Toddler

Here’s the scenario: baby is thirsty, you give him some milk in a sippy, he drinks for a second of blissful, blissful silence, until “Waaaah!” He’s turned the cup upside down and can’t get anything else out. For the 11 millionth time.

The innovative Bot sippy cup has a cool feature: a weighted stainless steel ball inside a flexible straw. Whenever the kid tips the cup, the same gravity that makes the liquid fall to one side also moves the straw. Ergo, every sip brings up a drink, ergo, you get 15 more seconds of peace and quiet before he empties the cup and starts screaming again.

The Bot is made by Burlingame’s ZoLi, an eco-minded company whose products are free from BPA, phthalates, PVC, latex and chloride. ZoLi’s packaging is made from recycled products and uses soy-based inks, for earth-friendlier degrading. The Bot is non-breakable and the lid and handle are just one part, to cut down on wandering cup pieces.

ZoLi also makes an intriguing child’s nail trimmer, the Buzz B., which uses a gentle whirling sander to grind nails down instead of a clipper that can slip and cut baby’s little cuticles. The Buzz B. is unfortunately out of stock on ZoLi’s site, but the Bot is available, in green or orange.

ZoLi’s Bot sippy cup, $12

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

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.

There’s a brief moment of time in each child’s life before he’s ready for preschool, but already seems to crave some kind of regular playtime with other kids. If you happen to live in or near the Montclair neighborhood of Oakland, the Montclair Community Play Center is Johnny-on-the-spot for those pre-preschool times. Starting at age 18 months, the MCPC has daily “toddler playtime” classes for kids up to 36 months. Caregivers attend with the child, and each day there’s music, snack, messy art projects, and circle time.

Starting at age 2.5 (and continuing through age 5.5), there are also drop-off summer camps that resemble short preschool days; a fine option for kids who haven’t yet gone to school or whose schools don’t have summer programs. You wanted to know what you were going to do with Junior all day during the summer, right? Considering that most summer camps start at age 6 at the very earliest, the MCPC is a valuable gap-filler for parents left in the lurch when school lets out.

Montclair Community Play Center is located at 5815 Thornhill Drive (at Grisborne Avenue), Oakland; call 510-810-0510 or visit mcpckids.org.

It’s not a street fair without a bounce house for kids to exhaust themselves in, and many’s the parent who is happy to walk up and see one, knowing that Junior’s sure to take a nap today. But outside of said street fairs, and the most luxurious kinds of birthday parties, bounce houses are a rare sighting. They’re kind of a pain to keep inflated, and supervised, after all. But the Presidio YMCA seems to manage it, three mornings a week.

At the Y’s Jungle Gym program, kids age 1-5 are set free to tumble across the facility’s big, padded mats, crawl through tunnels, or jump wildly in the Moon Bounce that’s almost always set up. There are balance beams for small daredevils, bikes and space to ride them in, and arts and crafts activities for the kids who get tired. Parents supervise and participate, and there are staff members about to provide advice on equipment and lead activities.

The Jungle Gym is a great way for pre-preschoolers to get their ya ya’s out, particularly on rainy days, and all the equipment might inspire you to play, too. No grownups in the bounce house, though.

Jungle Gym takes place each Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 10:30am-noon at the Letterman Gym at the Presidio YMCA, 1152 Gorgas Avenue (at Marina Boulevard), in the Presidio, San Francisco. Call 415-447-9680 or visit ymcasf.org.

Berkeley children’s museum Habitot is a tiny little place: and that’s not a criticism. Though it has nice facilities, including an art room, a room set up like a supermarket for pretend shopping, a cushioned faux garden for crawlers, a dress up area, and a water-play space, it just can’t compare with bigger museums like the Exploratorium and the Bay Area Discovery Museum. And that’s just fine, because at those places you end up trailing your child like a tick, wearily standing as he zooms from spot to spot, or losing him in the chaos. Habitot is perfect for parents who want a place they can sit down and kibbitz while children amuse themselves with wholesome arty/educational activities, staying within sight no matter where they roam. You can even bring multiple children–more kids than adults? No problem!

What Habitot most resembles is not a children’s museum, but a very well-equipped preschool. You may on first glance think your kid won’t want to go again after checking out the limited offerings, but every activity at Habitot is well-thought-out, deep and mesmerizing; children spend whole afternoons just washing babies at the water table, or navigating through the wiggle wall. In addition, each week there are special activities: a winter fair, say, with cold-weather games and art activities, or a salute to trains, and the staff is so talented and engaging that kids under 7 or so will want to visit, linger, and return.

