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A cute cheetah cub playing in the grass looking very confused

What a Baby Cheetah Taught Me About My Own Crawling Toddler

We were standing in front of the big cat enclosure at the Bronx Zoo last Tuesday. I was wearing my aggressively stained Lululemon leggings, holding a lukewarm cup of drip coffee that tasted faintly of pennies, while Leoβ€”who's four going...

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early developmentfamily careparenting humourplaytimesibling preparation
Dad covered in snacks staring blankly at the boss baby 2 on television

Surviving The Boss Baby 2: A Parent's Deeply Unqualified Guide

Before we hit play on a Saturday afternoon, I received three entirely distinct pieces of advice about this film. My sister-in-law, who curates her children’s wooden toy collection by color, warned me it was corporate propaganda designed to rot the...

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baby dollsparenting tipsplaytimesafety tipstoddler
Toddler aggressively dragging a realistic baby doll by the ankle

Why that hyper-realistic baby doll is a terrible idea for your kid

Listen. I was standing in my friend Maya's kitchen last Tuesday when she proudly unboxed a four-hundred-dollar reborn silicone infant for her two-year-old. The thing had hand-painted translucent veins, micro-rooted eyelashes, and the exact dead weight of a sleeping newborn....

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baby safetydevelopmentorganic baby clothesparenting humourplaytimetummy time
Baby doing tummy time on a round vegan leather play mat

When Do Babies Crawl? A Tech Dad's Guide to the Locomotion Update

My mom told me my younger brother was sprinting across the living room carpet at six months old. The barista at our local Portland coffee shopβ€”who has definitely never had a childβ€”insisted that his nephew didn't move an inch until...

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baby toysbudgeteducational toyshealthplaytimesustainable
A disassembled toy doll next to a sink full of soapy water and a scrub brush

The ugly truth about that baby alive doll hiding in your playroom

I'm standing over my kitchen sink at eleven at night with a pair of surgical tweezers, trying to extract a solid black clump of fermented synthetic cherry mush from the plastic esophagus of a toy. This is not how I...

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Babydevelopmentorganicplaytimesafety tipswooden toys
Toddler chewing on a solid beech wood grasping ring on a playmat

Toxic glue and the truth about aesthetic baby holzspielzeug

I'm standing at the stove at two in the morning, watching a forty-dollar organic maple rattle slowly disintegrate in a pot of boiling water. The water is turning a suspicious murky brown. A smell like burning nail polish remover is...

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Babydevelopmenteducational toysplaytimesustainabletoys
Toddler Leo knocking down a wobbly tower of wooden bausteine kinder in the living room.

Why I Stopped Overthinking Bausteine Kinder & Let Them Crash

It's 6:15 AM on a Tuesday, and I'm sitting on the cold kitchen floor wearing David’s faded college sweatshirt that has a completely unidentified yogurt stain on the cuff, gripping a mug of lukewarm coffee like it's a literal life...

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eco-friendlyplaytimesafety tipsToddlerwooden toys
A wooden indoor jungle gym for toddlers set up on a vegan leather play mat in a Portland house.

Ranking the best indoor jungle gym for toddlers as a new dad

My 11-month-old’s left big toe was wedged firmly into the cooling vent of my PlayStation 5 while his right hand maintained a white-knuckle death grip on the edge of the media console. He was attempting to scale the living room...

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