About Bay Area Toddler
Bay Area Toddler is a free guide to activities for babies and toddlers, now covering the South Bay and Peninsula (San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley are next). It gathers library storytimes, baby lapsits, Magical Bridge inclusive playgrounds, splash pads and toddler-friendly parks into one simple, phone-friendly page, so you can plan a morning around nap time without checking five library calendars.
It's made by a Mountain View parent of a toddler. There are no ads, no accounts and no tracking cookies. The site is not affiliated with any library, city or store.
How it works
- Every morning (and again around noon), a script reads the public event calendars of local libraries and keeps the sessions meant for babies and toddlers.
- Playgrounds come from magicalbridge.org and splash pads and tot lots from OpenStreetMap.
- Every listing links back to the original source. If a source is down, its listings are left out rather than guessed.
Right now the guide lists 140 storytimes (24 for babies), 18 parks and playgrounds and 13 cities.
Frequently asked questions
What is Bay Area Toddler?
Bay Area Toddler is a free website that lists this week's activities for babies and toddlers in the South Bay and Peninsula (San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley are next): library storytimes and baby lapsits, Magical Bridge inclusive playgrounds, splash pads and toddler-friendly parks. It is run by a local parent and is not affiliated with any library or city.
Where does the information come from?
Every event and place comes from a public source: library event calendars (Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Santa Clara County Library District and San José Public Library), magicalbridge.org, and OpenStreetMap. Each listing links back to its source. Nothing is invented. A few reference tables (library addresses, splash pad seasons, city centre points) are kept by hand, each with its source and the date it was checked.
How often is it updated?
The site is updated every morning (and again around noon) and whenever the code changes. Library calendars can change at short notice, so always check the library's event page before you go.
Are the storytimes free?
Yes. Public library storytimes are free. Some sessions ask you to register or pick up a ticket first; the library's event page linked from each listing has the details.
Which cities are covered?
Right now the site covers the South Bay and Peninsula cities where the sources publish data: Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Sunnyvale. More Bay Area cities will be added as their library calendars are connected.
What ages is it for?
Babies and toddlers from birth to about age 3, plus their parents and caregivers. Each session shows the ages the library gives, in months where it says so. The Babies page lists sessions meant for babies up to 24 months.
Sources & status
Status of each source at the last update (Sep 27, 12:13 AM PT).
| Source | Status | Items | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain View Public Library events |
✓ live Sep 26 11:52 PM |
7 | LibCal calendar (cid 8800) · baby/toddler audiences + storytime keywords |
| Santa Clara County Library District (all branches) events |
✓ live Sep 26 11:52 PM |
69 | BiblioCommons events API · audiences Babies/Toddlers · Los Altos, Woodland, Cupertino, Campbell, Saratoga, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Gilroy |
| Sunnyvale Public Library events |
✓ live Sep 26 11:52 PM |
13 | LibCal calendar (cid 13025) · baby/toddler categories + storytime keywords |
| Palo Alto City Library events |
✓ live Sep 26 11:52 PM |
12 | BiblioCommons events API · audiences Babies (under 2) / Toddlers (18 mo–3 yr) |
| San José Public Library (west/north branches) events |
✓ live Sep 26 11:52 PM |
40 | BiblioCommons events API · ages 0-5 + storytime keywords · West Valley, Calabazas, Alviso, Rose Garden, Bascom, Willow Glen |
| Magical Bridge playgrounds + events parks |
✓ live Sep 26 12:35 PM |
10 | magicalbridge.org · 6 open Bay Area playgrounds · 4 events next 14 days |
| OpenStreetMap splash pads & toddler playgrounds parks |
✓ live Sep 26 11:53 PM |
12 | OpenStreetMap via Overpass (maps.mail.ru) + Nominatim reverse geocoding |
| Weather forecast (per city) weather |
✓ live Sep 26 11:52 PM |
16 | Open-Meteo forecast API (no key) · 16 city centres |
Not covered yet (no source data): Menlo Park.
Hand-checked reference tables
Kept by hand in the site's code, each row with its source and the date it was checked. Anything a source doesn't say is shown as "not confirmed".
- Library addresses (40 branches): from each library's BiblioCommons locations data and the official Mountain View and Sunnyvale library pages. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Splash pad seasons: Redwood City (confirmed), Campbell (start date only), Sunnyvale (not confirmed), Palo Alto (not confirmed). Checked 2026-09-27.
- Age ranges: taken from each session's own title or description when it states ages; otherwise from the library's audience name when that name includes ages (Palo Alto, San José). Other audience tags are not converted. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Plan B (rainy or hot days): 46 indoor library locations with regular weekly hours, from the SCCL, Palo Alto and San José BiblioCommons locations data and the official Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Redwood City hours pages. Holiday closures aren't included. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Book picks: board books with the publisher's age range, linked to searches in each library's catalog. Not confirmed: the catalog (Aspen Discovery) refused connections from our test network, so this standard search pattern could not be loaded on the checked date. Checked 2026-09-27.
- Snack of the week: a real product whose store page we checked. Allergens are copied exactly as the store states them. We never call a food "safe"; serving notes follow CDC guidance. Checked 2026-09-27.
- City centre points (weather, distances, nearby cities): OpenStreetMap Nominatim. Checked 2026-09-27.
Privacy
We count visits with GoatCounter, which sets no cookies and stores no personal data. It records the page viewed, the referring site, browser, screen size and country (from the IP address, which is not stored), plus which filters are used (city, age in months, time of day). Your city, age and nap choices otherwise stay in your browser (localStorage) and are never sent to us.
The Sunday email form sends your email address, city and your child's age in months to our newsletter provider, Buttondown. We use them only to pick which plan to send you (city and age band), and you can unsubscribe from any email. The "tell me when my city is added" form sends your email and the city you type, used only for that one message. "Add to calendar" downloads a file straight to your device, and calendar subscriptions are plain files your calendar app fetches; we can't see who subscribes. "Send this week to…" uses your phone's own share sheet or copies a link; nothing is sent to us.