PerryWinkles Kids Blog

PerryWinkles Kids smocked dresses have been added to the unique clothing collection at Bean sprout boutique in Toronto.  Located on Mount Pleasant Rd., this store has been around for 13 years.  We are proud to be added to their selection of designer clothing for children.  You can now shop for our dresses at this friendly location and rest assured that they have a generous return policy that you normally would not find in small boutiques like this one.

Address: 616 Mt. Pleasant Rd., south of Eglinton Ave.
Phone: 416.932.3727
Hours of operation: Monday to Saturday 10:30-5:30

PerryWinkles Kids - Fine Children’s Clothing

We are pleased to announce our Spring and Summer 2008 dress collection for little girls, just in time to cheer you up in the middle of this bitter winter.  This collection is the product of researching the finest patterns and colors in the highest quality pima cotton and silk, and designing with practicality in mind. 

This year’s spring and summer lines feature exquisite fabrics for the Special Occasions line, delicate touches in the Babies line, and playful elegance in the Little Girls line. 

The Special Occasion line includes an elegant flower girl dress in Shantung silk, and a christening gown that inspires tradition. 

The Babies line features a romper decorated with a dainty and feminine floral design for a baby’s first few months of life, and a delicate bishop in a thin 100% cotton fabric, also hand-smocked in a floral design. 

The Little Girls line includes Daniela, a sleeveless, hand-smocked dress in a feminine floral printed fabric; Evelyn, a classic, short-sleeve pique cotton dress with hand-smocked bodice and smart ribbon detail on the skirt; and Katherine, a fun, apple-green and pink dress in a soft Oxford cotton fabric.

“This collection was inspired by the colors of spring and a taste of what’s classical.” says Maria Montero, co-founder of PerryWinkles Kids. 

PerryWinkles Kids - Fine Children’s Clothing

I recently was fascinated to find out that some very perceptive mothers had come up with a line of toys called Taggies that had a lot of tags around them.  The inspiration for this was their babies’ seeming fascination with chewing on labels.  Kathe Kruse, the German toy maker, also had the same idea with their new line of toys called Labelies.  They make soft toys and blankets with a lot of labels like this adorable toy dragon. This probably increases your toy’s “shelf life” (or how long your baby will be entertained by it) by a good 10 precious minutes!

Check out the full collection at Baby Naturopathics, a fantastic resource for toys made of natural materials, clothing made of 100% organic cotton and skin care products made of natural products.  Be warned that they have a wonderful selection of European toys that can be a bit addictive if you’re in a toy buying mood!

PerryWinkles Kids - Fine Children’s Clothing

Do you ever get the feeling that someone has thought of something for everything? There are gadgets and toys to meet every mothering need, it feels like. You have diaper bags designed to make you look fashionable and be comfortable and hold everything you need to get through the day; as well as little bags in attractive fabrics to hold the wipes that go inside the diaper bag, and special holders for the soother so it doesn’t get dirty, insulated holders for the bottle so it doesn’t get warm, and plastic food containers that are divided so you can conveniently carry along your baby’s food and of course the container has a dent that perfectly fits the feeding spoon so you never lose it or leave your house without it. And the list goes on and on. Some inventions are just what you needed and really fill a gap while others are just more gadgets to accumulate.

I was noticing the other day that my six-month-old was really fascinated by the tags in her soft toys. She didn’t seem to care that we had carefully chosen toys that were beautiful or seemingly educational. She would dive right into the tags and entertain herself for a while mowing down on it. I wondered if someone had picked up on this and marketed it already. Sure enough, two days later I was talking to a friend and she showed me her baby’s new Taggies book - a cloth book that has tags sticking out from all their pages.  It’s so much fun watching a baby have a field trip on one of these toys! They also make blankets, bedding and even clothes all filled with tags sticking out of everywhere.  Like I said, they’ve thought of everything!

PerryWinkles Kids - Fine Children’s Clothing 

Life with a six month old is challenging.  Spending time with my daughter is the most rewarding way I can think of spending my time but at six months it feels like every minute of the day she is discovering something new, her world is expanding and she wants to explore and be stimulated every single moment.  She doesn’t crawl yet so I am her means to her ends and she obviously doesn’t talk yet so I need to constantly be interpreting her moods and signs to know what she needs next. 

Entertaining a six month old is even more difficult when you have to do it in the middle of winter in Canada.  Not only do you have no time to shovel your sidewalk and dig out your car in the morning but parking anywhere else than at a shopping mall is nearly impossible when you have to first maneuver the snow so you don’t hit the cars around you, try not to get stuck in the snow (I’ve already had to shovel my way out of one parking attempt), and avoid parking next to any snow banks that will make it difficult for you to get in to remove your baby from the car.  Going for walks with your stroller is out of the question, as not everyone is diligent about cleaning their sidewalks so you end up having to carry your stroller every few meters.

