Stages

No parent likes to imagine the specter of disposable diapers piling up in the landfills when she chucks another used one into the Diaper Champ, but the eco-friendly options are so unappealing. Washing cloth diapers at home necessitates the touching of lots of nasty things (and probably a malodorous diaper pail in the bathroom); gDiapers aren’t as flushable in antique Bay Area plumbing as they could be; diaper-free can be a full-time job.

Sunnyvale’s Earth-Baby is a nice halfway alternative for the parent who wants to lower her carbon footprint without stress. For $29.99 a month the company delivers compostable disposables, and picks them up weekly when they’re um, full. You still have to pay for the corn-based diapers (about $12 for a pack of 22-44, depending on size) and wipes, but it still works out to be a bit cheaper than cloth diaper services. And everything you hand back to the company is either composted, recycled, or reused.

Earth-Baby serves San Francisco and South Bay/Peninsula cities as far down as Santa Cruz. Call 650-641-0975 or visit earth-baby.com.

A kid who’s using his arms to act out (hitting his little sister, say), obviously needs something else to do with those arms. Scaling the heights at an indoor rock-climbing gym is an excellent way to exhaust those little arms. Every Bay Area gym owned by Touchstone Climbing (and there are Touchstone gyms in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland, amongst other cities) has programs for kids.

During the school year there are ten-week climbing camps for ages 6-14, usually on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4pm to 6pm, wherein instructors teach school-age kids the basics of climbing. And in the summertime there are week-long and multi-week camps; lucky Berkeley kids get to meet their instructors at Cragmont Rock Park for a day of outdoors rock climbing. And at all Touchstone camps, parents can join the kids each Friday to climb alongside them.

Call the gym nearest you for dates and pricing but the ten-week sessions run about $200-250, while camps are about the same amount each week.

Mission Cliffs Touchstone Rock Climbing & Fitness, 2295 Harrison Street, San Francisco, 415-550-0515; Class 5 Fitness Touchstone Rock Climbing & Fitness Gym, 25-B Dodie Street, San Rafael, 415-485-6931; Berkeley IronWorks Touchstone Rock Climbing & Fitness, 800 Potter Street, Berkeley, 510-981-9900; Great Western Power Co., 520 20th Street, Oakland, 510-452-2022. All Touchstone gyms can be found at touchstoneclimbing.com.

No self-respecting Bay Area parent would give their child a mass-produced discount-store plush doll to love up. This Sweet Sandia Hoot Owl from San Francisco designer/artist WendyZ fits much better into the groovy-parent party line. It’s hand-made by a real person from parts recycled from thrift stores: old sweaters, blankets, linens, and the like. As WendyZ herself says on her Etsy site, she’s killing time waiting for an adoption goes through; while she awaits her own baby, she makes stuff for yours.

This particular owl, Rosa, used to be a pink cashmere sweater. Her face is hand-embroidered, and she features a secret pocket big enough to hold a tooth, a note, or maybe just an infant’s questing fingers. She does not contain weird dyes and chemicals and the karmic taint of sweatshop labor.

Sweet Sandia Hoot Owl, “Rosa,” $28

A landmark 1990 study by the American Association of University Women showed something scary about American girls: by the time they’re in sixth grade, they associate masculinity with power and opportunity and femininity with reserve and restraint. No sexist pig has to keep these girls down; they’ll do it all by themselves.

But not if they can pilot a sea kayak with confidence, or rappel down the side of a cliff. Or, at least, that’s the thinking behind GirlVentures, a San Francisco non-profit that takes girls in 6th-9th grades on vigorous outdoor adventures designed to let them take risks that pay off. They hike, bike, climb mountains, they learn self-defense moves. They bond in the physical, exhilarating ways that are so often closed off to girls, and in doing so, GirlVentures hopes, they will be able to take a flying leap through any glass ceiling.

GirlVentures offers month-long classes on self-defense and urban hikes during the school year, as well as a once-a-week rock climbing class in the East Bay that’s developed a cult following. The prime summer offerings are two-week backcountry camping trips into the Sierra Nevadas. For more information, visit girlventures.org.

One of the best baby/kid items spotted at San Mateo’s Maker Faire a couple of weeks ago: Ms. Craftypants’ achingly cute Robots on Parade blankets. Painstakingly handcrafted, the mini-quilts feature simple robot shapes and delicious patterns. Ms. Craftypants herself, Bay Area artist/designer/work-at-home mommy Rebecca Morrissey, tends to shell out for the really good stuff, fabric-wise: the material that goes into her quilts is high thread-count and very pleasing to the eye and the hand. Fabrics are pre-washed too, soft and supple, not stiff with starch like most new bedding.

