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We left Boston, catching the Amtrak business express train to Penn Station, NYC.  The train took around 3.5 hours, and passed through Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York State - a nice trip, with plenty to see out the windows.


Just a quick update re. the packing - so far, I have found the amount I packed for Tabitha to be just about spot-on, allowing for washing once a week.  You can see on the packing list what I packed for her.  All of her clothing, sleeping bags and most of her accessories (bibs, blankets, shoes, hats, bathers, bedsheets, toys, books) fit neatly into one medium/large suitcase.


In the past, I have been a bit of a 'live out of the suitcase' kinda girl.  I didn't used to properly unpack if I was staying somewhere for a week or less.  But with a baby, I really recommend unpacking everything properly - all of the clothes folded into drawers and hanging, blankets and accessories and bits and pieces out, books stacked on a shelf.  Rummaging through cases of baby stuff would not be fun!


If you keep everything folded, you just neatly move it from the case to the drawers etc., then back into the case again at the end.  It makes packing and unpacking a cinch.

We checked into our accommodations in NYC - the AKA Central Park serviced apartments.  Great location (a block from Central Park, a block from 5th Avenue and the Plaza Hotel, and a five minute walk from Columbus Circle, with all the subway lines, Whole Foods and great shopping and restaurants).  The rooms we have are perfect - large by New York standards, with a kitchenette.  My friend Miss Kitty-Cat (check out her great blog!) recommended AKA, and it is spot on.


With regards to feeding Tabitha while we've been on holidays, it has been difficult to offer her as much variety, and fresh fruit and vegetables, as we would at home.  Food here tends to be quite salted (even plain cooked vegetables), and Tabby was eating plenty of bread (bagels!) and bits of protein (smoked salmon, chicken, steak, ground sirloin burger) but not much fresh fruit and veg.  


So being in a place with a kitchenette is a relief - I went to Whole Foods (AKA The Happiest Place On Earth - Disneyland for Foodies) and bought a capsicum, a cucumber, some melon and blueberries, a couple of avocadoes, a pear, some freeze-dried fruit (apple and banana), some oatmeal and some brown rice cakes.  For breakfast, I am able to give her some avocado on rice cakes, with some fruit, in the room.  Then I can cut up some capsicum, cucumber and fruit, and bring it with us in a little container.  That way, she can have a little of our lunch / dinner (protein and some cornbread/bagel/bread), with some fresh fruit and veg.


I also prepare a little Boon Snack Ball, filling it half way with pieces of freeze-dried fruit and some plain organic Cheerio-type things.  These balls are available in Australia, and are really useful for portable snack entertainment!


I must say, also, that it is great to be breastfeeding when on holidays.  I know that Tabitha is getting nearly all the nutrition she needs, as she's still taking 6 - 8 breastfeeds a day.  Tabby was ill, with a stomach flu, on the way over and for the first couple of days, and would not take any solids.  It was a real relief for me that she could get everything she needed (for nutrition and to help her get better).  It's easy, too, because it's portable, with no preparation or washing required.  


In fact, on this trip so far I have even breastfed Tabitha on a helicopter, when she was fussing because of the pressure in her ears!  Yesterday, we took a helicopter scenic tour over Manhattan and the other Boroughs of NYC.  We were in the air for a little under half an hour - it was a brilliant way to see everything!  Tabitha had to wear a little life-jacket.  She was most UNimpressed about that - I think it was scratchy around her neck.

Here is Tabitha with The Daddy out on the helipad (Pier 6, down near Wall St).

Getting in to the helicopter:

Headphones for all - to cut down on the noise, and so the pilot could tell us all about what we were seeing down below:

Statue of Liberty:

The site of the former World Trade Centre Twin Towers:

The Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building (click on the photo to make it bigger, to see the Chrysler off to the left of the ESB):

Cheeky monkey!  She was in the Ergo attached to The Daddy, but when her ears started to hurt a bit, she lent over and had a feed from me.  It was funny to be breastfeeding in a helicopter!

The view of Central Park, the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir, Upper West Side, Harlem and Queens:

You can see the Dakota, towering high, cutting into the Reservoir:

Project housing in Harlem:

Yankee Stadium:

Some amazing mansions, with glittering pools, in New Jersey, sitting right on the Hudson River, overlooking Manhattan:

We then caught the ferry to Staten Island and back, past Lady Liberty:

For dinner, we caught the subway into Harlem, to eat at Amy Ruth's soul food and Southern kitchen.  I am a massive soul food fan, and could happily eat my weight in classics like chicken'n'dumplings, fried chicken, cheesy grits, barbeque, cornbread and Creole-spiced catfish!


We ate smothered chicken and waffles, fried chicken and waffles (with lots of maple syrup!), macaroni cheese, collard greens, cheesy grits and cornbread.  There are some quick iPhone snaps below, which do not capture the deliciousness!

For dessert, The Daddy had sweet potato pie, while Tabitha and I shared an enormous serving of banana pudding (vanilla wafer cookies, banana-flavoured pudding - which is sort of like homemade thickened custard - and fresh banana slices).

I would not be at all surprised if I come back 5kg heavier - despite the non-stop walking we are doing, I am consuming frightening amounts of food:  bagels with an inch of cream cheese and piles of smoked salmon for breakfast, hot dogs, pizza, bacon cheeseburgers, waffles, fried chicken, macaroni cheese, ice cream sundaes, barbecue ribs, truly phenomenal desserts...  Never mind, it's just a month, and I'm enjoying every minute of it!

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.