Magazine

A minimalist wooden baby play gym set up on a soft living room rug.

Why I Finally Ditched the Neon Plastic Baby Play Gym

It was a Tuesday, roughly 2:15 PM in late October 2017. Maya was exactly fourteen weeks old, and I was wearing a pair of dark grey maternity leggings that I had absolutely no intention of retiring anytime soon. They had...

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A visibly exhausted dad wiping spaghetti off a wall while twin toddlers hold silicone spoons.

The Great Spaghetti Bolognese Incident and Feeding Set Truths

There's a very specific, hollow sound that a ceramic bowl makes when it hits a hardwood floor after being launched from the terrifying altitude of an Ikea highchair. It's a sound that instantly ages you five years. It was a...

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A dad staring confused at a massive pile of complicated baby shower gifts

Decoding The Perfect Infant Gift Set Without Crashing Your System

I'm currently staring at a miniature denim jacket that features six fully functional, incredibly stiff metal buttons. My son is eleven months old now, but when he was a newborn, someone handed us a beautifully wrapped box containing this rigid...

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A confused dad looking at a pile of baby winter clothes and yarn

The Great Wool Disaster: Picking the Right Yarn for Your Baby

The baby monitor glowing angrily on my nightstand said the nursery was exactly 68 degrees, which is supposedly the good sleeping temperature for a human infant. It was 2:14 AM on a damp Portland Tuesday, and my 11-month-old son was...

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Priya hΓ€lt nachdenklich eine kleine Silikon-ZahnbΓΌrste im Badezimmer

Die absolut ehrliche Antwort auf: Welche ZahnbΓΌrste fΓΌr Babys

Der Kiefer meines Sohnes hat die Schließkraft eines kleinen Alligators. Das wurde mir an einem Dienstagmorgen klar, als ich versuchte, eine sehr Àsthetische, beige Bambuszahnbürste aus seinem Mund zu hebeln. Ich wollte ein durchgestyltes, nachhaltiges Badezimmer. Er wollte auf dem...

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A folded bamboo baby blanket resting on a nursery chair

The contradictory truth about bambus decken and infant sleep

My mother-in-law told me I needed to wrap him in three layers of thick wool or he'd catch pneumonia in the middle of a Chicago July. The lactation consultant told me to use absolutely zero fabrics, stick to skin-to-skin only,...

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Messy but safe bare crib setup with an organic cotton baby bodysuit and sleep sack

Why That Cute Infant Bedding Set is Actually a Terrible Idea

I was sweating through my maternity shirt, wrestling a thick, heavily embroidered quilt into a crib that looked like it belonged in a Victorian museum. I had just dropped way too much money on a matching ten-piece nursery package for...

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Mother checking back of baby's neck for temperature while adjusting a cotton bodysuit.

The longsleeve baby survival guide from a tired triage nurse

July in Chicago is a specific kind of miserable. The window unit in our living room sounds like a dying tractor, fighting a losing battle against the humidity. My daughter is asleep on a playmat in just a diaper, looking...

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A tired dad looking at a laptop while a baby chews on a wooden play gym ring.

Dear Past Marcus: Troubleshooting the Great Baby Mat Matrix

Row 47 of my "Baby Infrastructure" Google Sheet is where my sanity finally encountered a fatal error. It was 2:14 AM. The ambient temperature in the nursery was exactly 71.4 degrees, I had logged 11 wet diapers for the day,...

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