Jennifer Bleyer

When Michelle and Daniel Lehmann cleared out their basement storage unit earlier this year, they were overwhelmed by the amount of kids' stuff they had accumulated. And theirs wasn't just any kids' stuff. As self-confessed design junkies with two children, they had amassed piles of gorgeous gear they suspected other parents would want. That sparked the idea for reCrib (recrib.com), an online marketplace for buying and selling gently used, high-end children's equipment. The former owners of Clio, a design shop in Soho, the Lehmanns live in a three-bedroom loft in Tribeca with their son Jacob, 5, and their daughter Sophia, 3. How would you describe your style?ML We're definitely modernists. We like spaces that are white, open, clean and simple. Have you figured out how to live with kids in a way that feels clean and simple?DL It's pretty amazing how quickly you acquire things and your space becomes cluttered and overrun with kids' stuff.ML Our old apartment had baskets and buckets of toys all over the place. For our new place, we put a lot of thought into great storage solutions. We had white cabinets made that are almost hidden in the wall—the kids put all their toys in there.DL After they go to bed, I go to work cleaning up the toys. If I notice that something hasn't been touched in a while, it goes on reCrib.ML He loves to declutter. Do you have a no-plastic rule in your home?ML When we were registering for items before Jacob was born, I said I didn't want anything plastic,

Cindy Hsu is a familiar face to many New Yorkers. Since 1993, she's been chronicling the triumphs, tragedies and everyday tales of the metropolitan area as an anchor and reporter for CBS 2 News. Offscreen, she's the mother of Rosie, 7, whom Cindy adopted from China at 11 months old, a story she told in an Emmy-nominated broadcast feature, Bringing Rosie Home. The Hsus live on the Upper West Side. Does Rosie ever visit you in the newsroom?CH She comes with me on Saturday mornings and sits quietly at the desk next to mine and naps in one of the offices. On weekends I anchor all the shows—6am, 9am, 6pm and 11pm—so I go to work at four in the morning. She knows everyone in the newsroom.RH It's really fun. I have a friend there named Catherine and I play computers games with her. She's a grown-up. CH I have very strict rules for Rosie when she's there. She's not allowed in the studio when we're on the air, and she can't distract any of the workers by running around and being noisy. How do you balance parenting with your busy work life?CH It's a juggle. She sleeps at other people's homes on Saturday and Sunday nights. The coolest thing is that my friends in the area are our extended family. They all kind of went on the adoption journey with me—filling out the paperwork, seeing her picture for the first time—and really pitch in. There's another single parent in our building who takes Rosie almost every Sunday night. I honestly wouldn't be able to do it without her. Are you teaching

No matter how handy you are with a point-and-shoot, it doesn't take much to realize that those snapshots often pale in comparison to professional pictures. That was Nathan Gindi's thinking last February when he opened PhotoOp (442 Columbus Ave at 81st St; 212-362-1911, photoopnyc.com), a studio on the UWS that specializes in spectacular portraits and lively outdoor shots of kids, babies, families and soon-to-be moms. A former real estate lawyer, Nathan lives on the Upper East Side with his wife Emily, a full-time mother, and their three children, Lynn, 5, Sam, 3, and Hannah, 1. What was the inspiration behind PhotoOp?NG Well, I'm first and foremost a dad, and I wanted a place where I could get fabulous, fun pictures of my children in a relaxed environment without spending a fortune. I looked around Manhattan, and lo and behold, there was nothing. What are your favorite pictures of your own kids from the studio?EG On a random weekday after school, Nathan took them outside with one of the photographers. It wasn't like a photo shoot, where I stressed about putting them all in coordinating outfits. The photographers took them to the park and got these terrific shots. I love the one of Lynn with her hair going wild in the wind.NG Our kids absolutely don't sit still, so the best way to get pictures of them is when they're running around. From that shoot we have these particularly great shots of the kids happy and running. Will you be sending out holiday cards this year?NG Yes, we j

