Adventures in the Big Apple

Last weekend was the perfect autumn weekend in NYC! The air was crisp and the sun was shining. We were excited to go out and about for some fun family-friendly activities.

On Saturday, we ventured to Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Local - a collection of local vendors selling their products and offering food and wine tasting. 

We took the baby on the subway for the first time for his first trip to Brooklyn. This was a real team effort to carry the stroller up and down the stairs to get in and out of the subway. Some subway stations have elevators but not all, so it was good to have more than two hands to get baby up and down. I wouldn't try the subway by myself with the stroller unless I knew for sure there would be an elevator. Seriously, help a sister out if you ever see a mom with a stroller trying to get up and down stairs in a subway station!

Once across the East River, we strolled to Brooklyn Bridge Park where the event was taking place. There was mandatory stroller parking, so Dad ended up holding baby the whole time as we walked through the rows of vendors. A baby carrier would have been more convenient but Dad didn't mind holding the little bug. The baby loves being able to look around at anything and everything and being a part of the action. He loved the hustle and bustle. Eventually, he fell asleep on Dad's shoulder. It was sweet...

We tasted really great local wine from upstate New York and Long Island. There were spicy pork sausage sliders, mini hotdogs topped with macaroni and cheese, green bean salad, cheesy foccacia bread, bacon bourbon flavored popcorn, and cookies and chocolates galore! It was a sweet-tooth's paradise!

To top it off, I crossed paths with a girl I knew from college who is now the founder of her own bakery out of Brooklyn called The Good Batch. She makes the most delicious ice cream sandwiches I've ever tasted! Sea salt is the magic ingredient... if you've ever dipped french fries in a Frosty, you know what I mean.

I really had fun for the first time in a while! It was nice to do something that was fun for adults and also included the baby. Plus, we also brought a friend and my grandma with us so it was a good company. 

After the market, we strolled around the Brooklyn Heights Promenade along a street of old Victorian mansion townhomes overlooking the water and southern part of Manhattan before heading back to NYC.

Sunday was another fabulous relaxing day. We packed up the family and took the subway to Columbus Circle (which has a great elevator by the way) en route to Central Park for a picnic. First, we stopped by the Whole Foods in the Time Warner Center to pick up our picnic lunch. The Whole Foods is AH-mazing! And fun fact from my husband: it's the highest grossing Whole Foods in the nation (I see why). I'm glad we stopped there because it also made me realize the TWC is the closest thing to a mall we have in NYC which may come in handy on cold days this winter when I want to walk around somewhere.

Then we found a grassy spot in Central Park to eat our lunch, drink a bottle of wine, and doze off! Ahhhhhh... Before heading home, we walked the Park taking in the nice weather and scenery. It's so quiet in the park. Even near the surrounding streets, the trees and kids playing really muffle the typical NYC traffic. A true oasis in the middle of the crazy Big Apple!

Excuse me, are you a new mom?

When you have a baby, you can't help trying to make eye contact or passively smiling at other women pushing a baby stroller. It's like learning to flirt all over again. Let's face it. All of a sudden, you're home all day and night with a newborn and after the initial adjustment period passes (for me after about 2 weeks), you want to get out. I started feeling a little cabin fever last week once my husband went back to work. And since pretty much everyone I know is at work during the daytime hours, I need to make some new mom friends.

Thankfully, I've been able to meet up with my prenatal yoga buddy a couple times in the past week to walk along the Hudson. We compare notes about our baby's sleep patterns and poop and spit up and boobs. And most importantly, we keep our sanity. I need to just start hitting on other moms in general. I see quite a few women pushing young babies along the River. What should my pick up line be? "Nice stroller! How about this weather?! How old is he? Are you a new mom too?".

I'm actually meeting another new mom for the first time on Friday for a walking date. I joined an online community group for West Village Parents and posted an open invite on the message boards calling other new moms to meet up. I've received a few replies from women who have recently had babies or are due this summer. So I'm online dating other moms I guess (it worked for my husband and me).

I searched Meetup.com and found a few other organized community events like baby story time at our local library or baby play time at an indoor play space. Plus, there's post-natal yoga class where moms bring their babies. My yoga friend also joined a walking group of downtown moms that I may crash one day soon. Obviously, these play dates benefit the moms more than the babies who are more than likely sleeping the whole time anyway. But I think as a new mom you just need to get out and talk to other adult human's sharing the same new experiences. 


Even though I have this list of potential things to do with my new baby, outings make me nervous at the same time. What if he starts crying or what if I have to breastfeed in public or what if I don't meet anyone I click with? It's scary and intimidating to be a new mom.


On the bright side, at least these groups, venues and resources exist for new moms in the city to take advantage of. That was one of my fears about being outside the city. I didn't want to feel isolated in the suburbs. Now I just need to take advantage of all the things above and work on my game picking up other moms. I need to get those digits!

