The Toy's R Us in Time Square is a really fun place to spend a few hours with the kids. It's like a mini amusement park with an indoor ferris wheel, 5 ton, 20-feet high, 34-feet long animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, and many many great things to see and buy.

The indoor ferris wheel is a lot of fun. Tickets are $4 per person and there may be a line, depending on when you go. It's a fun ride and not something that you expect to see in the middle of Time Square. They also have a photographer who takes a picture of you and then you have the option to buy it. I bought a 5x7 for $14 (including tax). Then they have a huge animatronic T-Rex that moves and roars and is very very life-like. They also have a bunch of great lego creations including "King Kong Climbing the Empire State Building" and Marvel superheroes, "Wolverine and The Thing." The store also has a huge 2 story Barbie Dollhouse that you can shop in and a nice Thomas the Tank Engine railroad track set up for the kids to play.

The Time Square Toys R' Us is at:
1514 Broadway (44th Street)
646-366-8800
M-Th: 10am - 10pm
F-Sat: 10am - 11pm
S: 11am - 9pm

Toys R' Us Time Square Web Site

I wanted to get a basic "all-in-one" device that prints color&bw photos/docs, copies, faxes, and scans. The Brother MFC-665cw has done a good job for me and it is even wireless.

I bought this product which is under $175 from Amazon and it has worked very well for me. I was able to set it up in about 30 minutes. Printing photos, copying and faxing documents have worked well and it's wireless connection allows many computers to print to it from anywhere in my apartment. In addition, the machine allows to directly insert your photo memory cards (e.g. SD) so that you can print your photos directly to the printer.

If you're looking for the perfect hotel/resort to stay at during your Disney World vacation, then go ahead and book a stay at the Polynesian Resort. It is terrific !!!

We had our family vacation (3 year old son, 7 year old niece, wifes, and relatives) at the Disney Polynesian Resort during Labor Day 2007. We absolutely loved it !!! The rooms are very nice. It has a great pool and beach area. It's centrally located with a monorail stop on the 2nd floor and 5 minute to Magic Kingdom and also a boat stops on a pier by the beach frequently so you can also enjoy a nice 10 minute boat ride to see Mickey.

We plan to go back to Disney again next year and this is definitely the place that we'll be staying.

Here's some links about the Polynesian:

Article from About.com

Disney Polynesian Web Site

I wanted to find a fun activity for my son's 3 year old birthday. He's a big of the Disney film, "Cars", so I decided to buy a "Disney Cars Pinata. " My son and all his friends absolutely loved it.

The kids pull on the strings under the pinata to get all the goodies to fall out. Goodies do NOT come with the pinata ... you need to buy the goodies separately and then put them in the pinata.

I bought the Disney Cars pinata on 14th street at Party City .

I installed Summer Infant's "Sure and Secure Extra Tall Walkthru Gate" in my apartment and it has done a very good job for my family.

I have it installed in my kitchen so that my son won't be able to enter and cause an accident. It works very well. It is secure so I am confident that my son won't enter. Yet it is easy for an adult to open so that you can quickly enter and exit the kitchen. Also, since it has bars, my son enjoys standing by and holding on to it while looking at what's going on in the kitchen, but from a safe distance.

My 2 1/2 year old little boy is enrolled at a swimming class at the Crunch Gym at 75 West End Ave (63rd Street). It's a great swimming pool and he loves the class.

The classes are half hour in length and there are a few days during the week where they have free swim sessions. They also offer private lessons. Our instructor is Garrett and he's terrific. He's great with kids and there are all sorts of fun and interesting techniques to help children get comfortable with the water.

My son also loves the view out the big windows of the swimming facility because he can see a lot of cars.

Crunch Gym
75 West End Avenue
NY, NY 10023
Phone: 212 265 8200

I hired Douglas Gomez, a real estate agent with Halstead, to handle finding a tenant for my apartment in the West Village. Douglas did a very good job for me. We discussed our plans up front (e.g. when to have open houses, what type of tenant I wanted and what type I didn't want, where to advertise etc) and Douglas executed very well and I got a tenant in a couple of weeks. As the landlord, I did not pay a fee for his services as that is covered by the tenant.

Like most people, I find that most real estate agents aren't too useful. In fact, the real estate person that represented my tenant was from Halstead, and she made a lot of mistakes. Fortunately, Douglas was able to get the other real estate person's mistakes rectified. I recommend Douglas Gomez.

