Bewitching!

I am so excited!  Tabitha got to visit the statue of her 'television mother' - Samantha Stephens from Bewitched.  There is a gorgeous statue of Samantha in the middle of Salem.  We visited Salem, and the highlight was definitely visiting Samantha.  I am an enormous Bewitched fan (hence the idea for the name Tabitha!), and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.  One day I hope that Tabitha enjoys watching the show, and I can show her this photograph.  Sartorially, for those who know the series, I am inadvertently channeling Samantha in her Travelling Robes:

A similarly thrilling highlight for The Daddy was our visit to the Cheers bar in Beacon Hill, Boston.  He ordered - and finished - the massive Norm Burger.  Actually, he received a certificate to show that he finished it, and apparently his name will be added to the Cheers website shortly.  I have never seen an episode of Cheers - though I do adore Frasier, so perhaps I should try watching some old Cheers one day...

On our way home, walking back from dinner, we stopped by the Boston Public Gardens so that Tabitha could have another play on the ducklings - she truly does love them!  She happily sat on one of the ducklings, grinning and looking up at us with excitement, until we eventually - and regretfully - had to pick her up and take her home.

My mother's day flowers have opened up beautifully!  I am sad to have to leave them behind tomorrow morning when we leave for New York, since they are looking just splendid.

I must say, though, I am incredibly excited about arriving in New York tomorrow!  We are taking the train, which will get us there in a little over three hours.  I'm just not sure how we'll manage a wriggling Tabitha on our laps for three hours...  We will also be most sad to leave Boston.  It is a spectacularly pretty and welcoming city, and we have thoroughly enjoyed our time here.  I also cannot speak highly enough of the Lenox Hotel - the staff are the best I've ever encountered in a hotel.

Mother's Day in Boston

Well, I had just the most lovely mother's day!  The entire day was a joy, The Daddy did an excellent job of making it special.


Woke up to breakfast in bed (an easy job for Tabby and The Daddy, since they simply called room service) - blueberry pancakes with bacon, freshly squeezed orange juice, tea, granola and grapefruit.  In the middle you can see the sweetest card - a little girl in a chef's hat, holding a big heart-shaped cake reading 'Happy Mom Day'.  It's fun to have a 'mom' card instead of a 'mum' card, to remember our time here.

Across the road from our hotel is the famous and historic Old South Church.  It's been there since 1669, and is an incredibly progressive, modern church these days.  They have a family-friendly, informal service on Sundays at 9am, and this week the service was focussed on Mother's Day - since we'd been planning on going to look at the famous church anyway, we thought we might as well go along for the service.  It was a great morning - filled with laughter, jokes, singing, lots of babies, and intelligent discussion on motherhood, including the role of adoptive mothers, women who choose not to have children, people with difficult relationships with their mothers etc.  It was an incredibly thought-provoking and enjoyable service.  Tabitha sat nicely for the first half.  I then fed her to quiet her a little (there were other breastfeeding mothers in the church, which was nice to see) and then The Daddy took her up the back to climb the stone stairs, which kept her happy.


After the service, there were drinks and lots of cupcakes.  Here is Tabitha enjoying a mini red velvet cupcake, and below you can see just some of the cupcakes:

I also received a really gorgeous bouquet of flowers.  Of course, being Spring here in the United States, the mother's day flowers on offer in the florists were really beautiful.  The Daddy chose perfect flowers - sweetpeas and roses (both of which I adore, and also both featured in my wedding bouquet.  They are also The Daddy and my/Tabitha's birth flowers, respectively), as well as hydrangeas (love them!), massive peonies (love them!) and fresh mint to add a lovely fragrance.

After Tabitha's morning nap, we went and had a picnic lunch in the Boston Public Gardens (the oldest botanical gardens in the United States, which feature literally thousands of stunning tulips).  Here is The Daddy on our impromptu picnic rug - flannel bunny rugs!

We put the seat part of Tabitha's pram on the grass, so she had a nice portable picnic-height high chair:

After lunch, we went to visit the famous 'Make Way for Ducklings' statue in the Gardens - this is a statue of a mother duck and her eight ducklings, from the beloved American children's book of the same name. The book is set in Boston, written in the early 1940s, and we bought a copy for Tabitha.  I cannot tell you how much she loved the duckling statues!  She grinned and laughed the entire time we were there.  Here she is sitting on one of the baby duckling statues:

And here is Tabby with her 'mother duck' sitting on the mother duck statue:

And all three of us:

Next, we rode on the (also famous and historic) 100-year-old swan boats.  It is so tranquil gently floating around the little lake, watching the real ducks and swans.

You can see two of the other swan boats on the other side of the lake:

After a while, Tabby got quite frustrated because she wanted to get down and crawl around - but of course she didn't understand that she would fall in the water!

Also for mother's day, Tabitha and The Daddy arranged for me to have a nice relaxing facial and a massage the following day, at a nearby day spa.  And finally - a new Hermes silk pocket square, of my choosing.  I like to commemorate special events with an Hermes scarf (honeymoon, Tabitha's birth etc.) so this was the perfect gift!  I will pick one out when we are in New York, since the Wall Street Hermes store (which caters mostly to businessmen) has the largest selection of pocket squares in the US.


For dinner, we went to a local Chinese restaurant, since I (somewhat embarrassingly) wanted to try some of the 'American Chinese' classics which I have heard reference to so frequently in television and print over the years - such as eggrolls and mu shu pork, which are not found in Australia.


I think I had such a wonderful mother's day because I have such a wonderful baby - she is an absolute joy, a soft cuddly bundle of laughter, grins, sparkling eyes, waving chubby hands and delicious scent.  I may be biased, but I don't think I could imagine a more perfect baby - or husband!