Daddy Types: November 2009 Archives

November 2009 Archives

November 30, 2009

First, The Good Autism Treatment News

Even though it's small, a new autism study from the University of Washington published in Pediatrics is being hailed as a "landmark." It finds that early diagnosis--as young as 18 mos--and intensive socialization therapy can "vastly improve" key ASD-related symptoms...
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As Like-A-Bike As You Can Get

It's taken a few years and a pile of knockoffs, but Kokua has reached the ontological limits of the Like-A-Bike: Inches in Germany? Like-to-Bike 16-in. children's bike, by Kokua [liketobike.de via dt reader nelson] Update/flashback: BMW's walking bike has a...
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Changing The Changing Table: Kalon Studios Changing Trunk

First things first: I love Kalon Studios. They came up with beautifully made bamboo cribs with excellent detailing a couple of years ago, and they're still at it. And they've expanded. The IoLine Changing Trunk. Not a table, a...
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Molto Richard McGuire!

Longtime DT readers and early New York club music aficionados will know of our abiding interest in the work of Richard McGuire. It's one of the mysteries of children's book publishing that even as the artist's signature illustrations were...
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Whatever Floats Your CLC Cradle Boat

After hearing that several customers were scaling down the plans for the Eastport Pram to make little rowboat cradles, the fine boat kit builders at Chesapeake Light Craft decided to make an actual cradle kit available. Should take you...
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Nothing, Officer, Just Carrying This Here Stool

K2 is now actively looking for trouble. She is casing the joint. She wanders the house with her stool pressed to her chest, scouting out things--jewelry, watches, medicine, iPods, remotes, pipe cleaner unicorns, modeling clay unicorns, unicorn drawings--that have been...
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Locking Kids In Trunk Is The Least Confounding Part Of This Story

From Boston's local station, WTF-TV:Fall River police said Michael Monahan, 35, put his kids, ages 3 and 6, in the trunk of his Pontiac Trans Am for several minutes Tuesday morning while he went inside a sailing shop.Seriously, what...
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November 28, 2009

Avenue Q: The Other Furry Bible

Funny things happen when you look for a fur-covered book. You get the one Sarah Palin was "reading" to her son during half of a TV news interview, Tiny Bear's Bible, which, it turns out, is not real bear...
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'We Can Give Him To Grandma Now If You Want To'

From the back cover of the fur-covered Tiny Bear's BibleTiny Bear's Bible is a warm, fuzzy reminder of how God loves his children--in a format that kids can cuddle. Together with their friend Tiny Bear, children discover eleven Bible...
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Sleepin' With The Grizzlies

Not only do bears drive our cars and come into our kitchens to make themselves a sandwich, now they are officially certified by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association as an infant sleeping device! Z Recs has the scoop:The Juvenile...
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November 27, 2009

'Children Don't Know What A Tauntaun Is.'

Rob Walker writes about ThinkGeek's awesome Tauntaun sleeping bag for the NY Times Magazine. I guess sometimes being blatantly targeted for your own childhood memories isn't so bad after all:The actual bag is adult-size. Parents, Liotta says, are the real...
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November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving To Everyone Not Involved With Network Television!

While the wife was baking an apple pie, the kids and I curled up in front of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC, which turns out to be an awful steaming infomercial of a mess. So we started toggling...
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November 25, 2009

So You Think Your Kid Can Count

So the other day, I'm listening to the episode of WNYC's manneristic funhouse show Radiolab about numbers, where mad-rad new dad Jad Abumrad is talking to some developmental neuroscientist or whatever about how even babies' brains have an innate sense...
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New Muppets Cover Bohemian Rhapsody

You've probably already seen it, or at least you think you have. Much of the Muppets' version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" video is as good as the Henson-era Muppet Show. So you might even have moments where you feel...
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November 24, 2009

