First Days as a Bostonian, Bostonite, City Dweller... you get the picture.

2 bedroom 2 bathrooms with all the wonderful sounds of the city included for FREE! Sounds may include: drunk people yelling at each other, horses hooves "clip-clopping" down the street, car horns honking, car alarms being set off by loud cars or motorcycles, and of course construction that is extremely loud right below our building to try and "beautify" the city of Boston. Until the city becomes more "beautiful" all residents and employees who work in th general vicinity are subjected to a true city living/working experience. 

Honestly, though it's a great place considering it's A) FREE and B) I can see my husband's work from our living room window. Looking from our apartment window into his office windows may be seen as either creepy or awesome- I will leave the decision to you. 

     Time to backtrack a few days to Saturday November 26th the day our lives officially changed. We were so blessed to be able to stay at a friend's house, but couldn't have our cat at said house due to a certain person who shall remain unknown being allergic. I don't understand allergies, but hear they aren't fun so we left our cat and all her necessities (place to eat and relieve herself) back at our empty apartment. 

     Back to Saturday morning... we wake up after not sleeping well the night before, correction the husband and I didn't sleep well and our insomniac daughter actually slept through the night, at around 5:30 to quickly clean "Hotel S" and get taken by cab to the airport with a quick detour to our old apartment to pick up our cat. Once we arrived at the airport we had to figure out how two adults were going to get 3 large duffel bags, 2 rolling suitcases, 1 cat in a carrier, 1 camera bag, 2 backpacks, 1 pack n play, 1 large stroller, 1 car seat, AND our daughter from the cab to the ticket counter. Thankfully, with our combined brain power we figured out how to carefully (at least everything was all together) get to the ticket counter and drop off 2 large duffel bags, 1 rolling suitcase, and 1 pack n play. 

    I will never be annoyed or upset when I have to wait behind slow people at the security check... we weren't just the slow people with a kid because as an added bonus we had a cat that we hadn't given medication to yet and found out from the nice security people we needed to take her out of her carrier and walk with her through the metal detector- this became a job for the husband as I was attempting to get all our stuff and our daughter back together. 

     Thankfully, the flight was pretty uneventful- cat and daughter did great- and we landed in Boston at around 4:50pm. After another cab ride to our temporary housing we unloaded all our life and tired, cranky, hungry daughter and frustrated cat were left with me as the husband had to get our keys from the security guard at the building where he works (remember it's only across the street). 

     We happily ate some edible Japanese food at a highly rated (why the high ratings??) place close to our apartment, made a quick trip to CVS to get cat litter and some other essentials where I saved around $30 (so thankful to have CVS shopping within walking distnace), and were able to fall asleep soon after.         

    Sunday morning we were awoken by the aforementioned construction sounds coming from 7 floors down, but sounding like they were right outside our window, and decided to use public transportation to get to Trader Joes. This seemed like a simple family outing and it was after a few missed stops and wrong trains. Feeling adventurous and wanting to make the most of our time as 2 adults vs one kid we decided to also take public transportation to Target. 40 minutes after leaving our apartment and taking 2 trains and one bus we walked into yet another familiar store where we bought some basics like a litter box (we had to use a drawer lined with a garbage bag the night before), trash bags, hangars, a doll for our daugher who decided to throw hers in the toilet the day before we left, and a stroller. 

(Our Daughter's "baby" that apparently had to go to the bathroom)

     Why a stroller when we already have one? The apartment we are staying in has an elevator, which is such a blessing since we are staying on the seventh floor, but the elevator has one of the smallest doors known to man and multiple signs are posted warning that if anyone tries to hold the elevator door open it will "get confused" and break down as it is over 100 years old. Awesome. Since the stroller we lugged on the plane doesn't fit through the door without being broken down and is not easy to take on any public transit we bought a new small $40 stroller at Target... and put in together in front of the customer service desk... and used it to help lug our stuff back on the bus to the trains to our apartment. 

     Finally, it's Monday and the husband's first day of work. A day he has been waiting for and one I have been secretly dreading as it means I will be alone with our daughter in a city I don't know at all. Once again I am thankful for my iPhone and the internet! I took our daughter out on a mile (each way) walk to Whole Foods to get some more staples that we didn't pick up at Trader Joes due to lack of space since that grocery run was pre small stroller. On the way to Whole Foods I saw a library and decided to check it out. I am so glad I did! 

     The library is tiny, doesn't have a huge selection, but is awsome. It has a play area in the kids section with blocks, puzzles, and other toys that look like they are hand-me-down-down-downs and our daughter had a blast. After she played for a good 30 minutes we picked out some books and headed to Whole Foods where I spent my previous Los Angeles living week's grocery budget in the blink of an eye. Once again, I am not complaining as I am thankful we have a Whole Foods within walking distance. 

     Little girl decided to fall asleep on the way back, even though it was quite windy, and thanks to my tiny new stroller I could roll her right into the elevator and then into our apartment keeping her sleeping the whole time. The rest of the day was spent reading library books, watching a little TV, and then little girl opening the cabinet where the pots and pans are kept to let me know she was ready for dinner by saying "Om!" 

(Little girl clutching one of her library books while she is sleeping in her new stroller)

     Currently I am typing all this up on one couch while my husband is playing on his iPad2 and our daughter is sleeping.

Life! 

     What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Possibly the Aquarium, or trying to find a park or grassy area to play or back to the library for story time... so much to do... if only it didn't require leaving our warm apartment where I can try to spy, I mean look lovingly, at my husband.