As a self-identified "tea snob" who grew up attending afternoon tea in Manhattan with her mother, Haley Fox knew from an early age that loose tea trumped bagged and that there are multiple types of Darjeeling. So it was only fitting that, as an adult, she opened up Alice's Tea Cup with her sister—and fellow tea snob—Lauren. The beloved teahouse (and popular kid birthday-party spot) now has three locations that serve fine tea and scones along with a menu of scrumptious fare; a pared down outlet can be found inside Chelsea's Books of Wonder as well. Naturally, Fox, who lives on the Upper West Side with her husband, Michael Eisenberg, the company's director of operations, has passed down her love of the drink to their son, Maddan, 8, and daughter, Finley, 5. Do your children spend a lot of time at the different Alice's Tea Cup locations?ME Yes! They still think of it as a special experience, but they also have a pride of ownership as well.HF They're both obsessed with our pumpkin scones and pretty much all of the baked goods. We do the chocolate cake for their birthdays—they won't eat any other chocolate cake. Sounds like they like sweets! Do you have any issues getting them to eat healthy food?HF I think we do, like everybody, but we're very creative about it at home. We make kale chips and I've gotten them to eat flounder by using butter and panko. We also make them an avocado shake every day—it's half an avocado, a spoonful of yogurt, some maple syrup and a little bit of milk

As newlyweds in 2008, James Briscione and Brooke Parkhurst headed straight for the kitchen, and no wonder—food has always been at the center of their life together. Their first date was even at a farmers' market. Nowadays, Briscione, a former sous chef at Restaurant Daniel and a winner of the Food Network's Chopped, and Parkhurst, a writer and former host of ABC digital-cable food series Eat & Greet, teach classes for couples at the Institute of Culinary Education. This month, the two release their first cookbook, Just Married and Cooking, which features 200 recipes they created together. At home in their West Village apartment, the Southern transplants are constantly cooking up a storm with their two-year-old daughter, Parker Lee. How do you satisfy your Southern roots in the city?BP We haven't found a lot of Southern restaurants that are up to snuff, or at least not up to my husband's cooking, so we often cook at home.JB As long as I have friends to watch the Florida Gators with, that keeps me connected! How do you manage working, child rearing and making great dinners every night?BP Do you want to know if we're just pretending to cook while we really get takeout? [Laughs] It's about organization. A lot of times on a Sunday afternoon, we'll make, say, a stew, a pasta sauce and a roast. So you have those three things that you can quickly add one or two more vegetables to, or mix some cheese into, to freshen up [during the week]. The expectation of cooking a fresh meal from s

When John Hockenberry isn't probing the latest conflict on Capitol Hill as the cohost of The Takeaway, a daily morning show produced by WNYC and Public Radio International, he's doing the similarly demanding job of raising five children in Brooklyn with his wife, Alison Craiglow Hockenberry, a freelance writer and editor. The veteran journalists met in the early 1990s while working for ABC News, and now live in a three-bedroom loft in Red Hook with their two sets of twins, Olivia and Zo, 12, and Regan and Zachary, 9, as well as their son Ajax, 1. How do you like living in Red Hook?ACH We love it. Smelling the salty sea air and looking at the New York skyline at the same time is awesome. JH I use a wheelchair, so our lives are dictated by accessibility and having a wide-open space. Those are hard to find in New York! Red Hook isn't particularly accessible, but our converted loft building is—it has a big elevator. And you live right above Fairway. Isn't that, like, every New Yorker's fantasy?ACH Yeah, we're down there every day.JH It's ruined us for the rest of our lives. ACH Our building has a sort of secret entrance to the caf. We send the kids down to get pancakes on Saturdays, and they're always first in line! John, what do your children think about the news you report on the radio?JH Regan is very morally incensed and has a deep sense of justice. Zo is a complete journalistic cynic like her father. Olivia is way more into what the Goo Goo Dolls are doing than, say, what Ge