Douglas can be reached at
(212) 317-7866
dgomez@halstead.com
and his web page is at
http://www.halstead.com/agent.aspx?id=D4G

So it's true that most contractors are absolutely awful. However, Eddy Sigcha of ESGC is one of the few really good ones. He's worked on a few projects for me (renovated my kitchen, bathroom, built my kitchen cabinet etc) in the city and everything turned out very well. He's very dependable and responsive.

He also created a custom cabinet for me that my wife and I love. I first heard about Eddy from my doorman who said that Eddy was doing work for another apartment in my building. He gave several excellent references and invited me to visit one of his projects so that I could see things first hand and ask questions. His pricing was very competitive. The best thing about Eddy is that he is hands-on and makes sure that the customer is happy and satisfied.

Eddy Sigcha can be reached at:
esigcha@esgccorp.com

I purchased a Fisher Paykel E522B for my newly renovated kitchen. It's terrific, looks nice, and is a cabinet-depth, free-standing refrigerator that's a perfect size for NYC apartments.

It comes in stainless and white. I got the white one with right door hinge. I like the refrigerator much better than the SubZeros and its much less expensive.

One thing to be aware of with all new refrigerators including this one, is that since they are "Energy Efficient", they don't get as cold as older refrigerators. Therefore, items put on the door don't get too cold. I didn't realize this initially so when the items (e.g. milk) that I put on the door weren't getting cold, I called Fisher Paykel customer service to get it looked at it. They were very helpful and gave me the number for 2 authorized service reps and I called one in Brooklyn who came the next day and explained the "energy efficiency situation" to me (the service rep actually owned the Fisher Paykel E522B himself). He said to put the things that need to be cold (e.g. milk) in the main shelves where the cold comes in. His advice worked.

Riverside Park South on the west side of Manhattan between 72nd and 59th streets is an awesome place to spend a day with your kids. There's a great pier to hang out at, birds and ducks to feed, beautiful sitting areas, basketball courts, and a boat basin nearby.

In addition, in the summer, they have concerts and an outdoor restaurant that has really good burgers. Another cool thing, is that the walking paths are strictly enforced so you won't get run down by bicyclists.

Equilibrium takes place in a future where all forms of feeling are outlawed and a man (Christian Bale) in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system. Very unique and stylistic fight scenes, complimented within an interesting storyline, make this a must-see film.

I recently became a Christian Bale fan after seeing him in The Machinist and Batman Begins. I caught Equilibrium in the middle one night while channel surfing. After seeing it, I immediately jumped on Amazon to buy the DVD and was pleasantly surprised to see that over 480 people had rated it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Kobe RA-038 is a terrific under-cabinet range hood that is recirculating. This is the idealrange hood for my wife because it's ideal for handling Chinese cooking and is the perfect size for our kitchen.

We've been very satisfied with the performance of the Kobe RA-038 range hood. We bought it at Gringer & Sons on the lower east side.

If you're planning on a trip to Hawaii to get away from the cold, then the Sunset Makai Hale on Kauai is a beautiful ocean-front home that can be rented. It's a magical place and I rented it for a week in 2000 for my wedding and got married on the premises.

The Sunset Makai Hale, located in the Poipu area of Kauai, is a magical place. It has a wonderful architecture, great ocean view, terrific pool, and a killer view where you can stand by the pool and see the sun rise in the morning and then set in the evening.

Here's a link to some information about the Sunset Makai Hale. I did not rent from this place but am linking to it because it does have good info, photos, a video tour, and a floorplan.

It's been a few years since I was there, but I optimistically assume that it's as beautiful today as it was in 2000. Therefore, you should definitely consider this as a place to stay during your visit to Kauai.

New York Replacement Parts is the Best. My wife and I spent a lot of time going to different showrooms and bathroom&kitchen dealers to look for sinks, fixtures, towel rods etc and they were all awful. Fortunately, we found New York Replacement Parts at 465 Lexington (94th street). We bought several items including Duravit "Happy D" sink, Grohe bathroom faucet and kitchen sink from them.

The ladies who work at NYRP are the best. My wife made many visits to the store and chatted with them for hours and they answered all her questions, before we even bought anything. It's best to go to the store in person as they are very busy and always focus first on taking care of customers who are in the store. Make sure to check out their funny signs behind the counter.

