![]() I recently bought him a Black scientist puppet to introduce scientist to him as a viable career.” (The store covers all kinds of interests with STEM toys, puzzles, art supplies, and beyond.) It is essential that Black boys like my son see themselves represented in toys and books. And if you need a math book, for example, you know where to go.” Publicist and brand strategist Nakia Hicks, who has a 7-year-old son, says, “I can safely say that I have never purchased a toy for him from any toy store other than Grandma’s Place. It really is like Grandma’s place, where you can just come in and say hi. Grandma Dawn, who has been, Robles says, “so warm and open about creating an environment and fostering a place where kids can come in and have a good time. The owner is 81-year-old neighborhood resident Dawn Harris-Martine, a.k.a. ![]() “They’ve been a fixture on this block,” says father of two Mike Robles, who lives around the corner. So fierce has been the support for Grandma’s Place that the 20-year-old Harlem store, which came under threat of closing in the pandemic, has become famous lately - appearing on the news, on New York Nico’s Instagram, and even on The Kelly Clarkson Show. In the meantime, the website has a lovely, not dizzyingly large selection of toys, like multi-language alphabet puzzles and “craft and sensory kits for older kids.” Plus, for newborns’ gifts, the keepsake knitted rattles are made with ecofriendly dyes and happen to come in the shape of apples and MetroCards. (Eva Chen has Instagrammed her daughter in gear from the store too.) Owner Alexandra Zagami Ng, who works closely with an artist to create these popular in-house designs, has had to take the business online-only since the pandemic and hopes to reopen eventually in its new space in the Navy Yard. A New York Mets teether is one of his most beloved purchases from the place, and a neon-pink beanie - bearing the store’s “Hot Dog Pretzel NY” logo - “is a favorite accessory of both my wife and daughter,” he says. “We’ve been going since 2013, the year our first child was born,” says Mike Chau, who is better known by the Instagram handle and now has three kids. A hand-knit hot-dog rattle ($20), a wooden pull-back taxicab ($22) - these are the (not cheap but certainly highly giftable) items that have long drawn devoted customers to PiccoliNY, a cozy boutique that opened a decade ago on the border of Chinatown and Little Italy. Most new yorkers may prefer to ignore the Statue of Liberty tchotchkes and Milton Glaser–inspired artwork being peddled all over the city, but sometimes, especially when it’s in kid form, New York–iana can actually be done right. The kids got to learn about manatees, and they loved it.” ![]() They also have been putting on fun, free virtual events, such as story times, virtual birthday parties, and ‘vacations’ - we recently embarked on an adventure to Florida during their Travel Tuesdays event. And it has continued to come through in the pandemic, Smith says: “Back in October the kids and I attended a fun, safe, socially distanced trick-or-treating event. It was there that her contemporary Jo Smith, a single mother of two and the blogger behind The Young Smiths, discovered a karaoke Bluetooth mic that is somehow equally entertaining for both her 3-year-old and her 8-year-old. Of course, this is a momfluencer’s dream: “It’s an actual destination,” says Heather Tomoyasu, founder of the blogs Bay Ridge Families and US Japan Fam. There are also arts-and-crafts tables where kids can make slime, do ceramics, or paint. You’ll find of-the-moment toys (even stuff for adults) throughout the retail space, which is called “the Canteen,” but go behind the magic door and you’ll discover an entire play area (in the Flatiron location, its theme is “Base Camp”): Kids can climb up a bunk bed that leads to a slide that leads to a disco room with a light-up floor, play in the radio lab, or check out the lake and canoe. Since it opened its first location in the Flatiron District in 2018, Camp has become best known for its experiential offerings.
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