Magazine

A simple wooden baby rattle resting on a crumpled organic cotton blanket.

What I wish I knew about the holz babyrassel as a first toy

I was sitting on my living room floor at three in the morning, staring at a battery-operated plastic cow that was playing a distorted, low-battery version of a nursery rhyme on a terrifying loop. My son Dev was screaming. The...

Read more

A natural rubber teether sitting next to a chewed-up laptop charger on a desk

Naturkautschuk Beißring: A Dad’s Guide to Teething Hardware (66 chars)

It was exactly 3:14 AM when I realized my eleven-month-old had somehow bypassed the living room baby gate and was quietly trying to soothe his terribly swollen gums on the braided power cord of my MacBook Pro. There was a...

Read more

A textured natural rubber teething ring resting on a knitted baby blanket

Natural Rubber Teethers: The Mistakes I Made Early On

Three in the morning is a bad time to evaluate your parenting choices. The radiator in our Chicago apartment was hissing, my toddler was trying to gnaw his own fist off, and I was frantically digging through the freezer. I...

Read more

A baby chewing on a soft plant-based teething toy in a nursery

The truth about tree sap teethers and your baby's weird fevers

I was staring at a thermometer flashing 102.4 in red, convinced my daughter's bottom lateral incisor was trying to kill her. My mother-in-law had already called twice to tell me it was just teething and I should rub a little...

Read more

A soft bamboo blanket covered in rainbows draped over a wooden nursery cot.

What I Learned After Buying a Blanket With Rainbows for My Twins

We were standing by the dismal puddle that passes for a duck pond in our local park when a woman I had never met touched my arm and gave me a look of deep, teary-eyed solidarity. She was staring intently...

Read more

A tired dad holding a giant pile of useless baby accessories

The Great Accessoire Bebe Swindle (And What We Actually Kept)

It's 3:14 am, and I'm standing in our dimly lit kitchen trying to operate a Bluetooth-enabled baby formula dispenser while Twin A screams with the righteous fury of a wronged Victorian ghost, and Twin B enthusiastically chews on a piece...

Read more

Priya sitting on a rug surrounded by wooden blocks and organic cotton baby gifts.

Why buying nachhaltige kindergeschenke almost broke my spirit

I was sitting on the floor of my Chicago apartment at eleven at night, staring at a singing plastic dog that smelled vaguely of gasoline. It was the aftermath of my son's first birthday party. The living room looked like...

Read more

A chewed up wooden baby rattle sitting next to a half empty mug of cold coffee

The Truth About Babyspielzeug Holz And Keeping Your Baby Safe

When I was pregnant with Maya, my mother-in-law cornered me at my baby shower holding a terrifying, neon plastic saxophone that played a high-pitched, vaguely demonic version of 'Old MacDonald' and told me it was the best toy ever because...

Read more

Toddler wearing a merino wool base layer and sleeping comfortably

Why I Ditched Fleece for Baby Wolle in the Freezing Chicago Winter

It was two in the morning in mid-February. The kind of Chicago night where the wind off Lake Michigan sounds like a structural failure. I reached into the crib and unzipped my son's heavy fleece sleep sack. His chest was...

Read more