456 Lexington Avenue (94th Street)
New York, NY 10017
212.534.0818

I bought wall and floor tiles for my kitchen and bathroom renovations from Bella Tile. We also purchased a caeasarstone countertop through them. They have a very good selection and customer service, and competitive prices.

Kyra at Bella Tile, who helped us out with everything, was great. She knew a lot about tiles and design, patiently answered our questions, provided us with samples (very very very few places do this) and made sure that we were satisfied with everything. Their prices were very reasonable.

178 1st Avenue at 11th Street, NYC
212-475-2909
Ask for Kyra

Healthy Care Booster Seat is an awesome booster seat. It's design, functionality and portability are terrific.

It's compact size is great and ideal for eating in rooms with limited space or if you're going on a family trip. Since it's very light-weight and portable, my son is able to pick it up and move it himself which is great because he's developed new skills and is able to help set things up for his meal.

I bought 2 Minka Aire Concept II ceiling fans for my apartment and love them. It is a "hugger" which means that it goes flush against the ceiling and doesn't have a vertical rod connecting it. It comes with a remote control and I bought a "wall control" (that goes into the wall) as well for extra convenience.

The fan spins quietly and the light which is a dimmer, works well. Surprisingly, I use the dim level very often as I put my baby to sleep. The fan comes in different widths so make sure to get the one that best fits your room.

I bought my 2 Minka Aire Concept II at Lee's Art Shop (no relation to me) which is a store that I highly recommend.

I had my kitchen cabinets custom built by my contractor, Eddy Sigcha/ESGC, and it turned out great. In addition to delivering a terrific final product, Eddy was also very helpful with designing the cabinets and recommending ideas on how to maximize space.

Eddy delivered the product on-time and on-budget. Prior to having Eddy build our cabinets, my wife and I had looked at the usual suspects (e.g. local kitchen dealers, Home Depot etc) to build our cabinets and most of them had either very bad customer service (I have no idea how these companies stay in business) or they required that you hire them to do detailed kitchen design which we didn't need.

Eddy Sigcha can be reached at:
esigcha@esgccorp.com

The Robern Flat Mirrored Door Cabinet S1926 is a beautiful "medicine cabinet" for the bathroom. It has a back mirror inside the cabinet, 3-way 120 degree self-closing hinges, and is all-aluminum. I have it recess-mounted (into the wall).

I bought this at a bathroom dealer in Brooklyn because they were the only ones who had it in stock (and also had a very good price)... while every other store had a 4-6 week wait for delivery. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the store but will post it once I find the name.

We got the UltraMax One Piece MS853113S and are happy with it. It took a little while to get used to because it's smaller and lower than our previous older toilet and the handle is on the side now rather than the front. However, we quickly adjusted and are very happy with this product.

As a one piece toilet, it looks nicer than a two piece and it also has a quick flush. I bought the toilet at Gracious Home. They had a decent price but we were generally unimpressed by the usefulness of their sales people. I recommend that you check out New York Replacements (who we found out about after we placed our order at Gracious Home) for your bathroom fixture needs.

The Grohe Talia (20892) Faucet and Lever Handles (18077) are beautiful and go very well with the Duravit "Happy D" bathroom sink. They have a sleek modern look and work very smoothly.

I bought my Grohe facuet and handles at New York Replacements which I highly recommend.

Selecting a bathroom sink was a tough decision for me and my wife and it took a while for us to select one. We ended up selecting the Duravit "Happy D" and are very happy with our choice. It's one of the deeper sinks around which was a key criteria for my wife. In addition, it looks very nice with it's "D" shape and it's towel rack is very useful.

In addition, the measurements were a perfect fit for our bathroom. The Grohe Talia (20892) Faucet and Lever Handles (18077) go very well with the "Happy D" sink.

I bought the sink at Gracious Home. They had a decent price but we were generally unimpressed by the usefulness of their sales people. I recommend that you check out New York Replacements (who we found out about after we placed our order at Gracious Home) for your bathroom fixture needs.

Circus is a very entertaining, fast paced film about a con man, his collaborators, his targets, and his schemes. Nothing is quite what it seems and the combination of twists and humor results in a fun ride.

This film came out in 2000 and stars Famke Janssen (of Jean Grey from XMen fame) and John Hannah (plays a very different role than his portrayal of the irritating brother-in-law in The Mummy).