The first time getting out

My precious bundle of joy is two and a half weeks old and every day is a learning experience. From birth to breast feeding to sleeping to soothing to pointing the penis down in his diaper so he doesn't pee out, each day presents a new challenge. But as I learn more about my baby and he learns more about the world, each day is easier than the day before.

The first time my husband and I attempted a real outing, the baby was 1 week old. I was terrified. I thought I was pushing a time bomb in the stroller that could detonate at any moment. We went to a diner for breakfast only 5 minutes from our apartment. I had the most insane anxiety about the baby waking up and screaming his head off. I wanted to order our meal as fast as possible and get the hell back to the safety of my cave. As the time passed without an explosion, I began to feel more comfortable. In fact, he never woke up in the restaurant despite the clanking dishes and people talking. After breakfast, we even went for a walk in the park to extend our time out of the house. Since that first outing, I try to get out of our apartment everyday to get some fresh air. It's good for me to not feel claustrophobic and interact with other adults. The hardest part is training myself to not feel scared to try new things with the baby.  I've learned that as long as he's eaten, I have about a 3 hour window to run around and the baby does not care one bit.


Whether for a casual walk or to run an errand, my baby loves the bounce and noise of city streets, which is great, because walking is how we get around our neighborhood in New York. We're also in a great location for walking to West Village restaurants, Washington Square Park, Hudson River Park, Union Square and Tribeca. We can walk nearly everywhere we need to go.


Additionally, I love my stroller! We chose the Uppa Baby Cruz, a smaller version of the Vista. It's tough enough for going up and down curbs and narrow enough to take indoors. (I think the Vista which is wider and has bigger jogger wheels would be too much for some of the small spaces in New York.) I also love the huge basket for my diaper bag or groceries or whatever. It's like my mini all-terrain vehicle!


I'm so thankful that I can just lay him in the stroller and GO versus the hassle of getting in and out of a car for every little errand. Another PRO of New York City life! I guess if you have a car, you don't know any better. But me for, it's just too easy to walk 5 minutes to go to lunch, the drug store, or Starbucks or 10 minutes to the Park or the River, or 15 minutes to the grocery store or Pediatrician. I never thought I would be happy without a car. I always thought a car was a must when you have a baby. Maybe I'll change my tune in the winter months, but right now walking is perfection!

Big City = Big Baby Shower!

You haven't seen gift bags until you've attended the Big City Moms' Biggest Baby Shower Ever event in NYC! I left with a ton of stuff. Seriously, check out this photo! 

In addition to the standard (GIANT) gift bag filled with bottles, booties, hats, nursery decor, organic snacks, lotions, coupons, books, and more, I also left with a Britax carrier, two Bright Starts Mombo feeding pillows (somehow my husband walked out with an extra one), and a Diaper Genie Deluxe. 

Although my husband insists these things weren't "free" because we bought tickets to the event, I still crossed the carrier, feeding pillow, and diaper genie off my registry!

The trade show-like event took place Wednesday at the Metropolitan Pavilion in NYC. Over 100 vendors had products on display for expecting moms (and dads). 

In addition to the big players in the industry like Skip Hop, Britax, Chicco, UPPAbaby, Fisher Price, Moby Wrap, and Baby Jogger, it was interesting to meet some of the other new innovative companies out there: 

Sage Spoonfuls - Liza Huber had a great demo table displaying her cookbook and products for making easy and healthy baby food. Plus, her mom, Susan Lucci, was on hand supporting her daughter. That was nice! The cookbook had user-friendly recipes made from a variety of fruits, veggies, and meats. I added the book to my registry.

Magnificent Baby - Immediately caught my eye with their magnetic closures on baby onesies, jammies, and gowns. Seriously, not even Dad could mess this up! So smart!

Baby Brezza - One-step baby food maker was pretty impressive! You can steam and puree in the same appliance! Looks like a super time saver!

Belly Bandid - This is the belly flattening wrap for post-pregnancy that Kourtney Kardashian endorses. I'm curious if it makes a real difference versus not wearing it. Any thoughts on this?

The Honest Company - As if Jessica Alba isn't busy enough, she founded this all natural line of products for baby, mom, and home. I'm really looking forward to trying the fragrance-free lotion because my skin has been so sensitive during pregnancy!

You also had your choice of seminars throughout the evening featuring the following speakers:

Tia Mowry - discussing her book Oh, Baby!, the highs (and lows) of preganacy

Dr. Bob Sears - Everything you need to know about Colic

Dr. Alan Greene - Good Taste Begins with Mom: Developing a Healthy Eater Right from the Start

Jessica Alba - The Honest Company

Melissa Joan Hart - Business of Being Born

For those of you who know me, you already know the celebrity sightings were my favorite part of the event! Seriously though, it's great to see successful women who are also involved mothers! Clearly these stars have better things to do than make appearances in a room full of crazy pregnant ladies (ie: Jessica Alba was just at the Met Costume Gala a few days before). So it leads me to believe, they really care about the topics they were promoting!

