The MIA is my favorite place to visit with baby. There is a quiet room for nursing just off the block room and there is also a family restroom right there, so you can do a quick change when necessary. The galleries are roomy making it easy to navigate a stroller, although this would also be a great outing for a kangaroo carrier.
We call it the “Block Room” – A great reason to visit the MIA with a Crawler.
Developmental Benefits : Visit the modern section with its bright colors, large shapes and high contrasts to stimulate babies growing brain and eye coordination. Learn more about visual stimulation for newborns from Dr. Sears .
Midtown Global Market
If it is nice out, you could trade this idea for a farmers market where you can also take advantage of the fresh air, but you can visit MGM even during the coldest Minnesota months. Get the open-market feel indoors. Browse their events calendar and you plan ahead for a little entertainment while you are there – there is often live music scheduled, kid-friendly bands, cultural festivals and other pop-up events.
Developmental Benefits : Get up and dance to the live music with your baby. According to What to Expect , active participation in music aids in brain development.
Baby Storytime at the Library
All of the local library systems offer some sort of baby storytimes. These developmentally targeted story hours are also a great way to mingle with other parents of babies. Parents can learn fun new ways to interact with their baby. We don’t track all of the library storytimes across the Twin Cities metro area on this page, but do keep up-to-date on our latest GUIDE TO FAMILY ACTIVITIES THIS WEEK .
We have roughly 101 library branches throughout the Twin Cities metro area. Look for Baby Storytimes and Playdates close to you:
Anoka County Library . Filter library events by Audience: Baby to find storytimes, play and learn, social hours and more.
Carver County Library . Filter the Carver Library calendar by Audience: Baby to find events. Note: I think this library is a little liberal in what they consider baby-friendly. You may need to further filter results by Category: Storytimes/Early Learning to filter out events obviously geared toward school-age kids.
Dakota County Library . Filter library events by Audience: Baby to find storytimes and more.
Hennepin County Library . Search EVENTS : Audience: Babies to find developmentally appropriate story times and play times.
Ramsey County Library . Filter library events by Audience: Baby to find storytimes, meet-ups, music and play times.
Saint Paul Library . Filter library events by Audience: Baby to find playdates, storytimes, and more.
Scott County Library . Filter library events by Audience: Baby . Besides storytimes, Scott County branches offer self-guided story stations geared toward baby through preschool audiences.
Washington County Library . Filter library events by Audience: Children age 0-5 to find storytimes and play dates geared toward the youngest children.
More : As baby starts to crawl and then toddle, check out Twin Cities Libraries with “Play and Learn” Spaces .
Developmental Benefits : It’s never too early to instill a love of reading. Read more about the importance of baby storytime here .
Como Conservatory
If you are up to it, you can head out to the zoo for a short time, too. But the warm and soothing atmosphere of the conservatory feels like an ideal outing for baby. Besides the varied colors and patterns of the flowers, there are a variety of scents for babies to take in.
Checking out the big cats at Como Zoo
Developmental Benefits : Go in the early afternoon and the extra light exposure may help baby develop better sleep habits (Read the 2004 study here ).
The Closest Park
In the early days, this can just be a stroller walk through the park, but once your baby can support itself sitting, you can use the baby swings, too.
Developmental Benefits: Like the conservatory early afternoon light exposure may help baby develop better sleep habits. Maybe you’ll find, like the Finnish , that your baby benefits from outdoor naps while you get a little exercise pushing the stroller.