There’s no cafe on site, but there’s a peanut-free snack room if you want to bring your own food. Parking in the area can be scarce, but there’s a garage right across the street that charges $5 for all-day parking.

Habitot Children’s Discovery Museum is located at 2065 Kittredge Street (at Shattuck Avenue), Berkeley. Call 510-647-1111 or visit habitot.org.

Once your child gets to be, oh, four, or an adventurous three, she’s not going to want to go to Duboce Park anymore. But for pre-walkers or the newly mobile (and the easily panicked parents who follow them around), it’s a dream come true. Set in a sunny slice of parkland almost smack dab in the center of San Francisco, the playground is compact, cushioned, and has a play area specifically made for the toddler set. The play structure is low and completely fenced in; there are no scary open areas where your two-year-old can launch himself through and onto the ground. There are lots of cutout holes in the structure, handy for peek-a-boo, a couple of low slides, some baby swings, and, best of all, a line of plastic “mushrooms” at varying heights set sturdily into the ground that make perfect pull-up-and-hang-on spots for tentative new walkers.

There’s a tiny sand area with a concrete rim that tends to be the meet-and-greet area of the playground for parents, and a couple of nice mosaic seats that function as thrones for visiting princesses. Slightly older kids usually traipse through the little border of vegetation that surrounds the playground, pretending they’re in the jungle: beware, said jungle is the pee spot for a million small children, as the park lacks a restroom. There is a water fountain, however, and a nice cafe right across the street which has bagels and outdoor seating underneath beautiful maple trees.

On a sunny day, sitting in Duboce watching the N train go by and the dogs coming and going for bathrooming needs as your toddler toddles happily (and safely!) behind you, it feels like you might just be able to hack this parenting thing.

Duboce Park Children’s Playground is located between Scott, Waller, and Steiner streets and Duboce Avenue in San Francisco; call 415-554-9523 or visit parks.sfgov.org.

With the rainy winter days of late, there have been beautiful rainbows in the sky as the sun peeked out in the afternoon. Did you see them? Did you try to explain to your child what makes a rainbow? Did you make a real mess of it? Turn to the nature-savvy professionals at Coyote Point instead.

The next two Toddler Tuesday events are all about color, looking into such matters as why grass is (usually!) green, and flowers are not, why the water in the Bay looks blue by day and black by night, and why rainbows streak across the sky after rainstorms. In typical Toddler Tuesday style, investigations include crafts, learning activities, and a meet-and-greet with a live animal. Come early so you can poke around the museum (the re-arrangeable colored water bottles at kid-eye height are particularly fun for the very young ones).

Toddler Tuesday: Colors of the World takes place on Tuesday 1/13 and 1/27 at Coyote Point Museum, 1651 Coyote Point Drive (at Airport Boulevard), San Mateo. Kids age 2-5; $5 plus museum admission, free-$7. Call 650.342.7755 or visit coyoteptmuseum.org.

Kawaii: it means cute in Japanese, and if you’re raising a kid in the Bay Area you’re probably already steeped in it. Mushrooms with faces, frowning rain clouds, birds perched on bright, childishly round trees; you’ve seen the graphics on bags and T-shirts in the trendiest kiddie boutiques. But what you may not know is that Loyal Army, one of the key progenitors of the style, is a local enterprise, designing and manufacturing its shirts, hoodies, onesies, and other gear in San Francisco.

Loyal Army’s primary customers are pre-pubescent girls (who buy Loyal Army shirts by the thousands from the Delia’s catalog) and hipsters in arrested development, but even little kids can get in on the trend. Loyal Army’s onesies, pajamas, and hoodies are super-soft, come in sizes up to 18 months, and feature designs so cute you won’t be able to stop yourself from squealing. How could you resist, for example, the Eat More Fruit onesie, liberally festooned with smiling produce and featuring long sleeves for (semi) wintry weather? It’s cute enough to lick.

Loyal Army’s clothing can be found at many boutiques in the Bay Area, at the Loyal Army retail store, 1728 Haight Street (at Cole Street), San Francisco, 415-221-6200, or online: loyalarmy.com.