Kid Friendly NYC Restaurants by Mini Munchers

I'm often sent emails asking for advice on where to stay in NYC, where to dine, what shows to see, etc. I'm no expert, but I do my best to answer! Another popular question now that I'm a Mommy is, "I'm bringing my kids to NYC, where should (can) we eat?" I've figured this out through trial an error during my past 21 months as a Mom. Trying to get a Bugaboo into NYC restaurants is no easy feat! Don't even get me started on restaurants that don't have stroller parking, high chairs, or a kid's menu.

As a UES Mommy, my friends and I have quickly learned where we are welcome and where we are not. There is on local restaurant, that actually has a sign up front that says "no strollers." Thanks, I'll never eat there again...with or without my stroller. There is one local steakhouse where we take J regularly. The owners have kids of their own and they get it. It is so refreshing to be able to take J somewhere where the food comes out quickly and still manages to taste good.

A local NYC Mommy of 2 (with one on the way), went above and beyond and she created the ULTIMATE guide to dining out in NYC with kids. For my fellow NYC Moms and for any of you thinking about packing up your little one and heading to the city, you have to check out Mini Munchers! This website is amazing, every city should have one. You can sort by price, cuisine, neighborhood, and destinations. You can even search unique experiences or kids eat free!

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Best Mexican in Manhattan!

Well, it took me almost 3 years, but I've finally found my favorite Mexican restaurant in the city. Locals, have you been to Toloache? If you haven't, I suggest you email me and we'll meet up there asap for a guacamole trio and a margarita! It is AMAZING!

"A" can order it on seamless web so we had tried their fish tacos many times and they are my favorite in the city. We finally went there last Saturday evening and it was even better in person. We started with the guacamole trio: a fruit guac, a spicy guac, and their regular guac and one of the best margaritas I've ever had. We split the lobster tacos and the shrimp quesadilla. They were both heavenly. For dessert, I got the churros with caramel and chocolate dipping sauces and "A" got the tres leches. The service was fantastic (we were even offered a tequila shot to celebrate with a bachelorette party seated next to us.) The whole meal was an A plus and I can't wait to go back!

If you are planning a trip to NYC and want to have a fun drink in Times Square or a little Mexican fiesta before your Broadway show, this is the place to go! After you have conquered Toloache, be sure to check out their other restaurants:  Yerba Buena and Yerba Buena-Perry

My honorable mentions go to:

1) Rosa Mexicano for their pomegranate margaritas, table-side guacamole and flautas
2) Mercadito for their spicy margaritas and fish tacos
3) Dos Caminos for their guacamole and margaritas
4) Cilantro for quickly delivering me chicken and blue corn enchiladas and the best salsa ever and good guacamole (almost weekly)
5) Blockheads  for a quick and easy fix


What's your favorite Mexican restaurant in NYC? What's your favorite Mexican restaurant in your city (in case I'm heading there soon)?

Have you entered my giveaway for a $50.00 gift certificate to Photo Card Creations? Enter here.

Rainy Day Activities for Toddlers in NYC

What do you do with a 16 month old  (he's 16 months today!!) when it is raining outside? You have to get CREATIVE! Here are a few of the things we have come up with in the past. Do you have any other ideas?

1) Play with toys, puzzles and read books (20 times each, a day)
2) Play in the bath tub (just for fun)
3) Take our wagon and push car in the hallway for "rides"
4) Hang out in the lobby with the doormen
5) Go to music class with our friends
6) Go over to friend's apartments
7) The train table at Barnes and Noble on 86th Street
8) Play with cooked spaghetti noodles in our highchair
9) Use a playspace pass at Kidville for the gym
10) Manhattan Children's Museum
11) Go to lunch/dinner at kid friendly restaurants like Brother Jimmys and Cilantro
12) Storytime at Barnes and Noble or Giggle
13) Finger painting
14) Coloring with crayons
15) Dance party!
16) Put the rain cover on and just GO! 

