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/ Kids Bed, Denmark's awesomest, molded ply, 5-way convertible masterpiece, is now available in the US! I've been watching and waiting for this since 2005! When did this happen?

Well, I did some digging, and according to this Jan. 2009 comment left by fellow Leander fan Marie on, uh, daddytypes.com, [like I said, haven't been hound doggin' the gear lately] Natart Juvenile, a traditional nursery furniture manufacturer based in Quebec, signed a North American distribution deal with Leander this year and began importing the Danish-made beds in April.

The Leander collection, which also includes the popular [in Denmark] Leander Cradle, is being handled by Natart's modern nursery furniture division, Tulip ["Today's Urban Lifestyle Inspired Products"], which is not to be confused with Aldi, the company's value nursery division [""] It's sold by special order through Natart retailers. BuybuyBaby's on the list, but my favorite has to be L'il Deb-n-Heir in Naperville, Illinois. Say it out loud a few times for fun.

At $1,650, the Leander is a mighty pricey option, but seriously? screw the "But it becomes a daybed!" nonsense. The Leander keeps right on converting into newer and bigger beds the kid can actually use right up until boarding school or Bolletieri's tennis camp, or wherever you ship kids when they turn seven.

Find retailers for the Leander crib &c. via Tulip Juvenile [tulipjuvenile.com via daddytypes]
Previously: Leander Kids Beds: Something's Rockin' in Denmark
New from Svan, it's the Like-a-Leander!

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, and there aren't any? And you can't sell me these display models because someone cut off the tag that, by law, may only be removed by consumer?

Then I declare this battle for my ten dollars a draw. Good day.

Only it wasn't called Toys R Us at first. It was Children's Supermart. When Bill Bederman and Charles Lazarus decided to open a Children's Supermart Toys branch in Rockville, Maryland, they wanted a classy sign--until they found out how much it'd cost per letter.

So they needed a shorter name, and that's when their signmaker, Gunther Kilsheimer, a German graphic designer named who'd fled the Nazis with his wife and infant daughter, created the backwards R Toys "Я" Us logo we all know and, uh, know.

Anyway, Kilsheimer passed away August 8 at the age of 86. His son still runs the DC sign company he founded, Art Display Co.

Gunther Kilsheimer, Pioneer in Graphic Arts Passes Away at Age 86 [artdisplayco via designobserver]

No, no there is not.

Oilily, the crazy, Dutch, more-is-more, rich hippie baby clothing company which went through a convoluted series of sales, divestitures, acquisitions, bankruptcies and liquidations, only to end up right back in the hands of the founders, the Olsthoorn family, has begun its relaunch.

Textilia, the Dutch fashion industry's most important news source, reports that the Olsthoorns will debut their first new Oilily collection next Spring/Summer.

Meanwhile, the company just relaunched their online store, OililyShop.com, which is chock full of--summer merchandise. It's the 250,000 pieces of Summer 2009 stock that never made it into stores, which the Olsthoorns bought from the bankruptcy administrator for EUR1.4 million, and which is all on sale at 50-75% off [whatever arbitrary full retail prices no one was buying Oilily at last year]. For example, this little girls tank dress was--or would have been-- EUR89, but now it's only EUR40! Or it would be, if you lived in Holland, Belgium, or Germany, the only three countries Oilily is shipping to right now. [via dt dutch correspondent jan]

First up: a thoughtful takedown of pathological children's books like Love You Forever [never heard of it, and it's a damn good thing. It looks and sounds awful.] and Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree [loved it, then hated it.] What's especially nice is that after talking to an actual expert, Brand changes her mind mid-podcast on Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd's classic, The Runaway Bunny. Totally makes sense now.

Parenting on the Edge: Madeleine Brand casts a critical eye on classic kids' books [latimes via publicist]

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 their bandwidth is blown.

Goodnight, Keith Moon [goodnightkeithmoon.com via dt reader rolf]

The reality--surprise--turns out to be more complicated, but you wouldn't know it from the article. If I didn't know what a hopeless traffic-generating strategy it would be, I'd think Working Mother was deliberately flame-baiting dadblogs with an unnecessarily provocative attempt to discredit dads as either equal or primary caregivers.

Because that's exactly how it sounds. The only two anecdotes are uncritically and unabashedly spun from the mom's POV. Could you imagine the outrage that would rightly ensue if a mom who "had agreed to stay home with the kids so [her husband] could build [his] business" was painted as a lazy, unemployed deadbeat "for failing to help support them"?

And yet Working Mother's editor in chief was on NPR's "Tell Me More" yesterday when the guy was called exactly that. Then Mommy Warmonger Leslie Morgan Steiner cited her own kidless divorce from her crazy first husband as evidence of an epidemic of overburdened courts granting sole custody to child abusers. [Abrahms' article doesn't address abuse at all, actually; its claim is primarily that women will be "punished" in divorce court for working.]

Abrahms' most incendiary experts are celebrity divorce quote machines like Raoul Felder and--seriously--Britney Spears' lawyer. As amusing as it would be to see someone argue that K-Fed getting custody and child support constitutes a looming crisis for American Families, I can't see how Brit-Brit's lawyer has any credibility on large-scale cultural or legal shifts that affect real people.

Here are the three actual, factual changes Abrahms hangs her argument on:

The "tender years doctrine," a court presumption that mothers are the more suitable parent for children under 7, was abolished in most states in 1994...

...And, due in large part to the recession, women are poised to outnumber men in the workforce for the first time in American history. Job layoffs affecting more men than women have yielded a burgeoning crop of Mr. Moms.

