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!

Lobster Bibs and Pudding Stone

Doesn't Tabitha look cute in her baby baseball cap?  Here she is hanging out in the Ergo:

There are several beautiful graveyards in Boston, dating back hundreds of years.  The Puritans were fond of using quite macabre decoration on their gravestones, since they ostensibly didn't fear death - it was a joyous time to meet your maker, so to speak.  Because of this, these historic graves feature imagery including scull and crossbones, flying skulls and skeletons dancing with the angel of death.

Flying skull:

Skeleton dancing with death:

Skull and cross bones:

We walked past the Parker House Hotel.  This is where delicious Boston Cream Pie and Parker House Rolls were first invented!  I really adore Boston Cream Pie - when I get back to Australia, I will post a recipe and photos for you.  Here is the famous Parker House Hotel:

The Massachusetts State House is a spectacular building, with plenty of fascinating history and quirks.  It was designed by the same architect at the famous Capitol Building in Washington, DC.  The massive dome is covered in 23k gold leaf:

Isn't this merry-go-round cute?  Sitting in the middle of the Boston Common (dating from 1634, the Common is the oldest public park in the United States) this merry-go-round features all sorts of fun and unusual characters, including a frog and this cat with a bird in its mouth:

Behind me, you can see some of the Boston Common.  In my hand is a fabulous authentic lemonade - the vendor presses the lemons by hand with a metal lever press when you order one.

I cannot tell you how pretty the Beacon Hill area of Boston is.  Words - and photos - cannot do it justice.  Apparently one of the townhouse-style mansions recently sold for over $22 million.  The doors are beautiful natural wood or painted in lovely shades of red or blue, the windows feature window-boxes overflowing with pansies and hydrangeas, and the streets are lined with blossom trees.  The paths are cobbled and the houses are hundreds of years old.

A building material called 'Pudding stone' is popular in some very old buildings - mostly churches - around Boston.  Pudding stone is made by mixing a slurry of rocks and stones together, much like a Ye Olde version of Caesarstone!  Pudding stone is only found in the Boston area.  I am fond of it because it reminds me of my cat, Pudding, who I miss.  And because I like pudding.

Our room at the Lenox Hotel is just lovely.  Nice and large, plenty of room for Tabitha to explore, and with more than 180 degrees out over Boston.  I am so thrilled with the Lenox, and thoroughly recommend it.  The concierge and desk staff are all lovely, and there is a bellboy who is over 85 years old, and has worked here for over 60 years.  He always has a kind word for Tabitha.

We also have a nice open fire in our room:

Here is our view from one of the sides.  You can see the yellow finish line for the Boston Marathon:

We went out to a local seafood restaurant last night for some New England lobster.  Mine was big and delicious.  They are different from our Australian Rock Lobsters (Crayfish) because they have a little less tailmeat, but they have nice big meaty claws, which ours lack at home:

For fun, I wore the provided 'lobster bib'.  Here is a photo of Tabitha and I both enjoying our lobster, both in our bibs!  They sell a half lobster, a small one, for $10 for children:

The bakery near our hotel displays the calorie count next to the price for each of its items.  Wow, let me tell you, this completely ruins things for me!  I was about to get a chewy-looking butter pecan sweet roll, until I saw that this small roll contained over 800 calories.  I'm not into diet food, but that sort of blew my mind...

Because there is so much great, but fattening, food here in America - and I have every intention of enjoying all the burgers, hot dogs, pizza, lobster and pie on offer - I am making an effort to ensure Tabitha and I eat plenty of fruit and vegetables as well.  Luckily, the lobby here always has enormous bowls of fresh fruit to take, and bananas here are excellent, sweet, creamy and cheap - 97c a pound, compared to $14 or something a kg back home at the moment.

Boston - Baseball and Mike's City Diner

*I am on holidays in the US for the next month.  I am blogging a little while we are away, so I have a travel diary - if you aren't interested in this (I totally understand!), 'regular programming' will resume at the start of June*


This morning we walked about fifteen minutes, through the most spectacularly blossom-lined residential brownstone streets, to Mike's City Diner.  We'd been craving a giant American breakfast, and this certainly hit the spot.  I ordered an 'Emergency Room' which includes two massive buttermilk pancakes with butter and syrup, plus a toasted chewy bagel and massive servings of cottage-fried potatoes, scrambled eggs and hand-cut ham off the bone.  Once it arrived, I never thought I'd be able to finish it, but it was incredibly delicious so I found the room.