I would love to hear your ideas of what to do when you can't go outside?

10 Random Things I'm Loving

1) Plum Tots Organic Mish Mash

This healthy treat is one of our new favorites. It is mashed fruit puree and your child just sips it out. You can buy them at diapers.com (be sure to use my code, MMMBLOG if this is your first order and get $10.00 off) or at the above link on amazon or at target. Baby J LOVES these and while they are a little costly for daily use, they SAVED me on our last plane ride. They are great to have in the diaper bag too!

2) The Central Park Zoo
We just joined the zoo and have enjoyed going to the petting zoo and to visit Bruiser, the baby sea lion.  It's a great family activity and I look forward to visiting the other zoos this summer!

3) Ebates
I'm still one of ebates number one fans! If you aren't using it, you are CRAZY! I've been a member since 2008 and have made $685! Here's the link to join and get started. They are having a great referral bonus right now, where if you refer 50 friends, you can get an ipad! How cool is that?  Don't forget to use it for all of your online purchases and tell all your friends! I use it a lot for Baby J's clothes that I buy from ebay. Most stores are on there. It's easy to do, just go to ebates and then search for your store and then you will receive cash back for your purchase straight into your paypal account 4 times a year! It is AWESOME!

4) Dr. Praegers
Thank you Dr. Praegers for being in my freezer when I need a quick and healthy dinner option for my favorite toddler. He loves your sweet potato pancakes, spinach pancakes and veggie burgers. It is one of the easiest ways for me to get some veggies in him!

5) Glee
Are you on the bandwagon? I can't miss it! So fun!

6) Moo, Baa, La, La La! by Sandra Boynton
I've read this book to my little guy about 10 times today. We have special hand motions and sounds. It's so cute and he just LOVES it! Sandra Boynton is one of our favorite authors and her books are in our daily rotation. Other favorites include Pajama Time, The Going-To-Bed Book, Barnyard Dance, and Birthday Monsters!










7) Energy Kitchen
A great restaurant chain that helps me stay on my diet (we have a little work to do after going off it in Mexico!)

8) Indaba Chardonnay
I found this great chardonnay through Fresh Direct. It is a BARGAIN at only $5.99 and a regular in my fridge these days. It is a GOOD cheap oaky chard, just the way I like them. =) I can't drink Cakebread every night after all.







9) The Help
Maybe I'm the last person on earth to read this book, but I devoured it during our recent vacation. It is SO good! Have you read it? If you haven't, buy it now and read it this weekend.  It is amazing! I can't wait to read more by Mrs. Stockett and I'm sure they'll make a movie out of it too. 

10) Thomas' Light Multi-grain English Muffins
With only 100 calories and NINE grams of fiber, these yummy little english muffins have been one of my keys to losing weight on Weight Watchers. I have one daily with a tablespoon of reduced fat peanut butter for 3 points. They keep me full and hit the spot! What's your diet friendly favorite breakfast?

Tuesday Tidbits

Yuck! A rainy day here in the city! J and I went to his gym class this afternoon. He did great holding on to the rings and it wore him out enough where he actually took TWO naps! I've had Baby J on a 2 nap a day schedule since he was very little (he sleeps 7pm-7am and then would nap at 9:30am and 2:30pm, each nap lasting 1-3 hours, but averaging about 1.5 hours each.) However, since he has been sick I think he is trying to drop a nap. He is 14 months and I'm not ready! Any tips and/or suggestions to make it through this transition period are much appreciated. I am so used to being able to schedule my day and now it is just a mess because he is so off schedule! What's a type A Mom to do?

