind of cool.

Could I have found a merchandising niche Lucas hasn't exploited yet?

Holy crap is that a Mr. T onesie?

MDD reader Ray posted in the comments of this post a few days ago a link to another online baby boutique, Retro Baby. I've blogged about these stores before, but this one is good. Like Baby Wit used to, they've got all kinds of onesies and baby t-shirts using some of your favorite old school tv shows and celebrities. I'm obviously partial to anything related to Mr. T (it's obvious to me at least), but there are some other winners out there too. The site makes me wonder however, how do places like this use images of celebrities, movies and television shows to sell t-shirts without getting into trouble? I'm thinking it would be good to buy what you like soon before the inventory starts disappearing. I pity the fool that doesn't give Mr. T his cut.

Don't be a fool! Stay in school!
Mr. T onesie (sorry, "one piece") $16.95 at RetroBaby.com

Bombalulu's.

Baby boutiques are, as far as I can tell, mostly the domain of the internet and NYC. They have some in LA, but not like New York. Maybe it's just because now I'm a dad I'm interested in them, but when I was there recently I seemed to see them everywhere. (In my youth I used to see record stores everywhere in NYC. What am I going to see when I'm an old man? Drug stores?)

One I stopped in on my way to Kid-O was Bombalulu's on West 10th. They have the requisite educational toys and cute stuffed animals, but they really excel in children's clothing - especially for girls. There were great t-shirts (like the one we picked up for Madame - pictured above) and all kinds of dresses and accessories. They're even capitalizing on the princess craze and making tutus and other frilly play clothes for girls. According to their website all the clothes are hand-made so it's not cheap, but hey, you are shopping in a baby boutique after all.

Bombalulu's. 101 W. 10th St. NYC (right down the street from Kid-O)

To bib, or not to bib?

Babies spit up. Of all the gross things involved with an infant, in my opinion spit up is low on the list. But now that Madame is eating solid (well, kind of solid) foods like sweet potatoes and carrots, the color of her spit up has gone from a nice white that can be wiped away to a bright, staining orange. Not wanting her to puke all over her clothes, recently I've started to put a bib on her in the morning with the rest of her outfit.

But yesterday it occurred to me that this technique is kind of like covering your sofa in plastic so you won't ruin the sofa. Putting your little girl in a cute outfit that your friends gave her for Christmas and then putting a bib over it kind of defeats the purpose of the outfit in the first place. But then, when she spits up all over it when you're out at the store, there's really nothing to do but change the outfit.

These are the kind of ridiculous dilemmas I never expected before I became a father. I guess I gotta go buy some better looking bibs.