That goes for all the entrepreneurial moms demonstrating their products at the event. You know they probably came up with the idea at their kitchen table in the middle of the night somewhere between birth and the first year. It's inspiring! I'd love to be able to do the same! You never know what motherhood may bring!

Thanks Big City Moms!

My tea party shower in the city

This past weekend, I was joined by friends and family for my baby shower at Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon at the Inn at Irving Place.

As we all know, space is the biggest challenge for New Yorkers. I couldn't host a traditional shower in my apartment due to a max capacity of 4 people. So finding a venue that could accommodate a flock of excitable women "Ooooing and Ahhhing" over baby things became the first priority. With a guest list of approximately 20, it was no easy task to simply make a lunch reservation.

I explored a few different restaurants and tea parlors looking for a venue that could provide a private space and a suitable ambiance for a baby shower including Alice’s Tea Cup and Sprinkles Cupcakes before selecting Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon.

A traditional 5 course English tea service – a first for most of us – in a private salon in a beautiful Victorian inn made for a truly perfect shower!

The Elsie de Wolfe salon was reserved for my guests for 3 hours (so we had plenty of time for chatting, eating, game playing, and opening gifts). I loved the gold walls and Victorian décor and the formal china table settings laid out for us made it very elegant. For city folk and out-of-towners alike, the tea party was a unique occasion for us to dress in our Sunday best and even show off our best interpretation of an English hat or head piece.

The 5 course tea service included:

Champagne Cocktail

Butternut Squash Amuse Bouche (a mini quiche)

Tea Sandwiches:

Smoked Salmon with Dill Cream Cheese on Pumpernickel

Cucumber with Mint Crème Fraiche on Brioche

Classic Egg Salad on Rye

Smoked Turkey & Cranberry on Seven Grain

Scones with Devonshire Clotted Cream & Strawberry Preserves

Cake with Raspberry Coulis

Assorted Cookies & Chocolate Covered Strawberries

And of course, freshly seeped teas throughout.

My lovely hosts (two friends and mother-in-law) personalized the event with games including celebrity baby names quiz, guess how round my belly is, and how many animal crackers in a tea pot. They had a framed ultrasound image of our baby and asked guests to sign the matting (like a guest book). For favors, each guest took home a tea cup and saucer containing candies and customized tea bags printed with my baby’s name and due date. It was the cutest thing ever!

In the end, New York City pleasantly surprised me by offering a totally unique baby shower experience! While defying the mold of a traditional baby shower, I think all my guests agree it was fun to try something totally new!

New mom vs 600 sq ft apartment

I love reading the real estate section in New York mag titled “Life Swap: What If You Left?” Like if you traded in your 600 sq ft, one bedroom apartment in Manhattan, you could get a 6,600 sq ft, four bedroom house in Ohio for the same price.

Yes, it’s sickening. And asks the question: why do people live in Manhattan when you can have so much more someplace else? Someone once told me, you stay in New York for one of three things “career, love, or money”. So obviously for me, it would be for love, and for my husband, it would be his career. But I think it’s more than that too.

This weekend, the thought crossed my mind that we might actually stay in the city (like forever). A year ago, that was an absurd impossibility. What do you mean stay in New York with kids? But I need a house, and a dining table, and a car in the suburbs. I need space with normal people. I want my kids to have a yard and play sports after school.

Well the more time I spend in the city, the less I want to eat at the same Italian or Mexican restaurant in the suburbs every Friday night. The less I want to drive 20 minutes to pick up milk. The less I want my kids to live in a sanitized fishbowl with other guppies that look and act just like them. (Future post about my fear of raising Gossip Girl kids to come.)

A friend gave me some great advice about having a baby in the city. Most importantly, she said think about what you NEED and what you don’t NEED. For example, you probably don’t need a baby monitor when your child sleeps 5 feet away from you. You probably don’t need BOTH a swing and a bouncer, because you just won’t have the space. On the other hand, you NEED to invest in a really great stroller because walking 50 streets or 5 miles isn’t so out of the ordinary.

Sure, more living space is my biggest concern (Need? Want? Need?). I’d love to be decorating a nursery for my son instead of squeezing his portable crib into a corner in our room. I’d much rather be picking out nursery furniture than cleaning out a drawer in my own dresser to store his little wardrobe. But with the going rate for an additional 100 sq ft bedroom at $1000 more per month, I don’t think my son NEEDs his own room right now.

