Some of you may not know this, but when I had my first child in 2009 I was living in Manhattan and had recently left my job to raise my daughter full time. I had a little too much free time on my hands (wait, didn’t she say she just had her first child?) and lots of friends expecting their first babies and asking which stroller I liked or if I had a favorite sling or pacifier. My husband recognized my need to fill my time with more than just parenting and suggested I start a blog for my friends so I could respond to their questions all at once. That began a two year journey as a “mommy blogger” at the dawning era of that age. “Momfluencer” was still years away from fruition waiting for the invention of Instagram and Tiktok. I had a great little blog called Life with Pooka, and it garnered a small crowd of readers amongst my friends and fellow Manhattan moms. If you are wondering about the name, “Pooka” was a nickname for our daughter that we decided to use to keep her (and me) anonymous on the internet. It was 2009 and we were all convinced that people would want to randomly steal our children if we put them on the “web.” Anyways, I began speaking at new mom lunches and being invited to baby shows. Companies began sending me products to test and giveaway on the blog. It was a fun side gig to keep my mind busy and get some free schwag. Then came baby number 2, and big surprise, I actually no longer had the time to blog through my bleary eyed exhaustion.

Eventually my family of four moved back to my hometown of Mystic, CT and rapidly became a family of 5. I spent 9 blissful years (well, perhaps my rose colored glasses are showing…you could easily insert exhausted, overwhelmed, or incoherent here instead) raising my three kiddos before I got tired of ordering the majority of their clothes on the internet. It was an endless cycle of returns, or worse than that, keeping something I didn’t actually like because it fit and I couldn’t muster the energy to send it back. I had been spoiled in the city, easily finding the latest styles and cool indie brands while tromping around to my favorite children’s stores. I realized there was space in our town for something different in the children’s market, and when the beautiful space in the old Yellow House Coffee Shop became available in Stonington Borough in fall of 2018 I sprung in to action. Bluebird Day went from concept to fully stocked boutique in a matter of months.

I would not say it has all been sunshine and roses. It’s been a lot of pandemic and inflation too. And while it is an amazing creative outlet, it also comes with boring back office work and trying to remember if I paid the electric bill yet this month. And then there are the times I startle awake late at night because I just remembered the kids have a dentist appointment and I forgot to get the shift covered. At some point I may need to tattoo #momfail on my forehead. Despite all these challenges I would not want to spend my “spare” time any other way.

Which brings me to this point…I am so thankful for all of you! My loyal customers, or the new ones I meet who wander in off the street. Or maybe you found us on the internet because we were the only shop that had “that” dress left in the exact size you needed (this happens a lot). Whatever your reason for finding Bluebird Day we are so happy to be here for you. Wether we are helping you pick a gift or put together the perfect outfit you bring the joy to our little world.

So this blog is me getting back to my roots (although they were relatively short roots) in an effort to share a piece of the magic of Bluebird Day with a wider audience. Come visit often for posts about our latest arrivals, upcoming events of local interest, best spots to visit with littles in our area, answers to some common parenting questions, and probably the occasional mom venting session (please feel free to join in on those in the comment section). I am so looking forward to this new extension of Bluebird Day!

And if you are interested in reading some of my old blog posts on Life with pooka the are still available at: lifewithpooka.blogspot.com

A particularly popular article was my post on the things I “really” needed at the hospital, it’s viewed thousands of times: https://lifewithpooka.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-i-really-needed-at-hospital.html