Art, Jewels and Barbecue...

This is a long post - and even so, just a fraction of the fun we've been having in Manhattan!


The famed Bouchon Bakery is strolling distance from our apartment - you can (and should) buy delicious sweets such as rhubarb macarons, incredibly rich, gold-leaf adorned chocolate eclairs, and upmarket versions of such classics as Oreo cookies and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  We tried several of the goodies on offer, and all were exceptional.  You can also buy foie gras dog biscuits!


The Bouchon Bakery is in the Time Warner building, which is also home to Per Se.  Sadly, we could not dine at Per Se - it's not at all baby-friendly, and we are not comfortable leaving Tabitha with an unknown babysitter.

On Thursday afternoon, we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The Met is a spectacular building on 5th Avenue, set back into Central Park.  In the afternoon we had allocated, we could not possibly have hoped to cover even a fraction of the artworks, so we chose to focus on European Paintings, Musical Instruments, Arms and Armour, Egyptian Art and European Sculpture.  I let The Daddy choose our priorities, since I have been to the Met a few times before.


I adore this Van Gough - White Roses:

Look at the oil paints - the textures on their own are mesmerising:

Tabitha seemed to enjoy the ornate frames more than the actual artworks!

I adore Degas' sculptures - La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans is a favourite of mine - in fact, one of my favourite artworks in general.  The sculpture at the Met is one of twenty seven copies - recastings - of the original.  I have photos with this one, taken on two prior visits, and I also have a photograph of myself, aged 8, with another Petite Danseuse at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.  If you are interested, it is a fascinating piece to learn about - revolutionary and controversial in many ways.  This is one place to start reading.

Degas' charcoals are also incredibly beautiful.

I love this painting of Conseulo Vanderbilt with her son:

I had to feed Tabitha while we were in the Met - it is rather nice to sit and feed with a room full of beautiful art to gaze at!


Breastfeeding in the Met, I was in excellent company - here are just a fraction of the many paintings depicting breastfeeding (mostly Mary, but also others):

I adore a certain shade of blue, and this painting features it in abundance - the dresses of the women, not the sky:

After the Met, we wandered around the pretty streets of the Upper East Side.  Some brilliant dog-watching!  I am a massive French Bulldog fan, and this girl is easily the nicest Frenchie I have ever seen in real life.  Her owner was happy for me to snap some photos.  Her legs were incredibly long and graceful:

For dinner, we caught the subway up to Harlem again, to Dinosaur Barbecue, generally acknowledged as the best barbecue in New York.  I would concur wholeheartedly - we both agreed that it was life-alteringly good.  It makes me very, very sad to think that we will not be able to eat Dinosaur Barbecue once we leave New York.


I had a full rack of ribs, with macaroni cheese and bbq beans (plus cornbread, of course!):

The Daddy had a mountain of pulled pork, with curried succotash and a mind-blowingly excellent dish of pureed sweet potato with spiced pecan topping.  He would not stop eating long enough to take a good photo!

The decor was classic Upstate New York Roadhouse:

The following day, we took Tabitha to visit FAO Schwartz.  If she were just a couple of years older, I'm sure the visit would have been hellish ("pleeeease can I have this?!  And this?  And this?") but she really enjoyed herself - lots of cute toys to touch, and other babies to smile at.  She was fond of this oversized puppy toy:

My best friend Amy is a massive Nerds fan.  These nearly-2-kg boxes would be right up her alley.  Disappointingly, however, they are not filled with loose Nerds, but rather with many small packets.  I do not like sour lollies such as Nerds or Fizzoes.  They make my brain hurt!  When I was younger, I used to rinse the outer layers (of Nerds, Fizzoes and the like) off under water, and just crunch on the sweet middle part.

FAO has many, many Pez dispensers.  It was overwhelming!

Also at FAO is a 'make your own Muppet' area.  This was supremely cool -  like 'Build A Bear' but one hundred times more awesome.  There was a big tub labelled 'oversized Muppet noses'!