Here are more "little known great film recommendations".

I feel like I'm in eating at a restaurant in Provence everytime that I visit Danal.

This is a very cozy restaurant that I go to regularly for lunch. It's very soothing ambiance makes for a memorable dining experience. The food is consistently good at a reasonable price.

90 E 10TH St (Cross Street: Between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue)
New York, NY 10003-5463
(212) 982-6930

Dr. Alessandra Zullo has been my son's pediatrician since day 1 (he's 21 months old as of May 2006). She's taken very good care of our baby and done a good job of answering all the questions that first time parents have.

Dr. Zullo is with "West 11 Street Pediatric Associates" at 46 West 11th Street, NY NY 10011. Her office phone number is 212-529-4330.

For my kitchen renovation project, I turned to Kessler Hardware at 229 Grand Street a few times to quickly provide things that no one else had. A pleasant surprise is that they had the best prices by far.

For example, I needed to get about 40 kitchen handles for a new kitchen cabinet that I was having built. I found the exact kitchen handle (manufacturer, make and model) but all the usual storefronts (e.g. Gracious Homes etc) did not have it and said that it would take about 4 weeks to order it and recieve it. Then I found out about Kessler and they had what I wanted in stock for about 75% less than Gracious Homes.

Kessler is not a retailer but a distributor. Therefore, you need to know exactly what you want when you talk to them. They are NOT a showroom.

229 Grand St.
New York, NY 10013
Phone: 212-226-6722

Don't let the name fool you. Lee's Art Shop sells a lot more things than art supplies and they have an awesome selection of ceiling fans and lights.

I went to all the lighting stores near Chinatown and throughout the city, and Lee's Art Shop definitely had the best selection. When I bought my Minka Aire ceiling fans there, they price matched a lower price that I found at an online retailer. The pickup process went very smoothly.

220 West 57th Street
(between Broadway and 7th Ave)
(212) 247-0110
info@leesartshop.com
Mon. - Fri. 9am - 7:30pm
Sat. 9:30am - 7pm
Sun. 11am - 6pm

Babycare for Beginnersis a great book that has lots and lots of big photos for showing you how to take care of your new baby.

They say a picture is worth a million words, and this book really helped me and my wife. Having photos is a huge help and provides confidence that you are using the proper techniques.

The hospital staff where my wife delivered our son, recommended that we purchase the Pump In Style Breast Pump and it was great advice.

We used this pump for over a year and it performed perfectly. This product comes with everything that you need.

My son rode around the city in comfort and style in his Zippy Stroller.

The first thing I'd say about this stroller is that it is very durable. We used the 2005 model a lot in the city and it held up very well. This stroller also has many great features. It is very easy to fold up via a "1-hand folding device" and then easily stands up. It has nice sized wheels for a smooth ride. The only thing is that it was a little heavy for my wife, who is petite, to use.

My son who's 2 now enjoys all are car rides as he sits comfortably in our Marathon Convertible Car Seat.

The car seat was easy to install and the safety harnesses fit well. It also has a nice soft cover and comes in nice colors.

Who needs a rocking horse when you've got a Rockin' Puppy.

Whether your baby sits facing the right direction on the rocker or the wrong one, he'll have a smile on his face. Another benefit is that the rocker can be easily moved around the room by a baby and it doesn't dent anything.

Fisher Price Moose Mountain Electronic Rescue Ride-on is absolutely terrific. My son loves driving this car around the apartment and honking the fun horn.

On a few occassions, my wife squeezed herself onto the seat, and my baby started to push her around and build up some muscles. It is also always a pleasant surprise to find what little toys he's hidden inside the seat.

There's something entertaining about watching a baby look at themselves in their 1st Mirror. Their curiosity as they stare into a mirror, trying to figure out who's looking back at him, is mesmerizing.

My son likes the Leapfrog Learning Drum a lot and so do I. Seeing his big smile when he reacts to hearing music and lights as he bangs on the drum is priceless.

The only thing is that my wife got tired of hearing the same drum music over and over as my son kept drumming away.

Baby's 1st Blocks is a fun toy that my son enjoyed playing with. He developed various skills putting the blocks into the box and we also used it to practice "clean up time".

My son also enjoyed taking the pieces and hiding them around the apartment in different corners and crevices. Every once in a while, I still come across one of the blocks.