Magazine

A dad overanalyzing the exact thickness of a vegetable spear for his baby

The Cucumber Protocol: From Slippery Hazards to Teething Hacks

It's 6:15 AM in our Portland kitchen, and I'm staring at a cutting board with a digital caliper in my hand. My wife, Sarah, is pouring her coffee, watching me measure a wet green vegetable down to the millimeter. "It...

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A messy baby eating semolina porridge in a highchair

The myth of the aesthetic baby suji bowl and what to do instead

Scraping hardened semolina off the ceiling fan wasn't exactly what I pictured when my mother-in-law told me suji would be the perfect first food for my son. I'm standing on a dining chair with a butter knife, chipping away at...

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A chaotic backyard barbecue setup with smoked baby back ribs and kids playing on blankets.

My Chaotic Weekend Learning How to Smoke Baby Back Ribs With Kids

I was elbow-deep in raw pork juice at 6:15 AM on a Saturday, staring blankly at a massive, slippery cut of meat while Maya, who's seven and currently entrenched in her "question everything" phase, stood three inches from my hip...

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Toddler holding a clean rib bone sitting on a bamboo blanket on the grass

St Louis Ribs vs Baby Back: Which is Actually Safe for Your Baby

My mother-in-law told me handing my ten-month-old a rib bone was essentially attempted murder. My favorite internet momfluencer swore a massive rack of meat was the ultimate teething hack. And when I asked my pediatrician about it, she just gave...

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A highly suspicious infant looking at a plastic spoon covered in beige oat mush

Surviving the great weaning transition of 2022

It was precisely 11:14 am on a Tuesday, and I was standing on a dining chair trying to scrape what appeared to be organic beige cement off the kitchen ceiling with a silicone spatula. The twins were exactly six months...

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Messy kitchen counter with baby puree recipes ingredients and a silicone spoon

Realistic Baby Puree Recipes (And My Exploding Blender Disaster)

It was 4:12 PM on a Tuesday, and I was standing on a dining chair scraping aggressively orange sweet potato mush off my kitchen ceiling with a spatula. I was wearing my favorite cream-colored cashmere blend sweaterβ€”because apparently, sleep deprivation...

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Toddler eating messy barbecue ribs on a summer patio

How Long to Smoke Baby Back Ribs Without Ruining Saturday

It was 5:42 PM on a Saturday in July, and I was sweating through a gray tank top that already had a suspicious smear of Sweet Baby Ray's on the hip. My husband was standing on the patio, staring into...

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Portland dad holding a baby back rib next to a messy 11-month-old at a summer BBQ

Troubleshooting BBQ: Baby Back Ribs vs Spare Ribs for Babies

There we were in our backyard, forty-five minutes into a rare sunny Portland afternoon, when I casually handed my 11-month-old son, Leo, a massive, sauce-drenched spare rib. In my sleep-deprived brain, this seemed like a brilliant Baby-Led Weaning victory. I...

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Sliced soft cooked pear pieces on a divided silicone suction plate for baby

That First Slippery Baby Pear And The Constipation Chronicles

My thumb was covered in aquaphor and desperation. It was day four of the great solid-food bowel strike, and my son was looking at me like I had betrayed him. Starting solids at six months is heavily romanticized on the...

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