The Ultimate Tot’s Weekend in New York City

The exhaustion of Fashion Week has nothing on a weekend with tots in New York. I have been in NY by myself for a week for shows, meeting and showroom visits – like 10-12 appointments a day and I feel fine at the end of the day. My two tots and husband joined me Friday night and we spent the weekend together doing nothing but fun tots’ stuff. Taking the subway to avoid cabs (no carseats!) and walking from one destination to another, along with tantrums, bathroom runs and settling fights between my 2 tots, is to say the least, draining and taxing. I spent a lot of time on this most amazing ultimate itinerary but it is very ambitious. We were not able to get to all of them because we either ran out of time or energy but I will share them all with you.

Day 1

The first day was spent all on the upper west side because that’s where all the tots’ stuff are. It was easy to enough (or so I thought) to take the subway up there and just walk around once there. Our first stop was the marionette show of Three Little Pigs at The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre at 79th St at West Drive, Central Park (212-988-9093). We walked from the 72nd St stop but we didn’t realize this was IN the park so we got lost, did a lot of traversing back and forth and was 10 minutes late. You must make a reservation (by calling) but if you’re late, they give the reservation away. Luckily, the lady at the door was nice enough to let us in but it was very difficult to find a seat in the dark. It was all worth it though, the show was super cute and everyone loved it. This is a very high quality production and the Swedish cottage was actually a cottage, very quaint and lovely.

Our next up was supposed to be the Children’s Museum but we stopped for a long lunch after trying to stand and eat at the Shake Shack. Don’t try that, always go to a sit down restaurant, preferably with a reservation. By the time we got to the Children’s Museum it was closed (closes at 5pm but check daily hours!!). I had heard great things, my friends who live here all swear by it. Would have been nice.

Next on the schedule was the Natural History Museum. Uh, yeah, that was not going to happen. They have the giant dinosaur bones and the squid and the whale. Some tots love it, some are scared. I didn’t have the chance to find out which would be the case for my tots, but let’s hope if you try this itinerary you are more time efficient.

We decided to scrap the day by at least going to Alice’s Tea Cup, a tea shop that looks like Alice in Wonderland. It doesn’t totally look like it, but they sprinkle fairy dust on you when you walk in and give you a pair of fairy wings to wear while you dine. The scones are ridiculously good and the pot of tea (they have a huge selection) is much appreciated after a long hard day (even though we didn’t get much accomplished but wearing just the same). We were so defeated, and both tots were asleep at this point, that we gave up going to Peasant, a restaurant both my husband and I have been eager to go to. Thanks goodness for delivery in NY, we still had a good meal to end the day.

Day 2 is much much better so stay tuned!!