This past weekend we had lots of city adventures. On Saturday, we went to the Peanut Butter & Co. It's been on my list of restaurant in the city to try (there are so many of them)! Check out the pic of their menu. It is a tiny little restaurant, but we were able to grab a seat and they even had a highchair for the little one. I had the Elvis (peanut butter, honey and banana grilled) and A had the Peanut Butter BLT! Crazy huh? Baby J was recently cleared by his doc to have peanut butter, so he had the lunchbox special (a classic pbj). He LOVED it! It was so much fun. If you are a peanut butter lover, I highly recommend checking this spot out! You can even buy their peanut butter on their website, or here, here, here, here or here. They even a cookbook! We followed our lunch up with a walk in Soho and met a good friend from home for drinks. Then we headed over to Cozy's Kids for a much needed haircut for the little guy. He was getting a little bit of a mullet. =)

On Sunday we decided to do another "New York" thing. We took the subway downtown and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. I had done it once before, but the weather was perfect and J and A were first timers. We headed down under the bridge to grab a famous Grimaldi's pizza. It was quite delicious, but my favorite pizza in the city is still Lombardi's, followed closely by Totonno's and my local spot Roma. Such a fun weekend with my boys!

I went ahead and ordered J a few things for his Easter basket. I bought him this Chirpy Chick Roger Priddy book to add to his funny faces collection, this bunny finger puppet book , these quacky cups for the bath (he loves to stack right now), and this cute little egg set. What are you putting in your little ones Easter basket?

Question for y'all. So J is 24 lbs and 9 ounces and is 14 months old. He can wear some 12 month clothing, but mostly we are wearing 18 month clothing, even though they are a little long. I'm guessing this spring and summer he'll be in 18 month for most of the time. He's been in 12 month since well before Christmas and he really hasn't grown much since he started walking. What size would you guess he'll be in for fall clothes? After 18 is 24, but when will he hit that? That's a HUGE jump! I've found a few cute options, but I'm scared to buy. Also, can someone please explain the difference btwn 24 months, 1T, 2T, 3T. I think I get it, but really I need some good explanations as to when my child will be wearing each size. =)

A friend sent me this article about being Southern in the City, if you are from the South and live here...you have to read it!

Have you entered my stationery giveaway? Click here to learn more about Take Note! Designs and The Paper Cafe and to enter the giveaway. For those of you that have already entered, The Paper Cafe is also offering MMM readers a 15% off discount on your order at the end of the giveaway, stay tuned to find out the special code. Although, you may want to wait until Friday to see if you are the lucky winner of a $50.00 gift certificate for Take Note! Designs products from The Paper Cafe. Click here to enter now, be sure to follow the rules!

Here are a few more of my favorites:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Have you entered my monogrammed wipes case giveaway yet? Go to this post and follow the directions to enter! You have a few days left!

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Did you have a good St. Patrick's Day? Here are a few pictures from our St. Pat's Day last year. Daisy dressed up in her scarf, my little sister was in town and we went to the St. Patrick's Day parade. Look at my little lephracan in his green. His shirt said "Wee Bit Irish." He actually is a wee bit Irish. My grandmother was a 3rd (help me out here Mom) generation Irish immigrant.

This year, Mommy woke up with a bit of a headache. I went out with a couple Mommy friends last night to this wonderful restaurant. I HIGHLY reccomend it! We celebrated for a mere 5.5 hours and all our husbands wondered if we would ever return. It was so much fun!

After J's nap we headed over to our very first swim lesson. I grew up as a swimmer. I was on the Country Club league at our club in Atlanta from age 5-13 (or whatever age they kick you off.)  I've always loved to swim and was lifeguard certified all through high school and college. I even taught swim lessons to kids out of my parent's back yard pool in the summers, so I was SO EXCITED to introduce my baby to swimming. He wasn't a fan of floating on his back, but he loved blowing bubbles and being on his tummy. I'm looking forward to many more classes and teaching him to love the water as much as I do.

