Big Days Out

Yesterday we ventured into the city and had our first trip to Central Park. The Hechsler playground was a nice surprise and Miss S. had quite a good time looking at all the other babies and toddlers. Interestingly the nanny to mom/grandparent ratio was probably 5 to 1. Heck, I think I only saw two grandparents total and about 5 or 6 moms/dads. Strolling through the wilds of Central Park avec Bugaboo only showed me that while my bicep strength has benefited from toting around 15 pounds of baby, the ye old respiratory system could still use some work. Should one really get winded pushing a stroller up over park's hills and dales? Probably not.
After CP, we had a lovely lunch with Dave at Brasserie. We had the Cuisine Rapide all around-- the french onion soup was tres tasty! Then we wandered about (noting that during the day we made the trek back and forth from BMW on 57th and 11th to the East side twice). It was good exercise, though I have to say that my style was a bit cramped once the ped I was wearing on my left foot developed a hole at my big toe which just kept getting larger and larger (encompassing more and more of my toes) until finally I removed it (in the elevator of the BabyGap flagship) and went sockless on the left foot. Ironically, by days end I ended up with a blister on the back of the socked right foot, while the sockless left foot was fine. All in all though, a good day was had.

Then, today we hit up Woodbury Commons with Thisbe and the Wee Kraken. We scored a very cute little a-line wool dress at Off Fifth and even a baby Burberry "Happy" scarf! Rounding out the shopping experience, we got some basics for the Husband at Brooks Brothers and also found a new puffy coat for yours truly. (To be honest there was an Andrew Marc puffy coat with rabbit fur collar and fur-trimmed hood that I *really* liked, but when I tried it on I looked a bit too much like I was part of the cast of The Day After Tomorrow. Instead I opted for a slightly less puffy and sans fur-trimmed puffy coat. I justified this by noting both that (a) I won't be needing to exclaim "we've reached a critical desalinization point!" at any time in the near future and (b) for the most part this winter I'll just be in and out of the car, rather than, let's say standing on the train platform freezing my butt off as an Acela speeds by at 70 mph.

Now, what have we learned? First, try and find peds that your toe won't put a hole in, second, traveling with baby has opened up a whole new level of mental mapping. Take, for instance, our city trek. One now has to know where all the elevators and good changing areas are within your particular city neighborhood. As an FYI, for those wandering about with Baby in the Big Apple, I have complied a short list of useful stopping locations in midtown (I never really expected that knowing where good bathrooms are would be so important, who knew?)

Obviously, first and foremost, a girl's best friend is the 4th floor ladies lounge at Saks. There are giant handicapped bathroom stalls (easily accommodating both mom and stroller), tables that can be used for changing and a very long banquette useful for feeding breaks.

Another helpful location would be the top floor of Barney's. While the folks in the Children's department are generally unhelpful, the bathroom on this floor is clean and well kept and has a stainless steel changing table. Also on this floor, outside of Fred's at Barney's is seating useful for bottle time.

Rounding out the Department Store destinations would be Bloomingdale's. The bathroom on the 8th floor (another children's department floor) has a good surface for changing (though I prefer the granite table outfitted with our skip hop changing pad rather than the designated changing area), and a giant handicapped stall.

I've found that restaurants typically are a crap shoot as to whether a changing table will be available and when in doubt, you can always try something on at Banana or JCrew or the like and use your time in the fitting room wisely not only for trying things on but also for changing and/or bottles, depending on locale and busy-ness.