Magazine

A confused dad looking at his baby holding a wooden teething ring instead of a smartphone screen.

Debugging the baby shark phase: Viral videos and double teeth

Don't ever assume an algorithm knows how to soothe your kid better than you do. I learned this the hard way at a coffee shop on Hawthorne last Tuesday, thinking a quick blast of YouTube would act as a temporary...

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Mom sitting on the floor with baby surrounded by scattered colorful baby blocks

The Big Myth About Childrens Stacking Blocks

I'm currently sitting on the floor of my living room, nursing a bruised heel because I just stepped on a rogue wooden square while carrying a laundry basket the size of a small car. My youngest, who's nine months old,...

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Messy living room floor covered in wooden blocks and toddler toys

Spielzeug Kinder 2 Jahre: Surviving the Toddler Toy Explosion

I was standing in the dark hallway at 3 AM holding a laundry basket full of spit-up stained onesies when my heel came straight down on a plastic light-up police car that screamed "WEE-WOO PUT YOUR HANDS UP" into the...

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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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A wooden rattle toy sitting on a playmat next to a baby's hand

Why a Basic Rassel Toy Beat My High-Tech Baby Parenting Theories

I'm sitting on the living room rug surrounded by three different glowing screens, a Wi-Fi enabled bassinet that tracks micro-movements, and a massive spreadsheet charting exactly how many ounces of milk my son has consumed since Tuesday. On the main...

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A toddler playing with a wooden block set on a living room rug.

Why we finally switched to holz kinderspielzeug (wooden toys)

It was a Tuesday. 6:14 AM. Leo was three, Maya was basically a blob, and I was holding a cold mug of coffee while wearing a stained Nirvana t-shirt I’ve owned since college. I was staring at our living room...

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A minimalist toddler room with a few wooden blocks and a very tired mom holding a giant coffee cup.

What I wish I knew about spielzeug fΓΌr kleinkinder back then

I was sitting dead center on the rug in our tiny apartment living room, wearing yoga pants that I’m pretty sure had crusty sweet potato purΓ©e smeared on the left thigh from three days prior, just staring blankly at a...

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Two toddlers playing with wooden shape sorters on a living room rug

Why Wooden Toys for a 1-Year-Old Might Actually Save Your Sanity

It's 5:42 am on a Tuesday, and I'm currently staring at a plastic farm animal that has been singing the same off-key rendition of 'Old MacDonald' for fourteen consecutive minutes. Maya has her tiny foot firmly planted on the cow...

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Baby reaching for wooden toys on a soft organic playmat on the floor

Ditching the Plastic Jumper for a Real Montessori Activity Space

I was sitting on my incredibly stained living room rug at 6:15 AM wearing yesterday’s maternity leggingsβ€”the ones with the hole in the left kneeβ€”clutching my third mug of desperately black coffee, while my firstborn, Leo, aggressively bounced in what...

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