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Picked out your favorite Shrimp and Grits outfit yet? There is still time to order from me. See my post here and email me at magnoliasmarriageandmanhattan@gmail.com with your order! Here are a few more of their cute outfits to consider. I ordered Baby J those smocked crab swim trunks! Aren't they adorable! =)

Hodgepodge Thursday

Want to be one the first members of a new "invite only" site for kids. Click here to sign up. It hasn't even launched yet, but with the link above MMM readers can be early members of Twsty!

Little Lavender is an online consignment children's store and it is AMAZING! I recieved a gift from J's Godmother from the Remembering Nygen samples for Mardi Gras. So cute (but it did run REALLY big)! Check it out and find some amazing deals.

Check out the Webbybites series from Baby Bites. They have great info to help out Moms. To start, they are releasing over 20 videos presented by the NYC community's parenting experts, including infant sleep, toddler tantrums, money matters, sex talk, being a calm mom, starting your own business, reading to your child, emotional lives of babies, balancing work and family, feng shui, choosing the right birth, helping your child study, post-natal fitness, first aid, baby sign language, taking a great family picture and MANY MORE. Check it out!

NYC Moms, have you heard of DinDins? I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm going to! You can order them online and they will deliver toddler friendly meals to your apt. So fun! Check out their website and become their fan on facebook.

A sweet reader wrote me a nice note and reccomended these bag tags: http://www.polkadachs.com/ . How cute are they??

Five years ago today, I took a chance on love and went on a blind date with A! If you have never read our story, check it out here. For those of you still looking for your special someone, don't EVER turn down a blind date...you never know! =)

A and I went for his birthday dinners here and here. So yummy!

We are currently planning a trip to either Mexico or the Carribbean? Leave me a link to your favorite resort!

Because of said trip, I'm back on Weight Watchers. I lost 4.5 lbs already! Yeah, only...well quite a few more to go! Please post your favorite weight watchers recipes and I'll be sure to share mine!

Happy Fat Tuesday!

We had an AMAZING trip home for Mardi Gras! It was so much fun to be with my family and friends. I was able to meet one of my best friends new baby boys. However, I did have to wait a few days because Baby J got a fever virus and ran 103-104 for a couple of days. He's all better now, but we couldnt' be around any kids until he was better. I ate lots of kingcakes and I LOVE the new moonpie flavors of mint and peanut butter. They are SO GOOD! They taste like Girl Scout cookies. My parade was a blast and J enjoyed trying his 1st moonpie, meeting new friends and catching beads. A was unable to make it because of the snow in NYC (and in the South) so that was sad.

We bought J his first pair of "real" shoes. More details to come later. Thank you for all of your suggestions. 

Have you heard of Zulily? It's another membership sale group, but it is for babies, kids and Moms. Right now they have Graco, Caden Lane. Melissa and Doug and Primigi are coming up. Email me at magnoliasmarriageandmanhattan@gmail.com if you would like an invitation.

I received my latest Ebates big fat check. This time it was for $254.00! Do you use ebates? If not, you should! You just got to their website anytime you buy something online and a portion of your sale is credited back to you. They pay every few months and it really adds up! Click here to sign up if you want to try it out.  

Diapers.com is running a special on their referrals this month. You get $10.00 off your order and so do I! If you have not tried this fabulous service, you should at least check it out once. I mean...hello $10.00 of diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, toddler snacks, shampoo, even clothes, towels, and toys!  All you have to do is sign up and please use my code MMMBLOG to get your $10.00 off your first order. Shipping is free for all orders of $49.00 or more. Let's help each other out!

What did y'all do to celebrate Valentine's Day? A surprised me at LGA on Sunday. In NYC most people do not meet you at the airport because they don't have cars and it is easier to just hire a car or get a cab. It was so sweet of him to be there the minute we walked off the plane! He then presented me with Valentines Day cards and let me know that he arranged for a babysitter and dinner for Monday night! We went to Market Table and it was FABULOUS! 

Hope y'all are having a Happy Fat Tuesday! Eat some king cake, drink a hurricane and INDULGE in whatever you like!