So I was not impressed today when I had been looking forward to finally getting out of the house to take Clara to music class and it had started snowing.  Again!  There is literally no place to shovel snow out of my driveway anymore, the snow banks around my house are so tall.  Apparently, they’re calling for another 20 cms. of snow in Toronto today.

I was determined not to get stuck inside today but Clara decided today was not a good day for napping.  So I shovel the snow and clean the car while she’s screaming inside.  I quickly bundle my baby up, get her in the car and maneuver my way out of the driveway managing not to hit the snow banks.  “Beep!”  No antifreeze left for the windows.

We glide our way to music class through the snowy, slippery streets and Clara has a wonderful time.  The effort pays off.  Clean the snow off the car.  On the way back I decide to make chili for dinner.  Stop at the grocery store, get the ingredients, clean snow off the car again and get home.

Finally, baby is asleep, I’m into my cooking and not thinking about the stinky weather anymore.  Then, “Slit!”, I cut my finger chopping an onion.  I never cut my finger when chopping vegetables!  Two seconds later, “Snap!”, the mousetrap.  Wonderful.  It’s so cold outside that mice have decided it’s cozier inside.  “Knock, Knock.” Someone’s at the door.  Must be important, if someone’s out on a miserable day like today.  You can imagine my disappointment when I am faced with a pushy kid trying to convince me that I must switch hydro plans.  Honestly, I’ve gone through this before and I’m not interested. 

Chili is done and I pour myself a glass of wine.  Ah!  There is no moral to this story other than to say, Can this day be over already?!  Let’s hope for sunny skies and warmer weather tomorrow!

Here in “deepest darkest Peru” everyone has an opinion about everything when it comes to raising babies.  Of the tips that our local cleaning lady, Denise, has shared with me over the past month some show local folklore and others practicality of people with few means.

Noticing how much hair I was losing, something I thought a normal post-partum effect, she said with full conviction that the reason I was losing hair was that my baby sucks her thumb.  Thinking I had misunderstood I asked her again what she meant and she repeated the same thing perfectly serious.  My baby does indeed suck her thumb but I suspect my hormones are also still adjusting less than six months after giving birth.  Also according to Denise, Clara is going to be a chatty baby because she sticks her tongue out often.  (She also happens to be teething…)

When my baby had an eyelash stuck in her eye she said I should blow in it.  I softly blew in but she laughed at me, grabbed her eye open and blew hard and loudly into her eye.  My baby didn’t even flinch, as if she hadn’t just had someone pretty much spit right into her eyeball, and the stuck eyelashes easily slid out of her eye onto her cheek.  Problem solved.  She shared that another way to get rid of this problem is to express some breastmilk into the baby’s eye.  I haven’t tried this method yet but I’m starting to believe that I should take this lady’s tips seriously.

When we fed my baby peas for the first time Denise shared that this vegetable is known for causing gases and that they should be cooked with aniseed to avoid making the baby uncomfortable.  When my baby got her first teeth she told my sister, who was the first to notice, that she had to give her an allowance for good luck.  I’m not messing with Peruvian folk beliefs so I’ll harass my sister about that allowance!

Another Peruvian secret when it comes to babies is that they give them the juice of a wonderful fruit called ‘granadilla’ even before they try any solids.  It’s an exotic fruit full of seeds with a sweet flavour.  Its smooth juice is extracted by pressing it through a colander and it’s a great way to ease babies into fruits, keeping them hydrated and giving them some nutrition.  In these hot summer days down South (not to rub it in) it’s important to keep babies hydrated, as I keep being reminded!

PerryWinkles Kids

Escaping the winter in the Northern Hemisphere we’ve headed down to Peru to work on getting the finest pima cotton for our Spring/Summer collection.  Down here we get the side benefit of enjoying the surf of the Pacific Ocean and savouring the wonderful food this country has to offer, while getting inspired by this luxurious fiber that is also one of Peru’s main agricultural product. 

Pima cotton, called ‘gamuza’ by the Peruvians (meaning suede in Spanish) because of its silky soft feel and brilliant luster, is cultivated in the northern coastal valleys and is harvested by hand.  This produces the purest, softest, and whitest fiber that is not tarnished by impurities that result when the plant is industrially cultivated.  This means your girls will love wearing their PerryWinkles dresses and won’t be in a rush to take them off.  But the main reason we like pima cotton for our dresses is that it can be easily hand-washed and it is durable so you will be able to pass down the dresses through your family’s many generations.