Some of the doll houses on display were so beautiful - I would happily live in any of them, blown up to real-person size:

How is this Barbie Foosball Table?!  It costs $24,999 plus tax:

There were some gorgeous and glamorous Barbies on display - here are a few of my favourites:

Like the oversized Nerds, FAO is home to other enormous sweet items.  To give you an idea of scale, in the photograph below, the jawbreaker lollies are nearly 1kg each.  The Twizzlers are more than two feet long.  The syrup was taller than Tabitha:

We decided to buy Tabitha a hand-puppet at FAO.  I have wanted to get her a hand-puppet for a while, so this was a good opportunity to buy her a small keepsake.  We lined up all the hand-puppets (over a dozen, including peacocks, dragons, ferrets, rats, puppies, elephants etc), and wiggled them around at her, one at a time.  Without question, the two she loved most of all were a rat and the cat.  Ultimately, she fell in love with the cat - it is sort of an ugly cat, but she squealed and clutched at it with such determined excitement that she appeared to be in pain!!  She really loves her new kitty hand-puppet, cuddling it against her face and body.  Look at the funny expression on her face - joy or pain?!

We then wandered down to the flagship Tiffany & Co. store on 5th Avenue.  I have had the pleasure of shopping at this store a few times before, and it remains one of my favourite places in New York.  I am an enormous fan of the novel, and film, Breakfast at Tiffany's, but beyond that, I simply love being in the beautiful, open spaces, filled with stunning, sparkly jewellery.  The whole place feels calm and slow, as though time moves at a different speed.  Actually, the Sterling Silver jewellery floor in an exception to this - it is generally chaos!  But the other floors - in particular, the baby and homewares floor, and the diamonds floor, are incredibly serene.  We had to go up to level 6, to pick up some items from the personal shopping department, and the views from the quiet lounge area up there, down over 5th Avenue, were just lovely.  Again, a great place to feed Tabitha - a room with a view!


Down on the beautiful diamonds floor, the staff fell in love with Tabitha - for around twenty minutes, a group of half a dozen staff (including the large male manager of the diamond floor) passed around Tabitha, giving her lots of little blue suede pouches to play with, a Tiffany colouring-in card and some special crayons.  She had a ball crawling throughout the massive room, with so much clear, soft-carpeted space.


The staff went to fetch something from 'the vault' for us (wouldn't you LOVE to peek inside the vault?!), and brought us some Champagne and petit fours while we waited - aren't the little cakes just adorable?

They were filled with tiny layers of sponge, cream and jam.  They were truly delicious!

The Daddy bought me a beautiful Schlumberger ring, much to my surprise - and delight!  I have loved the ring for a long time.  I couldn't stop grinning - my cheeks became sore, just like my wedding day.  In fact, our wedding rings came from the 5th Avenue Tiffany store - my mother and sister came to NY just before our wedding, so they picked them up for us.  They were significantly less expensive in the US, compared to Australia, and it is also nice to have them from the flagship store.

Here is Tabitha having a ball crawling all over the diamond floor:

And with her new cat hand-puppet:

One of the Tiffany staffers did not want to let her go!  Tabitha loved playing with her necklace:

We bought this adorable little jewellery box for Tabitha.  It was hand-painted, and features a decorative gold rim, with a gold letter 'T' and a sweet Tortoise:

In contrast to our glamorous afternoon surrounded by jewels, we came home and had more barbecue delivered.  I love the fact that, in New York, you can have pretty much any sort of cuisine delivered to your apartment.  This time, we tried Dallas BBQ.  It was excellent, but not quite as good as Dinosaur, which is the Gold Standard.  We had ribs, pulled pork, baked potatoes with sour cream, buttery rice and cornbread.  There was plenty of extra BBQ sauce.  It was an enormous meal - and cost less than $40 delivered!

We have lots of things planned for the weekend, and then on Tuesday we are moving to our next apartment, in the West Village.  Exciting!

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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!