Magazine

A messy living room with a toddler holding a crayon drawing of a pink water lizard

The Messy, Honest Truth About Getting a Baby Axolotl

It was 7:00 AM on a Tuesday, and I was standing in my kitchen trying to pour coffee while my four-year-old oldest son shoved a piece of construction paper directly into my line of sight. On it was a crude...

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Messy flatlay baby announcement with organic cotton onesies and a positive test

The Great Flatlay Disaster: Twin Baby Announcement Ideas

The ultrasound gel was alarmingly cold, but that wasn't what made me stop breathing. It was the sudden, incredibly protracted silence from Janet, the NHS sonographer who had been cheerfully chatting about her spaniel just moments before. She squinted at...

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A messy baby eating a piece of a Dutch baby pancake in a highchair

Why I Replaced Sunday Pancakes With a Giant Puffy Dutch Baby

Let's start with a snapshot of my kitchen at 6:15 AM last Saturday. I'm standing over a hot stove with a spatula, trying to flip a silver-dollar pancake made of mashed bananas and oats. Meanwhile, my 11-month-old is wrapped tightly...

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London dad looking exhausted while feeding twins pureed turkey

A dad's guide to the elusive baby turkey (and weaning woes)

It was 5:17 in the morning when the farm animal flap-book aggressively entered my peripheral vision, wielded by Twin A, who had somehow escaped her sleeping bag and decided that the pre-dawn darkness was the ideal time for agricultural education....

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A tired mother holding a sick infant, thinking about the hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby internet joke

The nuclear bomb versus coughing infant joke and real colds

Listen. When my son developed his first real chest rattle, I received three distinct pieces of advice within a single hour. My desi mother-in-law told me to heat mustard oil with raw garlic and rub it on the soles of...

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Two toddlers watching an animated movie in a living room scattered with toys

Why I let my toddlers watch the boss baby 2 and lived to tell

It was 3:14 PM on a rainy Tuesday in London, the exact time of day when my carefully constructed parenting ideals usually crumble into dust. The twins had been awake since before the sun bothered to rise, and our living...

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Toddler standing on a coffee table knocking over a tall tower of blocks

When Your Toddler Turns Into a Baby Godzilla Destroying Your House

Yesterday at exactly 4:15 PM, I found myself hiding in the pantry eating stale Goldfish crackers in the dark while my two-year-old stood victorious on the coffee table, roaring at the top of his lungs after methodically sweeping my last...

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A dad looking confused at a pregnancy tracking app on his phone

The truth about baby bump timelines and why apps lie to you

I was standing in our kitchen holding a retractable Stanley tape measure against my wife's stomach, trying to log exactly how many centimeters her abdomen had grown since the previous Tuesday. She looked down at me like I was trying...

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Exhausted father staring at a baby name book while holding a cup of lukewarm tea.

The Absurd Quest for Baby Boy Names Unique Enough Not to Be Steve

My mother-in-law cornered me by the kettle at week twelve of the pregnancy to insist that strong, traditional English names like Arthur or George were the only guaranteed way to prevent a child from a life of petty criminality, while...

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