Here is Tabitha with The Daddy, perusing the menu:

It always makes me laugh how much choice is on offer in the US!  How would you like your eggs?  Would you like white toast, rye, whole wheat or sourdough, English muffin, bagel or brioche with your order?  What sort of bagel - plain, onion, poppy, sesame, onion chive, or everything bagel?  Would you like milk or cream with your coffee?  And, as you see below, as well as regular sugar there is generally three other sweetener offerings - Equal, Sweet'n'Low or Splenda:

A peek at my enormous - and delicious - breakfast.  Those pancakes were easily 30cm across, and 2cm thick:

On our walk back, we noticed the strangest little hand-knit and crochet covers on the chain holders of regular old concrete posts in a park!

We did a little shopping after breakfast, clothes mostly, and sweet little leather pink butterfly sandals for Tabitha.  In the afternoon, we headed to the famous Fenway Park to watch a baseball game between the Red Sox and the Angels.  I am a Red Sox fan, since the first ever game I went to was a Sox game at Fenway back in 2004.  Fenway Park is the oldest baseball stadium in the United States, and has been beautifully preserved, without flashy upgrades.  It feels like you are strolling around a ballpark in a 1950s film.  Here we are when we were arriving:

Tabby in her infant-sized Red Sox cap.  I accidentally left my cap at home in Australia, and was devastated not to wear it today.  Perhaps that is why the Red Sox lost!

Doesn't Tabitha have crazy hair?!  I think I have some peanut in my teeth in this photo...

We had great seats - right by first base, nearly behind the Red Sox dugout, third row from the front.  It felt like we were sitting on the field!

The quintessential Fenway photo - the World Series wins in the background, a young man selling hot dogs from a box held aloft on his head.  "Hot dogs, get your Fenway franks here!"  "Icy cold American beer, who wants some?"  "Peanuts, peanuts, peanuts"  "Crackerjacks, I got Crackerjacks!"


Actually, I ate THREE hot dogs (with onions, mustard, ketchup and sweet relish), as well as a bag of peanuts and a bag of Crackerjacks.  I know, even after my coronary-inducing breakfast!

It really was a beautiful day to be at the game:

Early this evening, back at the hotel, we went downstairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner - I was pretty full, so just ordered a lobster roll.  Normally these are pretty small and light, but this one was enormous!  It had at least a whole lobster's worth of meat in it, including two massive claws.  Tabitha had to help me eat all the lobster - she adores shellfish like lobster, yabbies and prawns.  Here she is with a chunk of meat for each hand, and more in her mouth:

I am SO tired.  Jetlag is harder to shake when you have a baby who is up during the night, and who decided that 4am was morning time!  Tired, but we are having a brilliant time.

Plane Flight and Boston

Just a quick update!  On the morning we were due to fly out, Tabitha woke up with a husky voice and a cough.  The first nine hours of the trip to LA were okay, with a couple of one-hour naps, but then Tabby spiked a fever (39+ degrees) and started looking really poorly.  She vomited a couple of times (two changes of clothes for her, one for me!) just before we landed.

Here is Tabitha, earlier on in the flight, having fun in her bassinette - of course, she didn't actually sleep in it, but she enjoyed sitting right up high and looking at all the people!

We then had 6 hours in LAX - actually LAX was a breeze, through all the customs and queues in minutes, since they let parents with young children go in a special fast line.  But Tabby got worse - so hot, really listless and miserable and sobbing.  She ended up sleeping face-down on a blanket on the ground for a while, she was so exhausted but too hot to sleep against us.  Two more vomits at LAX, two more changes of clothes for her.  The flight to Boston was alright - she was so, so exhausted and ill that she just slept the whole way.  One more vomit - change of clothes for her, me and The Daddy.  We used EVERY item of clothing we packed in carry-on!!  Thank goodness I allowed 3 sets of PJs and 2 full outfits for her, plus changes for The Daddy and I.  Plus lots of muslins and bunny rugs - we used them all!

We arrived at our incredibly lovely hotel - The Lenox - at around 10pm local time.  Concierge gave Tabitha a cute lamb stuffed toy, we ordered some room service comfort food - mac'n'cheese and a turkey club with fries - and all went to bed.  Tabitha ended up sleeping in our bed because she felt ill - it is so nice co-sleeping in a giant king bed!  We woke early (around 5am) and at 6am enjoyed one of those peaceful early-morning neighbourhood walks, taking in the local area with only a few people around, eating bagels and coffee and doughnuts and chatting with friendly locals in the park.

Here are Tabitha and The Daddy in the nearby, and pretty, Public Gardens.  We saw lots of cute squirrels going about their business:

I'll try and update with a quick photo here and there as we go...