Infant

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.

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

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.

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

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.

There isn’t much to the Noe Valley Courts & Playground, an exceedingly small slice of recreation carved out of a corner lot on 24th Street and Douglass. There’s a recycled-rubber-covered play area with a very short play structure, a couple of bouncy motor cycles, two kiddie swings, and a tiny sand area. There’s practically nothing for kids over aged 3–and that’s why it’s a paradise for neighborhood parents with tiny ones. Free to wander in the small, enclosed space with no bigger kids to jostle or fling sand, the just-walking set goes wild, as their parents sit on the benches or on the side of the sand pit comparing notes.

A miniscule dog run butts up against the side of the playground so there are usually friendly wet noses to pat, plus a tennis and a basketball court. Those with older kids will probably want to explore more thrilling recreational areas (like the newly renovated Noe Valley Recreation Center, just a few blocks away at 29th and Day), but for parents of tiny kids, Noe Valley is sure a sweet place to spend time between naps.

Noe Valley Courts & Playground are located at 24th Street and Douglass Street in San Francisco; call 415-831-2700 or visit sfgov.org.

It sucks to spend hundreds of dollars on maternity wear that you’re going to dump on Goodwill six months from now. Skinnymaternity.com, a new website launched in the Bay Area, intends to be the Craigslist of maternity and new baby gear. Got stuff to sell? List it on the site. Need something? Cruise over to see if someone else has it.

The site’s brand new and patchy right now, but hopefully it’ll fill up soon with stuff that won’t be going to a landfill instead. And let’s also hope that it will be stuff that’s a mite hipper than you find in Goodwill’s maternity section, the final resting place of all those little flowered tieback dresses from the ’80s.

Visit skinnymaternity.com.

Those big, puffy, shiny Petunia Picklebottom bags have had their day, and yes, we as much as we enjoyed looking at your bag on the back of your Bugaboo and calculating how much you paid for the whole package, times are tougher now, and flash is becoming unfashionable. The Supertote/Diaper Bag from San Francisco’s Slainte are sleeker, more subdued, and certainly more now.

What sets Slainte’s bags apart is their hand-made feel, with reinforced straps, firmly set-in fasteners, and gorgeous fabric that San Francisco designer Jill Bornemann sources from estate sales and from foreign countries. Many of Bornemann’s fabrics are recycled, made entirely of post-consumer products (like recyled bottles–so that’s where they go after you put them in the recycling bin!), others are vintage, some are new designs. All are sharp and stylish and intended to go with what Bornemann calls the “urban uniform of jeans, khakis and everything black.” The bottom is nicely weighted so you can set it down without it falling over (good for those one-handed changes), and studded so it sits above whatever God-awful muck you have on your floor.

Slainte’s Supertote/Diaper Bag comes with a padded mat for floor changes, and is lined with waterproof, wipe-clean material. Pictured: the Supertote in Recycled Sun.

Available at slaintebags.com; $110.

The Oakland Parkway dropped its venerable Baby Brigade nights in summer of 2008, leaving Oakland parents without a public space in which they could watch a movie, eat a pizza, and parent all at the same time. But see! The Baby Brigade didn’t die, it just moved. It’s now at the Cerrito Speakeasy, which, if you haven’t been there before, is housed in the beautiful vintage Cerrito Theater that was restored by the same couple that owns the Parkway.

Each Tuesday during the early-evening shows, you go into the wedding cake of a neon-fronted theater, you order a sandwich, you watch a movie, and you don’t worry so much if your infant emits a squawk or two. You can even order a beer; which we all know is great for nursing. It’s so much fun that you’ll be sad when your baby ages out.

Tomorrow night’s fare is Revolutionary Road at 6:30, upstairs is Waltz With Bashir at 7. Both are excellent, well-reviewed films, one about abortion and the dissolution of a marriage, the other an animated tour through the horrors of war. Maybe you’d better turn Junior’s eyes away from the screen while the show’s on; you don’t want him writing to Kindertrauma in 17 years.

Cerrito Speakeasy Theater is located at 10070 San Pablo Avenue (at Fairmount Avenue) in El Cerrito, call 510-814-2400 or visit cerritospeakeasy.com.