More Eames Molded Ply Animals

In 2007, the Eames Office and Vitra produced a limited edition molded plywood elephant that was based on a 1940s prototype Ray and Charles exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art. [There were originally two elephants made--see above--but only...
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It's Just A Childhood Autism Treatment

A family in Sacramento is seeing great results treating their son's autism with a teeny, tiny kid-sized daily dose of medical marijuana. This seems like an autism story even Jenny McCarthy could love. [via andrewsullivan] Could do without the Ooh,...
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You Put Melamine In Chinese Formula, And'll Kill Ya

Wow, it was a bad week for convicted Chinese baby formula tainters. China executes two over tainted milk powder scandal [bbc via dt reader dt]...
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Holy Smokes, Holy Folks!

Here's the first stop on my search for plush Ten Commandments: Holy Folks. Aren't they adorable? Their little hands are magnetized to hold their accessory--and to pray. And their beady little eyes look like they'd choke an unimmaculately conceived...
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Knockoff Ripoff Within Reach: Plan Toys Walking Elephant

Somehow my thorough ignoring of what DWR's up to caused me to miss this: a ride-on, walking elephant made from molded rubberwood ply. It's different enough from its obvious inspiration, Ray and Charles Eames's molded ply elephant [which DWR...
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November 23, 2009

Vintage Illustration Auction Finds: Sendak, Ungerer, Stein, Hurd

So what could be better at an illustrated book auction than five children's books with drawings by Andy Warhol? Glad you asked. Lot 308: Good Shabbos, Everybody, published privately in 1951 by the United Synagogue Commission on Jewish Education, which...
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If It Was Only The Plush Mohel Scissors, It Would Have Been Enough

Ah, Hannukah, you're almost here. One of DT's favorite Jews, Marjorie Ingall, has compiled a list of so-wrong-they're-almost-right Hannukah gifts, for the Jewish life & culture magazine Tablet. It is awesome. Check it out. The ten plagues finger puppets, we...
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Stork-Craft Recalls 2.1 Million Drop-Side Cribs Of Doom In US & Canada

DT's favorite crib guru Scott said it would be big, and now we know just how big the biggest crib recall in history really is: it's as big as the whole freakin' North America, that's how big. The CPSC and...
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Andy Warhol's Other Children's Books

The upcoming illustration auction at Bloomsbury New York includes some very interesting stuff. Least interesting among them: a collection of some of the children's anthologies from the late 1950s which include stories illustrated by Andy Warhol. Warhol was still...
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DT Friday Freakout, Meet DT Monday Meltdown

Yeah, the weekend slipped by with nary a Freakout to be had. Fortunately, these crazy stories from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting can still ruin your Thanksgiving holiday: By now it's [week-]old news that in addition to all...
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November 21, 2009

C Is For Colby Poster Printing Co.

It's like all you can eat, this Shrimp Shop! ABC poster by Andy Beach/ Reference Library, printed by the Colby Poster Printing Co. [via ready4thehouse]...
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Shrimp Shop Blog Bait: High Chair By Ramsey Conder

I think Ramsey is a brother type to South Willard shopkeep Ryan Conder. I also think this high chair is totally awesome. Shrimp Shop: South Willard X Reference Library, kicking off this very second at 8038 W. Third St.,...
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Muji Washable Coloring Book

How about some international Muji awesomeness you can get shipped to the US? The exchange rate may kill you, but the Muji UK online store ships to the US and Canada, no sweat. Fortunately, this washable cloth coloring book...
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So What Else Isn't Muji Bringing US For Christmas?

