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baby toysearly developmenteco-friendlyparenting humoursafe playwooden toys
Two toddlers surrounded by wooden blocks and silicone teethers in a living room

The great baby toys invasion: A survival guide for tired parents

It's 4:13 in the morning, and I've just stepped barefoot onto a hard plastic sheep that immediately responded by bleating the alphabet into the dark, silent hallway. I froze, my foot hovering above the floorboards, waiting for the inevitable twin...

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baby carebudgetingmotherhoodparenting humoursafe playsurvival
A tired mom holding a baby while two toddlers play in the background.

The Unfiltered Reality of Welcoming Baby Number Three

I was sweating through my favorite vintage band shirt in the middle of an August afternoon, staring at the back seat of my SUV with a tape measure in one hand and a half-eaten string cheese in the other. I...

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Babyboundariesearly developmentparenting humoursafe play
Sarah holding a cold coffee while her toddler runs pantsless down the hallway

Navigating Baby Steps Nudity and Family Privacy (And Pants)

It was 7:13 AM on a Tuesday, and I was standing in my entryway wearing a stained NYU sweatshirt from 2009, holding a mug of coffee that had already gone cold because I’d left it on the bathroom counter for...

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90s nostalgiababy milestonesearly developmentparenting humoursafe playwooden toys
A wooden baby play gym set with crochet hanging toys against a white background

The Baby Steps Game Disaster and How to Actually Teach Walking

It was somewhere around 3:17 in the morning, a time that I'm increasingly convinced exists solely to punish parents for their past life choices. Maya, the slightly more reasonable of my two-year-old twin daughters, was fast asleep in her cot,...

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digital footprintearly developmentfatherhoodparenting humoursafe play
Clueless dad holding a baby while looking confused at a smartphone screen.

Wait, How Old is Baby Gronk? (And Other Parenting Anxieties)

My wife caught me measuring the exact distance between our coffee table and the dog bed with a laser tape measure while our 11-month-old gnawed enthusiastically on a rogue piece of cardboard he'd found behind the router. "I'm setting up...

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baby behaviornature learningoutdoorsafe playtoys
A small infant rabbit resting near a patch of grass in a backyard

Note to Self About That Backyard Bunny Incident We Barely Survived

Dear Priya from last April. You're currently standing frozen in the damp Chicago grass, holding a weed whacker in one hand and a half-eaten string cheese in the other. Your toddler is strapped to your back in the ergonomic carrier,...

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baby safetyfamily careparenthoodsafe playstress
A stressed dad watching a husky dog sniff around a baby playpen in a living room

How to Survive a Husky and a Human Baby Without Losing Your Mind

There's a very specific type of panic that sets in when a fifty-pound sled dog tries to initiate a play-bow with a sleeping infant. You just freeze, calculating the physics of a rapidly wagging tail colliding with a soft fontanelle,...

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educational toysparenting tipssafe playscreen timetoddler
Toddler playing a baby hazel app on an iPad in the dark bedroom

That Night a Baby Hazel App Cost Me Nine Bucks and Total Sanity

I was elbow-deep in printing shipping labels for my Etsy shop at ten o'clock on a Tuesday night, entirely convinced my four-year-old was dead asleep in his room, when my Apple watch buzzed with an $8.99 charge from the App...

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baby healthbehaviorearly developmentparenting tipssafe play
A toddler playing with wooden toys on a mat instead of doing sports drills.

The truth about baby gronk age and our toxic prodigy obsession

The six-year-old was sitting on the examination table with an ice pack on his knee, looking like he wanted to be anywhere else on earth. His dad was standing next to him in full athletic gear, holding a clipboard and...

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