Greetings from the Peruvian Coast and look forward to our new collection coming up soon!

PerryWinkles Kids - Fine Children’s Clothing

Someone sent me this story about Santa.  I loved it so much I thought I would share it here.  It’s a little long but a great story about the spirit of Christmas.

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: “There is no Santa Claus,” she jeered. “Even dummies know that!”  My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her “world-famous” cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true. Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. “No Santa Claus?” She snorted… “Ridiculous! Don’t believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!!

Now, put on your coat, and let’s go.” “Go? Go where, Grandma?” I asked. I hadn’t even finished my second world-famous cinnamon bun. “Where” turned out to be Kerby’s General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days. “Take this money,” she said, “and buy something for someone who needs it. I’ll wait for you in the car. “Then  she turned and walked out of Kerby’s. I was only eight years old. I’d often gone shopping with my mother, butnever  had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.
I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, and the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock’s grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn’t have a coat. I knew that because he never went out to recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn’t have a cough; he didn’t have a good coat. I fingered the  ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat! I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that. “Is this a Christmas present for someone?” the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. “Yes, ma’am,” I replied shyly. “It’s for Bobby.” The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really needed a good winter coat. I didn’t get any change, but she put the coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible)in Christmas paper and ribbons and wrote, “To Bobby, From Santa Claus” on it. Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker’s house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially, one of Santa’s helpers. Grandma parked down the street from Bobby’s house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. “All right, Santa Claus,” she whispered, “get going.” I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby. Fifty years haven’t dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker’s bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team. I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95.

Happy Holidays and don’t let the stress of all the shopping take away from the meaning of this special time of the year!

PerryWinkles Kids

I’ve been humoured by the blob quality of newborn babies.  They just get moved around and plopped down, picked up, changed, bathed, fed.  Everything happens to them, they can’t actually consciously move.  This is why I was so impressed with the milestone that Clara reached two weeks ago when she rolled over on her tummy.  It took her a number of tries and a lot of kicking and screaming and persistence but she finally achieved it.  This felt like a huge milestone because it was probably her first conscious act.  Her first step to being mobile and to independence. 

I quickly also found what this milestone means for my free time.   While Clara is having a ball rolling on her tummy any chance she gets, she doens’t actually like staying on her tummy (in spite of the daily tummy time workouts!).  This means that as soon as she has turned over she will cry and scream for someone to turn her back on her back. 

I was surprised initially that babies would learn to go back-to-tummy first and then get stuck there for a few weeks when they learn the reverse motion, until I learned that babies’ heads make up a quarter of the proportion of their bodies!  Now I have to laugh every time I look at a baby because I am so conscious of the huge melons they have to lug around all day.  Imagine how different we would look if we kept those proportions as grown-ups.  No wonder the poor things are so exhausted at the end of every day, from all the effort it takes just to hold their heads in place!

PerryWinkles Kids

Preparing to travel with a baby for the first time is no easy feat.  Yet another challenge of holiday travel is figuring out how to breastfeed while on the go.  One obvious difficulty is finding a place that is quiet and somewhat private.  You can take the time to find these places when you’re out and about with no agenda but what happens when you’re in an airport waiting lounge or in a plane, for example, and your baby needs to eat NOW!  You’re pretty much bound to your seat or not wanting to stray too far if you’re waiting to board a plane.  Rest assured that you can still breastfeed comfortably in these situations. 

Bebe au Lait makes handy ‘hooter hiders’ (also known as nursing covers) so you can take your time preparing and latching your baby for feeding without compromising your modesty.  There is nothing worse than trying to feed in public while being self-conscious about showing some skin or some nipple!  The stress is passed down to your baby and neither you nor her are comfortable.  Bebe au Lait uses beautiful fabrics and a simple design that allows you to see your baby and the baby to see you. Their ‘hooter hiders’ are like oversized canvas bags where the handle goes around your neck.  They are a bit large and not exactly discrete but they are definitely a convenient, colourful way to get privacy.

The next challenge - how to hold your baby for the duration of the feed when you’re not at the comfort of your home with your favourite breastfeeding pillow.  My Brest Friend makes a perfect travel pillow that inflates into a sturdy pillow that doesn’t slide around and is light-weight and easy to pack to take along on trips.  You don’t need to try to support your baby with your jacket or be all hunched over when feeding on planes, restaurants, parks or when traveling.  Although I don’t see myself pulling out my breastfeeding pillow at a restaurant, I think it’s a great solution to the travel dilemma. 

Bon app, les bèbès!  Luckily baby’s meals don’t have to be compromised when we’re on the go.

PerryWinkles Kids - Fine Children’s Clothing