I know I should wait until after Thanksgiving, but I can't. It's a DT Nov. 21 tradition! Take a look at some of the Muji Xmas 2009 Awesomeness--that is only available in Japan: Blackboard matryoshka dolls, chalk included, Y1200. Wood...
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Muji X Lego Papercraft Colabo

Just in time for Kurisumasu! Muji x Lego had a genius product breakthrough: combine cut paper with Lego bricks to make--whatever you want. Muji designed four play sets, complete with pre-cut paper and all the tiny little bricks needed...
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November 20, 2009

Bojesen Auction Awesomeness

See that, learning a new vintage toy is just like learning a new word: now you notice when they start turning up. Take this beautiful for example: the rattan doll pram Kay Bojesen designed in 1949 for Wengler, which...
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Good Googly Moogly, Tiny Tim Singing To Real Children

When all is said and done, and we're all dead, and all the history's written, I suspect the people who are now called Gen X will be known as the lucky, unscarred-childhooded few who were too young for Tiny...
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On Not Quite Grasping The Concept

K2 just came running into the room. "Mommy come help! Wow Wubzy stuck in car!"...
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Whoa, The Awesome Leander Crib Is Available In The US!

I was just surfing through Inhabitots, thinking to myself, "Day-um, I sure don't cover the emergence of every single piece of shiny, new eco-blahblahblah baby gear like I used to," when I saw that the Leander Crib/ Toddler Bed/...
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Tell Your Army Of Adorable Mask-Wearing Pandas To Stand Down, IKEA!

I'll buy the little alien helmet mask. And the plush, Ikea-colored viking helmet. Oh, what's that? Someone's rifled through the bins like a bowl of M&M's in a Van Halen dressing room or a box of marshmallow-less Lucky Charms,...
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November 19, 2009

ЯIP: Gunther Kilsheimer, Creator Of Toys R Us Logo

No way, did you know Toys R Us started in Washington DC? It began as a baby furniture retailer in Adams Morgan [in fact, the original store is now a blues bar called Madam's Organ. All the Baby Boomers raised...
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It's Always Summer, They Never Get Cold: Oilily Reopens With Bankruptcy-Era Overstock

Is there a better place or time to shop for deluxe summer ragamuffinwear than on the North Sea in November? No, no there is not. Oilily, the crazy, Dutch, more-is-more, rich hippie baby clothing company which went through a convoluted...
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November 18, 2009

Madeleine Brand Thinks That Tree Should Just Stop Giving, It's Only Encouraging Him

It's apparently NPR Bad Decisions Day around here. After her slightly quirky, mid-day news/talk show "Day To Day" was canceled, West Coast radio host Madeleine Brand found another gig: momblogger. She is leading the LA Times' new blog/podcast hybrid, Parenting...
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Goodnight, Keith Moon

The rhymes are a little rough in spots, but one thing's for sure: Bruce Worden and Clare Cross's parody Goodnight, Keith Moon is better than the idea of The Who performing at the Super Bowl. Go see it before...
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Working Mother Fans Sexist Hysteria Over Child Custody

Wow. I am just blown away by the incredibly sexist premise and alarming tone of Sally Abrahms' article in Working Mother magazine about supposed changes in divorce and family law. The magazine considers dads' increased involvement in parenting to be...
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November 17, 2009

Hey You! Go To Shrimp Shop This Saturday In Los Angeles

Andy from Stork Bites Man and Ryan from The South Willard are having a colabo joint for kids starting this weekend. It's called the Shrimp Shop. Here's just a taste of what to expect:Boro Pants Ceramic Mobiles Creative Playthings...
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Doris Duke's Leftover Thai

Doesn't this pile of Thai lounging pillows look like it belongs in a playroom? Except that you'd always be having to dig your keys, half-eaten apple slices, and Cheerios out of all those little nooks, they'd be awesome. The...
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The Fageol Walkee Tricycle On eBay, Tetanus Shot Not Included

Wow, this looks incredible. Vintage industrial kid gear. The Fageol Walkee Tricycle takes its name from its inventor, Christopher Walkee. Haha, no. William B. Fageol and his brother Frank built the first bus. Their company, the Fageol Motor Company,...
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November 16, 2009

Announcing The Daddy Types Footmuff & Fleece Emporium

The nights are getting colder, K2 is getting bigger, and we're getting leaner, at least gear-wise. I put a few choice, fluffy pieces of gear on eBay last night. Here they are in order of brand-spanking newness: Here's a set...
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DT Monday Mommy Mailbag: Feng Shui Edition

Haven't gotten any really great crazy-sexist marketing pitches lately; The DT Monday Mommy Mailbag must be working! And for that, I am thankful. So to help make your holiday party the most harmonious ever, here are some handy tips to...
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Dude, Where's My Car Service?