The good news is that instead of his own room, I can give my son so much more just by living in New York. I’ll give him the Highline and Hudson River Park. I’ll give him music class, kids yoga, and Billy’s Bakery. I’ll give him swim lessons at Chelsea Piers or skateboarding at the skate park or mini-golf at Pier 25. I’ll give him the Bronx Zoo and Central Park Zoo. I’ll give him the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum. I’ll give him the beach at grandma’s and grandpa’s in the summer and ice skating at Rockefeller Center or Bryant Park in the winter.

Maybe one day, I’ll decide I really do need the space and move out of the city (like many parents before us). But for now, I think we have everything we need.

NYC restaurants have high chairs! …Oh, and I saw Debra Messing

Last night, my loving husband took me to Almond, an American/French bistro type restaurant in Flatiron boasting market fresh ingredients and a good wine list. This was the first of our newly inaugurated weekly dates in which my husband plans to leave work early so we can spend some quality time together (his idea).

We made a 6 pm reservation on Savored.com which gives you 30% off your total bill of food and drinks for a nominal $10 reservation fee. It’s a great way to explore the NYC dining scene and save a few bucks.

Since we want to take advantage of the warmer spring evenings and daylight hours, we made it an early dinner. Not to mention, my pregnant stomach is grumbling around that time. (So long to trendy late night dining, unless it’s second dinner!)

Well our 6 pm reservation introduced us to a whole new dining scene. First, people in NYC do eat before 9pm! The restaurant was packed. Second, people in NYC do eat at restaurants with their children!

I don’t know why I found this out of the ordinary, but seeing a wooden high chair (red lobster style) at a trendy NYC restaurant triggered the song “one of these things is not like the other” in my head!

I thought “cool” and checked out the mom who was “cool” enough to bring her baby out on the town. Well, there sat Debra Messing, even “cooler”! She was dining with another female companion who I presume was the mom since Debra has a 7 year old (I googled it). I promptly sat at my table facing her table so I could spy on her and observe the babe in the high chair.

Debra left shortly after I arrived (probably because she was appearing on David Letterman that night, so pops). Lucky for my husband, my attention shifted back to the restaurant and my date.

Until I was expecting, I didn't really notice how kid-friendly the city can be. In fact, I thought the opposite. Now, I see pregnant bellies on the subway everywhere I go. And 90% of the time, someone will offer me their seat. I’m constantly straining my neck to check out the brand of strollers rolling by. (Yes, I've even stopped someone and asked them how they liked their UppaBABY Cruz). And apparently when the timing is right (early dinner or brunch), kids are brought to hip restaurants and waiters break out the secret stash of high chairs. After all, parents eat too, just a little earlier! 

My obsession with prenatal yoga

There are a lot of things I can't do now that I'm pregnant (rollerblading and skiing to name a few). So I was thrilled to find a prenatal yoga class that I LOVE! Initially, I had my doubts. I've practiced basic yoga a few times before, but never considered myself a devoted yogi. Mainly, I didn’t want to walk into a class of crunchy granola earth mothers.

I picked Yoga Vida in Union Square because of the great reviews on Yelp.com. The class is 90 minutes every Sunday. From my very first class at 14 weeks, I was hooked. 

First, Cat the instructor is super informed on how pregnancy affects our bodies and she is a certified doula on top of her yoga training. Every pose and stretch in yoga is specifically designed with a pregnant woman’s body in mind. For example, at the beginning of class, we go around and introduce ourselves and share any ailments we’ve been experiencing like lower back pain, leg cramps, the usual. Cat usually responds with a medical explanation as to why we are experience those aches and pains (growing uterus, sacroiliac joint pain, pressure on our sciatic nerve – see don’t I sound smart?!) and which poses will help us stretch or eliminate the discomfort or which poses to modify as to not irritate it.

Second, it’s nice to be in a room of my peers. I don’t just feel like the whining pregnant lady, I feel like one of many whining pregnant ladies. It’s also comforting to know other preggies are experiencing the same symptoms as me. Plus, I’m making pregnant friends which will come in handy when we are all new moms around the same time.

Third, there is an element of mediation and relaxation involved. At the beginning and end of each class, we have about 5 minutes of total quiet and relaxation where we clear our minds and just be still. Throughout class, we are instructed to think about our babies and how each pose affects their position too. I leave yoga feeling so relaxed and happy (until I hear the honking taxi’s on the street outside).

Fourth, Cat explains how many of the positions can be brought into labor to help move the baby into the right spot to advance labor. The breathing can be applied to labor too. Not like crazy “hee hee hooo” Lamaze breathing, just conscious equal parts inhale and exhale to try to stay focused on the present moment instead of screaming and stressing out.

After 12 weeks of attendance, I recognize the regulars now. It’s fun to see how all of our bodies are growing  and when someone doesn’t make it to class in late pregnancy, I wonder if she had her baby. One day, that will be me and I’ll have to remember to email Cat to tell her my zen baby has arrived.