Magazine

Exhausted dad staring at a glowing baby monitor in a dark nursery

Dear Past Marcus: Debugging The Extraterrestrial Baby Phase

It's 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, and you're staring at the night vision feed on the Nanit monitor like it's a security camera at a haunted house. His eyes are open. They're glowing an iridescent, terrifying white because of the...

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A dad playing an acoustic guitar while sitting next to a wooden baby play gym

Learning Baby I Love Your Way Chords Fixed Our Broken Bedtime

At 2:14 AM on a Tuesday, my daughter's sleep architecture completely collapsed. We were eleven months into this parenting experiment, and Maya was standing in her crib, shaking the rails like a tiny inmate demanding to speak to the warden....

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Baby with tongue out looking curiously at the camera

Baby Sticking Tongue In And Out Repeatedly? Put The Phone Down

Two in the morning. The baby monitor was casting this sickly blue glow across my nightstand. Anya was fast asleep, but her mouth was doing this rhythmic, reptilian flicker. Just a baby sticking tongue in and out repeatedly, tasting the...

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Baby lying on a play mat with a wooden baby gym overhead

The accidental gymnast and the gravity problem with your two-month-old

We need to talk about the biggest lie circulating in your local mom group. You know the one. You're sitting on someone's beige rug, sipping lukewarm coffee, and another mother casually drops that her eight-week-old is already rolling over. She...

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A tired mother holding a newborn wearing high-contrast striped pants in a dimly lit nursery.

Black And White Stripped Leggings Baby: A 3 AM Survival Guide

The radiator in our Chicago apartment was making that metallic clanking sound it only makes when the wind chill hits negative twenty. It was 3 AM, and I was running on maybe forty minutes of broken sleep. I was sitting...

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A toddler standing barefoot on a carpet holding a pair of stiff baby sneakers

The truth about the best baby shoes and why ours went in the trash

It was a Tuesday morning, probably around 9 AM, and I was sitting on our living room rug wearing black yoga pants that featured a very distinct, crusted-over smear of smashed avocado on the left knee. Maya was ten months...

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A soft organic cotton baby doll resting on a beige nursery blanket

How to pick a baby's first doll without an airway panic attack

My mother-in-law handed me a beautifully wrapped box last Diwali. Inside was a rigid plastic nightmare with eyelashes you could cut steak with, wearing a tiny, removable pearl necklace. She smiled warmly, called it beta's new best friend, and told...

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Vintage 90s pink flamingo plush toy sitting safely on a high nursery shelf

My Son's Vintage February 13 Plushie Almost Caused A System Crash

I was sitting on the floor of my home office, watching the Portland rain hammer against the window, when I unboxed a neon pink flamingo from 1995. My mother mailed the package to us last week. Apparently, Ty plush toys...

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Toddler pointing enthusiastically at a tablet showing a fluffy baby rabbit

Viewing Baby Rabbit Growth Stages Without the Toddler Chaos

Don't, under any circumstances, take twin two-year-olds to a local petting farm during birthing season. We were knee-deep in Somerset mud last Tuesday when Twin A locked eyes with a newborn kit, let out a war cry that rattled my...

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