Once like four years ago, Disney invited me to a blogger lunch meeting in New York and sent a car service to pick me up. At the last minute, instead of her coming across town to playbysit, I dropped the...
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Jim Coudal's Pro Dad Tips

Pro/dad Jim Coudal's been sprinkling his Pro Dad Tips into his agency's awesome linkblog stream to great acclaim. Now they've been gathered into one, delicious Twitter feed, it's like bacon you don't have to clean up. I give it...
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November 15, 2009

Take Me To Your Little Brother's Homemade Spaceship On Etsy

Ah, what are older brothers for? For selling the insane flying saucer playhouse your dad or whoever spent 8 months straight building for you on Etsy for ten grand, that's what. The one with the removable dome, the reclining...
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From LIFE: Junior NASA Astronaut

Just fantastic. Andy posted a couple of great b&w photos of this "Young Space Pioneer" taken by veteran photojournalist Arthur Rickerby in 1962 the same year John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, but the entire...
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November 14, 2009

Heh, Baby Weinstein

I was just building bookcases, listening to WNYC's weekly radio show, On The Media, minding my own business. Then this bit on Disney's Baby Einstein refund story came on, and I laughed so much, I could no longer operate...
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November 13, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Home Alone Edition

While the whole family's scattered to various grandparents for the week/night, I'm freaking out about how well the lacquer on the new radiator cover will take the heat. For you, how about some hyperbolic science and parenting headlines to freak...
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Uh, No. Playdate By John Waters

Look, it's not that I don't think John Waters is a great artist. It's just that I think his best work is in the medium of film, not art world art. But as a filmmaker who also hangs out...
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November 12, 2009

Tom Otterness Playground Comes To Hell's Kitchen South

I really prefer none, but if I have to choose, I guess I like my Tom Otterness playground sculpture tiny, variegated, slightly political, and in Battery Park City. And in that respect, Larry Silverstein, the tiny real estate developer,...
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Ceci N'est Pas Un Caketopper. Custom Wood Doll Family

You know that NY Times article about custom wedding cake topper artists? Me either, but DT reader Eric did, and that's how he found out that Fancie Fannies also makes non-cake topper dolls, with kid-safe non-toxic paint. So he...
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NO WAY, ThinkGeek's Tauntaun Sleeping Bag Is REAL

Eight months from April Fool's Day joke to delivery of the first batch, that's pretty incredible. And the design is nearly perfectly intact, right down to the light saber zipper pull. That's right, ThinkGeek's awesome Tauntaun sleeping bag is...
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Leave Me Alone, I'm Self-Soothing! Onesie

If you're going to put parenting advice on the back of a Onesie [sic], shouldn't it say, "Whatrya tryin' to do, SIDS me? Put me on my back!" Wait, this is at Zazzle. How do I know this is...
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Oy, Macopalypse 2009 Now Park Slopalypse 2009

Wow, I miss one day of blogging, and suddenly Park Slope has turned into the hyperventilating headquarters for Maclaren's Rahm Emanuel Appreciation Society:"There's swine flu and Maclaren strollers," said Dara Kass, a mother of two, as she prepared to order...
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Win A Baby's First Fondue Pot Today! At Parents Magazine

Ahh, fall is in full swing, the nights are getting colder, and the blogs are full of stories of children getting hurt sticking their fingers where they oughtn't. What better time for Parents Magazine to be giving away a...
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Macopalypse 2009 2004! Or, How Not To Sell A Stroller

So we're starting to fill in some of the dates on the timeline for Maclaren's Global War On Future Concert Pianists. When I spoke to Maclaren USA chairman Bahman Kia, he said the amputating hinge issue came to the company's...
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November 11, 2009

My Name Is Abelardo Montoya. Big Bird Is My Cousin. Prepare To Buy.