"Men are now able to argue that they spend more time with the kids than their working wives do," says veteran New York City divorce attorney Raoul Felder. "This is one of the dark sides of women's accomplishments in the workplace--they're getting a raw deal in custody cases, while men are being viewed more favorably."

Today, it's not uncommon for fathers seeking sole custody in a contested case to prevail at least 50 percent of the time. And Dad is asking for joint or primary custody more and more: Over the past decade, the number of fathers awarded custody of their children has doubled, according to the latest data. In the current generation of dads, gender doesn't dictate who changes a diaper or consoles an infant. And as fathers become more entrenched in their roles as cocaregiver, they're less willing to hand off that role when a marriage breaks down.

The last paragraphs of the 6-page article feel like they're from an alternate universe i.e., they have actually positive, constructive advice for parents going through divorce: avoid court, especially for custody issues. Don't let anger at your ex drive your custody decisions.

Since it's obvious from the article but unacknowledged, I would add: "muzzle the lawyers who are the source for the most denigrating, combative, retrograde characterizations of the parents in question. Like Britney's lawyer, who literally whipsaws from "A mother's career can be a liability in custody battles... I have made that argument myself: 'Mom's not home--she's out working.'" to sounding like the sweet voice of reason: "[Their dad] is the one other person in the world who cares most about your kids." Too bad the editors of Working Mother only see dads as the deadbeat demons plotting with the courts to steal a mother's children.

Family Focus | Custody Lost [workingmother.com via their publicist]
Working Mothers Sometimes Frowned Upon In Custody Battles [npr.org]

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
Down Vests
Handmade Toys
Little Bloomers
Silver Cups
Vintage Overalls
Wooden Blocks

Anyway, South Willard, 8038 W. Third St., Los Angeles, just down from the Farmer's Market. Saturday, Nov. 21, 2-4pm, I'll be waiting to hear your report.

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 fact that they belonged to the Doris Duke, and were originally destined for the elaborate Thai village she planned to build somewhere in Hawaii, only she could never find the right site, and so she ended up with storerooms full of Thai carved furniture and architectural elements and doodads at Duke Farms, her 2,700 acre estate in New Jersey, and there they sat for 60 years, until the last auction was finally held this Saturday to clear out literally the last bits of everything [the famous 19th century Coney Island-style shooting gallery having been sold--for a whopping $43,000--and dismantled last May] so the Farm can become an environmental center, whatever that means, is just a bonus. And yes, I know that's technically more than one fact.

Millea Auction, Nov. 21, Morristown Armory, Lot 127:
Group (9) Thai triangular cushions, est. $100-150 [liveauctioneers]

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, in Oakland, eventually became Peterbilt. Before then, though, the Fageols had already moved to Kent, Ohio, where they created another bus manufacturer, the Twin Coach Company, and eventually, the Fageol Walkee Tricycle Company.

The seller of this awesomely hammered rustbucket of a Fageol Walkee dates it to 1938, but William Fageol's patent application for the Walkee is only dated 1945, and the patent wasn't granted until 1947. I can understand if the war put the Fageols' steel trike-building dream on hold for a few years, but these dates seem hard to reconcile.

Industrial Machine Age Fageol Walkee Bike Tricycle 30s, auction ends Nov. 17, first bid $49+35 s/h [ebay]
Wheeled Vehicle for Children, no. 2423590 [google patents]

Here's a set of tailored fabric for the Bugaboo Cameleon in black fleece; turns out we've never changed the canopy or seat cover to match our outfits, so it's never been out of the box. [ends Nov. 21, currently practically free]

This Maxi-Cosi footmuff in Black Reflection fabric is just as new and just as unused, but there's no box. Basically, by the time we took K2 out in the Cabrio-on-Bugaboo, it was so warm, we never needed it. A fantastic footmuff for any infant carrier, but optimized for Maxi-Cosi. Originally 70 euros [$US130,000] plus shipping, so far all the interest has been from Europe. [ends Nov. 21]

Babystyle, oh babystyle. Wherefore art thou, babystyle? We only used this fleece & cotton jersey footmuff/bassinet sleeping bag deal as a mattress. We wrapped it in a receiving blanket and laid it down as the mattress in the Bugaboo. So it's been washed, but it's pretty close to new. Anyway, it may be more valuable as a snuggly memento of one of the greatest VC moneypits in baby industry history. [ends Nov. 21]

Bid early and often!

So to help make your holiday party the most harmonious ever, here are some handy tips to "Feng Shui Your Thanksgiving Dinner," courtesy of the Windy City's favorite healer/dentist, practitioner Dr. Andie Pearson, DMD!

Apparently, I was entered into some publicist industry mega-database as "token dadblogger," because every 2-3 months since then, I get a call from the concierge in my sister-in-law's old building [she has long since moved to Brooklyn.] A giant Fedex package has arrived for me, but there's no apartment number. What should he do with it? I just tell him to open it up and take anything he wants from it, then throw the rest away.

Until reading the LA Times' tasty smackdown, I thought my phantom swag drop was the most amusing example of the ridiculousness of the Momblogger Junket Industrial Complex. I had no idea. Liz of Cool Mom Picks [who I first met at that Disney luncheon, btw] has the best, truest quote of the piece:

"It's easy to paint everyone as product whores. They're not. I think sometimes they're just naive."

Fast-food purveyor Taco Bell flew a group of bloggers from Maryland, Michigan and Missouri to California for a retreat this spring, paid for their lodging and let them spend the day creating new taco and burrito concoctions.

Blogging moms wooed by food firms [lat]

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 two months before it becomes a crazy, crowdsourced book project of some kind.

Pro Dad Tips [twitter via coudal]