I ran across Wendy by happenstance. When I first saw her website, Babies Gotta Have it, I rashly concluded that she was a crazily overachieving—and possibly quite greedy—mom. The site’s introductory message certainly suggests an unhinged hunger to acquire and test baby products:

“On a quest for that perfect baby gift for the new little one in your life?” she writes. “My baby and I will show you must-have baby products from all angles….we’ll play with them, spit up on them, read them, bathe in them, eat them, and poop them out until you know why they’re the best baby items out there.”

The vision of Wendy and her child pooping out a Graco car-seat, or bathing in a tub full of mashed organic pears disturbed me. As did the possibility that Wendy spends her days plaguing the PR divisions of baby-products manufacturers with pleas for free giveaways. But then I watched the charming, self-deprectating video in which she explains her motives for launching Babies Gotta Have It.

All became clear. Wendy is not nuts at all. Wendy, like me, is merely mystified by the elaborate baloney and overwhelming excessiveness of the baby-industrial complex, and has decided to try to demystify it for other mothers. I knew she was a kindred spirit when she boldly questioned the common sense of “baby leg-warmers,” a trendy innovation that has many passionate defenders, but (to my mind) has transformed many an innocent baby into a small slutty version of Jennifer Beals, circa Flashdance. Wendy, the Perfect Baby Blog salutes you!

EXHIBIT A: Practical!

Update! Wendy recants her condemnation of baby leg-warmers: As if to underline her admirable imperfection, Wendy has checked in with a blunt confession: “I have to admit I was wrong about baby leg-warmers,” she writes. “In my defense, I live in a cold climate [New York], and I carry my baby in a baby carrier a lot. When you do that, her little pants hike way up and expose all that sweet chubby calf flesh. The leg warmers, though absolutely ridiculous, work here in the way nothing else but tights do. And tights are a pain in the backside.” For a persuasive demonstration of the role baby leg-warmers can play in guarding sweet, chubby calf flesh, view Wendy’s vlog.