MY WEEKEND: Audrey Puente
Probably no one’s as eager for spring as Audrey Puente, the Fox 5 meteorologist and features reporter who had an eventful winter. The 47-year-old daughter of legendary percussionist Tito Puente has been telling New Yorkers about the weather for nearly 20 years. But the Upper West Sider’s downtime, she tells MICHAELSTARR, is devoted to her children: Santana, 11, Mateo, 9, and Lola, 6.
My weekend starts with “Friday night movie night” with my kids — sometimes they have their friends over, and, if not, it’s just us, popcorn and a movie. During breakfast every Friday morning, I fold up four pieces of paper and put them in a bowl. One for each of us to pick. One of the folded pieces has a star on it. Whoever picks the star, picks the movie.
I work weekends, but I don’t go in [to work] until the afternoon, so I get a good half of the day with [the children]. They get up at the crack of dawn every Saturday and Sunday, and it’s mostly [watching] cartoons in bed. They climb in and watch cartoons and we make pancakes, waffles . . . The kids help me make breakfast. It’s like a lazy start to the day as opposed to Monday through Friday.
We play games, and by noon it’s lunch, either at home or out, depending on the weather. It changes, but right now we’re really into Sugar and Plumm on the Upper West Side and also Old John’s [Luncheonette] — they have the best turkey ever. No one beats them. In the summer, we hit Pier 1 Cafe at 70th over on the Hudson River.
Right now I’m helping the kids prep for their state tests — their teachers give out extra-help workbooks — and I usually do that with them on Saturday and Sunday mornings. They love that.
We repeat our routine on Sunday, unless my mother is there. Sometimes she sleeps over on weekends, and the kids do stuff with her — her big thing is her coffee-andcroissant run.
This is a great age [for my kids] — no strollers, diapers or bottles, and my kids still think I’m cool and want to hang out with me. I’m still in control — I feel like I’m in a really good parenting groove.