Just when I thought every ()#$%ing puff- and/or contrarian think-piece about Sesame Street's 40th anniversary would leave me dumber than I was last week, I find this amazing exchange, from somewhere in The New York Times' reader Q&A with...
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November 10, 2009

OG Ply At Design Council

You know how, though he made an entire nursery for his own kids in his listed-and-open-to-the-public house, and how he did a bunch of toys for them, too, this is the only picture of Erno Goldfinger's modernist toys that ever...
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Factchecking The Childrearing Experts

You may remember NY Post reporter Jeremy Olshan from such blog posts as "My boys can swim, there just aren't that many of them,", "Brooklyn bike stores fix stroller flats!" and "Holy smokes, IVF means we have twins now!" That...
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Health Care Reform Prop Baby

Well change my mind and open my health care savings account! Now that 7-month-old Maddie has successfully channeled her opposition to health care reform through her zombie symbiant Rep. John Shadegg, I am thoroughly opposed to upsetting the insurance...
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Noah's Big Gay Ark By Clifford Richards

St. Matthew in the City, an Anglican parish in Auckland, NZ, has a super, big, gay billboard to promote their weekly LGBT service. It's a big, gay Noah's Ark by UK designer Clifford Richards, updated from his original 1970...
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November 9, 2009

Macopalypse 2009: Recalled Maclaren Hinges An 'Industry-Wide Issue'

So clearly, the biggest stroller recall in history, of one of the most popular brands, for amputating children's fingers is a big deal. But then you realize that the actual threat posed to your kid's future as a concert...
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Parenting Echo Park-Style

"People tell you you need all this stuff for a baby. All you really need is diapers, a place to change him and boobs." --mom/ceramicist Kelly Breslin, who shares a tricked out, 380-sf, converted bachelor pad in Echo Park with...
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Macopalypse 2009: The CPSC Version

So here's the official CPSC recall announcement for the Maclaren Everythings, for your headline-comparing entertainment:Maclaren USA Recalls to Repair Strollers Following Fingertip Amputations WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today...
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And An Etsy Tumbled By, With A Private Boat Cradle For Max...

...or whoever's parents shell out $2,200-3,200 for the incredible cypress and mahogany masterpiece by Warren Jordan of Beaver Boatworks, which converts into a rocker or a wagon, which is good, because your kid will sail in and out of...
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Macopalypse 2009: The Maclaren Recall Press Release

Just got a press release from Maclaren's publicists reaffirming the company's "unwavering commitment to child safety," their "Zero Tolerance policy of safety issues," and that their "umbrella strollers meet all U.S. ASTM & JPMA compliance standards." Oh, also, they're recalling...
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November 8, 2009

As Finally Seen On TV

"I just saw the bestest thing ever on TV, and it's only $19.95!" When the kid comes bouncing in to tell me this, barely able to control her excitement, a lot of thoughts pile up in my mind: we certainly...
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One MILLION Strollers! Maclaren Will Recall EVERY Stroller Since 1999 After 12th Hinge-Related Amputation

Me, I would have guessed that the fingertip amputation threshold for a recall would be, say, 10. I mean, ten little fingers and ten little toes, right? As for the fingertip amputation threshold for a re-evaluation of a key element...
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November 7, 2009

T Is For The Tiniest Shoppers

Wow, who at the NY Times T Magazine offices is having a baby? Because almost the entire Winter Design & Living issue is devoted to kid- and family-related design. Some highlights: Fred Bernstein's got a piece about how it's alright...
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November 6, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Shocked, Shocked Edition

Calm, relaxing autumn weekend with the kid? Not if the publicizers of these stories from the worlds of science, medicine, education, safety, and parenting have anything to do with it: What better way to start the Friday Freakout than...
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Struts RIP, Or They Shot Whorses, Didn't They?

