I had the pleasure today of visiting CMOM (The Children’s Museum of Manhatan) with my son. As someone who grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I am familiar with the museum and have foggy recollections of visiting it during my childhood.

However, when I set foot into CMOM today, it was a totally new and exciting experience and entirely different from how I remembered it as a child.

As soon as I entered the museum I realized that I was going to have to do the dreaded task; check my stroller. I begrudgingly headed to the coat/stroller check line. As soon as I reached the front of the line I was reminded of how incredibly disorganized I am as a human being not to mention as a mom.

I stood there shifting items from the diaper bag to my purse not really knowing what I was doing. I finally got it together and set out with my son to explore the museum.

Note to parents visiting the museum: if you are going with an infant 25 lbs and under, since they require you to check your stroller, bring an infant carrier such as the Baby Bjorn or the Ergo Baby carrier. That way, if your baby has a meltdown and wants to be carried, you are prepared and your back won’t hurt when you arrive home.


Baby Bjorn Ergo Baby Carrier

I asked the woman at the information desk what I should start out with. She sent me to the 4th floor which was the baby and toddler-centric area.

When I arrived on the 4th floor, it was like baby utopia. The floors were carpeted and brightly colored. I didn’t know where to go first…but my son spotted some colored plastic balls, and fell instantly in love with them.

Then we noticed that there was a painting activity going on. A musuem employee had squirted different colored paints on a glass wall. The kids were supposed to smear the paint around and make designs with it.

“Do you think he’s too young for this?” I asked the musuem employee.
“No, he can do it!” She said confidently.

So I thought “what the heck!” I put a smock on him, rolled up his sleeves and off he went. And boy did he love finger painting!

Afterward, he freaked out when I had to wash the green paint off his hands but all in all he had a great time. And apparently they do this finger painting activity every weekday at 1:15pm. I have a feeling we’ll be back.

We spent the majority of the time on the 4th floor with the baby-centric activities; which, by the way, were great because I could just let my son roam around the floor and barely supervise him. He would find something he liked and explore it.

He also particularly enjoyed the Lower Level of the museum that housed the Kapla blocks. Similar to Lincoln Logs, Kapla blocks are simple wooden blocks that can built extraordinary structures.

All in all, my visit to CMOM was wonderful for me and my son. For more information on CMOM click here.