making our apt less noisy for downstairs neighbors

to block noise ....

Very nice and neighborly of you . . .
Take it a step further along the same line: explain the very same to the neighbors involved, and ask what they'd like done!

In order of decreasing usefulness:
1.Dense foam play mats like a children's gym area has might be good for heavy play areas.
2.Flor carpet tiles can help fill awkward gaps without spending a fortune or add a layer to existing carpeting for places the kids stomp more often. Can also get carpet scraps with finished edges from ABC Carpet's basement.
3. Lots of plush toys versus wood blocks.
4. No children's clogs inside.
5. Boarding school.

agree with kylewest about the dense foam play mats. they sell them in toys r us with alpabets and some other stuff as well as in home depot has 2 ft X 2 ft for gyms

seems you may have some fussy neighbors. if youve got carpet to spec, which i believe s/b roughly 75% of your space, i can't imagine the noise to be too bad. and i doubt your toddlers are blasting music and partying much past 8pm....

i agree that to be neighborly is good but, at some point, it becomes about fussy neighbors.

this is NYC--stone silence insided buildings is not really something we can expect

i mean you could line the entire apt with cork...

no ball bouncing inside the home.
no running inside the home.
no jumping on or off furniture.

i was raised that way in a private house.

One more: no shoes in the house. Invest in some silent slippers and your neighbors will love you for it.

'i mean you could line the entire apt with cork...'
what if the cork has adverse psychological effects? All that cork might make them think it's ok to be a 'wine'er...
I grew up in a house where all the furniture had plastic covers. To this day, zip lock bags make me home sick.

>seems you may have some fussy neighbors.

Yikes , don't underestimate the power of child noise. Ive encountered all types of neighbor noise throughout my NYC living. And while loud basey music is probably the worst, its usually fairly temporary.
Kids are constant, and it's usually the running and jumping, and usually quite early in the day.
My most annoying neighbors to me by far, and I was on the verge of serious soundproofing.
But they moved and I barely heard a thing after.

>Take it a step further along the same line: explain the very same to the neighbors involved, and ask what they'd like done!
They won't have a solution, but it doesnt hurt to let them in on what you have done (or going to do) to limit the noise. THe noise which likely won't be completely eliminated will likely be reacted to with much less anger, particularly as you neighbors will also get a hair more used to it too.

Your not really obligated to do much about it but I suspect you'd prefer to live without your neighbor's stink eye.

Shoes don't make noise -- people do.

I've lived in 5 NYC apartments and in one heard constant footfalls from above and was major drag on quality of life. In the other four I never heard a thing in the way of footfalls but in the one - oddly it was pre-war - I could hear one of the occupants every step. They were very friendly in trying to mitigate the situation but I think it was simply a function of the the way one of the occupants walked, a fast perpendicular (to floor) stomping as opposed to a more parallel shuffle. She also wore no shoes and we noticed that the thumps were much less pronounced when she kept her sneakers on(FWIW).

I suspect this is more a problem of the building's quality. There is limit to how much directly transmitted noise a toddler can make, so I suspect every single 'normal' sound or noise in your apartment be it the toddler crying for milk or you walking in late at 11pm gets transmitted downstairs. Not much you can do to fix construction related limitations. This will probably be an issue as long as you live there and maybe your complaining neighbors do the same to those who live below them (who may well not be the complaining type).

Is this a rental building or an apartment you own?