It started this summer, and so it has nothing to do with having kindergarten friends who take riding lessons. But otherwise, we are unable to account for the intensity of the kid's current horse-and-unicorn fixation. The one bright spot...
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November 5, 2009

Yeah, So, Damien Hirst's Sausage-in-a-Baby-Bottle Sculpture

The funny thing is, I could look at Damien Hirst's bisected calf in formaldehyde while eating veal carpaccio. I could grind my own hamburger next to his installation withmaggots and a rotting cow's head. I could lose myself in...
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Must Credit Dadcentric!! Ford Announces Inflatable Seat Belts

Jason Avant of Dadcentric is representin' for the dadblogging community at a lavish Ford Safety press event in the US Virgin Islands this weekend. Now that he's livetweeted the big news--inflatable rear seat belts!!--he has the entire weekend free...
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Goodnight, Dead Turks: The Decemberists' Childrens' Book Is Finally At The Printer

I know that when fans read in Paste Oct '06 that The Decemberists' Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis would put out a children's book "about a talking cat who lives in turn-of-the-century Butte, Montana," many people stopped uploading greenscreen...
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November 4, 2009

Every Lego Family Speaks Lego In Its Own Way

So awesome. At The Morning News, Giles Turnbull has gathered several families' names for various Lego parts into one fascinating chart. Fascinating, yet useless, of course, since your own lingo is probably different:"Dad, I'm building a roof for the medical...
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Alphabet Google Earth By Thomas de Bruin

I've been spending a bit of time recently in the Netherlands version of Google Earth, and the geometry of the Dutch landscape is really distinctive. And educational! Thomas de Bruin has assembled the entire alphabet, upper and lower case,...
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November 3, 2009

Ill. Dad Files Class-Action Lawsuit Over Crossed Baby Monitor Signal

So while an Illinois mom breastfeeds in the nursery at all hours of the night and day, the dad chats with the new dad neighbor about how they must have the same brand of baby monitor, because they can...
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NYT On The Pruetts: 'Fathers Do Not Mother, They Father.'

The NY Times has a great article discussing some recent research on the involvement of fathers in raising kids, including the work of Dr. Kyle Pruett a child psychiatrist at Yale, who is one of the leading researchers on fatherhood,...
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Don't Cry For Wii, Australia

The Baby and Me video game for the Nintendo Wii is only launching in Australia, but who cares? You can make your own right at home. Here's the concept for the Australian version: Your baby reacts by giggling, gurgling...
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A Is For Anvil: Spectacular Dutch Childrens Books Online

Het ABC voor Holland's Kleintjes met 156 Plaatjes, by Daan Hoeksema, 1923 Bibliodyssey's found another incredible trove of vintage children's books, this time at The Memory of The Netherlands. The digitized collections of libraries and institutions spanning 160 years--including...
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November 2, 2009

Moss Kids T-Shirts

"Small children must be held": It sounds so sweet and loving, the saying on this little t-shirt. It's only when you learn it's from the front door of the self-important SoHo design emporium Moss that you realize they left...
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Vat Do Ve Sink Of Dese Strumpfhose Tights For Boys?

Runners wear them, all those UnderArmour guys wear them, skiers wear them, dancers wear them, Spiderman wears them, and according to Laura, an expat American mom of a 4-yo boy, every boy in Germany wears them. So what's the...
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A Still More Glorious Dawn Is Here

"Whoop! Ahhhh. Whoop Whoop! Aaahh Ahhhh. Apple pie catch." K2 is wandering around the house singing the Carl Sagan song....
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November 1, 2009

That's No Moon

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Darth Vader and the Death Star, originally uploaded by andibob909. Wow. The Force is strong...
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