I am all about the experiences. So we thought a neat tradition for our kids would be to take them somewhere fun on their birthday (or around their birthday as time permits). Since museums and all that would be lost on a one-year-old, we decided to go to FAO Schwartz in New York City, and just let our baby play around. We figured it would be fun for everyone. And it was!
Driving to the city took us about 2 hours – baby napped in his comfy new First Years Car Seat most of the time and mommy got to get in some much needed book reading!
I love New York City – I always had dreams of living there for awhile… but in the end, I know I would want my space. We stopped off at the hotel – The Manhattan at Times Square – nice room with a view of 7th avenue towards Times Square! Then we headed out for lunch – Thai food! 
Can’t believe our child loves curry – he was scarfing down the sweet potatoes, chicken and rice in mild curry sauce! Wow – glad he loves flavor!
Then off to FAO Schwartz. I made good use of the Ergo carrier I just got for review (more on that later). FAO Schwartz is an amazing toy store – 3 floors jam packed with everything imaginable.
The Big Piano!
Who can resist the charm of Chewie?
A huge throne to read Barefoot Books on!
Of course we stopped at FAO Schweetz for some candy! (Watermelon gummi bears! Oh My!)
Baby refused to nap, so after an hour we got up and headed down to Little Italy on the subway for dinner. Which is when baby decided to nap!
We had delicious pizzas at Da Nico – they make their pizza in a coal-fired oven. Fresh Zeppoli and cappuccinos for dessert, and it was time to head back uptow
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Oh so tired, but I got in a little FB / Twitter chat with you readers while hubby rocked baby to sleep! Can’t believe I had to do my computer work in the hotel lobby since it was $15 for Internet access in our room. No thanks!
In the morning, we had a birthday breakfast for our little guy in the hotel restaurant – apple-banana cupcake! Then we walked a few blocks down to the giant M&M candy store and browsed around. Finally found a Baby’s 1st Christmas ornament (I know – kinda late but we could NOT find one this year!).
Our trip was over – but it was tons of fun – if we don’t find some other adventure to go on next year, we will probably be back to the Big Apple for birthday #2!
What special birthday traditions do you have for your children?
Liz
Saturday 26th of February 2011
You guys look so happy and like you had a wonderful time. The big piano and barefoot books throne were awesome! I look forward to the Ergo review to see how it worked for u. We went to the zoo for our little guys bday, he adores animals next year I want to take him to the San Francisco zoo.
Liz
Saturday 26th of February 2011
You guys look so happy and like you had a wonderful time. The big piano and barefoot books throne were awesome! I look forward to the Ergo review to see how it worked for u. We went to the zoo for our little guys bday, he adores animals next year I want to take him to the San Francisco zoo.
Crunchy Beach Mama
Friday 25th of February 2011
Looks like an awesome time!! Wait til he knows what FAO Schwartz is ~ you will be in trouble! My boys would LOVE LOVE to go there. oh gosh, just thinking about it sounds fun.
We used to live a couple hours from Chicago and went a couple times a year. I love Chicago and want to visit NYC one day too!
Crunchy Beach Mama
Friday 25th of February 2011
Looks like an awesome time!! Wait til he knows what FAO Schwartz is ~ you will be in trouble! My boys would LOVE LOVE to go there. oh gosh, just thinking about it sounds fun.
We used to live a couple hours from Chicago and went a couple times a year. I love Chicago and want to visit NYC one day too!
T Rex Mom
Friday 25th of February 2011
First, this sounds like a great tradition. And how cool to live only 2 hours from NY City. Things are SO much more spread out out west. And all the photos are wonderful, too.
I am excited to hear about the Ergo review. We were debating between the Ergo versus the Boba. However, we finally went the route of the Boba. I heard, though, that for younger babies under 1 the Ergo has a slight edge but once they hit one, the Boba has the edge. But only slightly in either direction. Still really excited to hear your review.
We don't have a particular tradition to mark birthdays. For T Rex we take photos of him on his exact birthday. He was born at 2:55 pm so we always snap a photo of him on his birthday at that time. For Bebe Sister - we don't want to get up that early in the morning so she hasn't had the same tradition. But, we keep up their blogs and that's a pretty dedicated things. And we do measure then on their birthdays on this chart we have. So we'll go with that!