Magazine

A mother inspecting a plastic toy baby for safety and cleanliness

What pediatric nurses actually think about feeding baby dolls

I'm standing over my kitchen sink at two in the morning with a pair of surgical tweezers, a flashlight held between my teeth, and a deep sense of regret. My toddler's favorite interactive infantβ€”the one that supposedly eats synthetic powdered...

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A wooden baby gym and organic baby bodysuit next to a laptop monitor

My Bizarre Search for a Baby Firefly Costume and What I Learned

The baby monitor on my secondary display currently reads exactly 68.4 degrees, which is supposedly the good ambient temperature for an eleven-month-old to achieve deep REM sleep, though she's currently doing this weird phantom nursing motion with her mouth that...

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Messy living room floor with soft blocks and a wooden crochet bear toy.

Why I Threw Away the Pink Plastic (And Found Better Baby Girl Toys)

It was 2:14 AM on December 26th, and I was sitting on the floor in a nursing bra that had completely given up the ghost sometime in 2016 and a pair of Dave's boxer briefs, furiously crying over a plastic...

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Baby reaching for a simple wooden toy on a playmat

The Brutally Honest Guide to Early Baby Learning and Brain Growth

My mother-in-law handed me a set of high-contrast vocabulary flashcards when Kabir was exactly twelve days old. She sat on my couch, tapping the cards on her knee, telling me that his brain was a sponge and we were already...

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A messy living room floor with a baby reaching for a soft plush toy next to coffee

My Disastrous Attempt at Raising a PokΓ©mon Fan (And What Worked)

It was a Tuesday in 2019, I was running on maybe three hours of broken sleep, wearing a pair of Target leggings that smelled vaguely of sour milk, and I decided this was the perfect moment to introduce my then-two-year-old...

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Messy living room floor covered in wooden toys and a half-empty coffee mug.

Why I Threw Out Most Of Our Learning Toys And What Actually Survived

It was exactly 4:13 AM on a random Tuesday in November, and I was wearing my husband Dave’s oversized college sweatshirt which had a highly questionable yogurt stain on the left shoulder. I was holding a lukewarm mug of yesterday's...

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Frustrated dad holding a noisy plastic toy while an 11-month-old baby sleeps

A Portland Dad's Honest Guide to Picking Gifts for Infants

It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday when our system completely crashed. My son had just executed a flawless, database-corrupting diaper blowout, and my wife and I were running on maybe ninety total minutes of fragmented sleep. The nursery thermostat...

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Sarah holding a lukewarm iced coffee looking distressed in a brightly lit toy store aisle.

Dear Me: Put Down the Flashing Plastic Crap in That Toy Store

Dear Sarah from six months ago, It's 2:14 PM on a Tuesday. You're currently standing in Aisle 14 of that massive, soul-crushing infant toy store off Interstate 80. You're wearing those black lululemon leggings with the mysterious yogurt stain on...

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A minimalist baby playing on a soft organic linen playmat with a wooden ring instead of loud plastic toys

The 3 AM Plastic Meltdown That Redefined Babys Spielzeug For Me

It was 3:14 AM on a Tuesday, and I was wearing my husband’s inexplicably stained college sweatpants. Leo, who was eight months old at the time and deep into a sleep regression that made me question all my life choices,...

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