On Morrissey’s Etsy site there’s just one Robots on Parade blanket, pictured here. But at Maker Faire, the Ms. Craftypants table was piled high with blankets, in blues, reds, browns and more lovely shades. Wouldn’t one look nice in your babe’s crib? Contact Morrissey through Etsy if you’re interested.

Robots on Parade blanket, $35

Last week’s horrific death of young Everett Carey, the four-month-old who died in a BART parking lot when his father forgot to drop him off at daycare and instead left him in the car with windows rolled up, underlines how tragic accidents can happen to anyone unwary. It’s easy to think that it couldn’t happen to you, that you’re more responsible and aware than that. But Alan Carey, Everett’s dad, probably thought that too.

The combination of a sleep-deprived parent, a busy schedule, and a rear-facing infant seat that holds a sleeping, silent baby can be a deadly one. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, “Nationally, an average of 36 children a year die when they are trapped in overheated cars. Some get into the cars on their own and some are intentionally left by parents, but the majority are forgotten by a parent or caregiver who fails to glance in the backseat.”

What Washington Post writer Gene Weingarten calls a “fatal distraction” could happen to you. Some tips on keeping your kids safe, from kidsandcars.org:

– Keep a stuffed animal, preferably a large or eye-catching one, in your car seat and place it in the passenger seat as a reminder whenever the child is in back.

– Always put something in the backseat, such as a purse, lunch bag, or briefcase, that makes you have to open the back door each time you park.

– Tell your daycare provider to call you and other emergency contacts if your child does not arrive by a certain time each day.

Sure, we all love those “This Week In Your Pregnancy” emails where the writer attempts to make you understand the current size of your fetus by comparing him with a type of food (”This week, your baby is the size of a kidney bean/lemon/avocado/coconut”), but sometimes picturing the little kidney bean in your belly just isn’t enough. How’s a mom supposed to contain her raging curiosity between ultrasounds?

Download The Baby Ticker, available free from San Francisco’s Widgetbox.com, maker of the downloadable bits of useful software known as widgets. Input some simple information about your pregnancy, click to download, and poof! The widget appears on your desktop, with a countdown to the due date and a representation of what your baby should look like, given his current state of development. Each day, the widget-baby will move, grow and change, just like your own. Oooh, finger buds! Look, he’s sucking his thumb! It’s creepy-cool to everyone but a pregnant lady. For her, it’s magical.

It’s (almost) enough to make me want to have a second child: John Robshaw’s Lapis crib bedding set, in resolutely non-cutesy neutral colors and with a batik, ethnic feel. Since designer Robshaw is known for his Indian block print textiles and exotic accessories, this line of baby bedding seems a natural extension of his talents; but it’s unlike anything else out there I’ve ever seen.

See the Lapis bedding along with other bedding at swanky home-accessories store Nest, 2300 Fillmore Street (at Clay Street), San Francisco. Call 415-292-6199 or visit nestsf.com. The collection is available at several other Bay Area boutiques; or just buy online.

Lapis Crib Bedding, $370 for set

Healthy-food-oriented parents whose kids attend a SFUSD school will want to be at Mission High School on Thursday night, at a special meeting organized by parents who hope to change SFUSD’s food policies. Here’s what the flyer says:

Are you interested in learning more about the food in SFUSD schools, and how to improve it? Do you want to see more fresh fruits and vegetables served with school meals? Perhaps you have heard about the food in Berkeley schools and wonder why San Francisco is different? Are you dreaming about locally-grown foods in our cafeterias?”

Why, yes! Yes, I am! I’ll see you there. This is just an evening of brainstorming; petitioning the SFUSD will come later. The meeting is at Thursday, May 21 at 7pm at Mission High School, 3750 18th Street (at Dolores) in San Francisco. Email lenabrook@yahoo.com or visit groups.yahoo.com/group/sffoodsystems/.

For more inspiration, see our earlier post on Ann Cooper, Director of Nutrition for the exemplary Berkeley Unified School District.

It’s really too bad that baby/kids store Modern Nursery doesn’t have a bricks-and-mortar outlet, because I’m betting that Hushamok’s Modern Bassinet (pictured) or Jenny Sauer’s beautiful wall prints would really be something to see in real life. No matter, Modern Nursery has the gush-over-goods you want. Baby bedding, diaper bags, furniture; Modern Nursery has everything you need to create the sleekest baby’s room you can imagine.

Modern Nursery’s toy selection is particularly choice, with toys nicely grouped by age (now you know what to get that seven-year-old nephew!). There aren’t pages and pages of toys, just a few, carefully selected, stylish, eco-friendly, and so pretty you want to display them rather than hiding them away in a storage bin.

Modern Nursery was launched by San Francisco mom Trish Meyler, yet another escapee from the corporate world. She’s since moved to Grass Valley, but her signature store maintains its sharp city aesthetic, one that will make droolers out of all who visit.