Our first day in NYC the weather was unseasonably warm – I walked around all day without a coat or anything. Yesterday however, the weather went back to normal (meaning the temperature hovered at or around freezing), and that’s when I had to bust out all the cold weather gear I’d packed.

Having lived here, I know that you have to dress in layers. You keep everything on for when you’re outside, then when you get inside you have to peel off your coat, scarf, hat, sweater, etc lest you die of heat stroke. I run hot anyway, so after a few rounds of this I am a sweaty mess. Mike, on the other hand, is ALWAYS COLD. He sleeps in sweat suits and would have our heater run 365 days a year IN LOS ANGELES. The second we step outside here his teeth are immediately chattering behind his blue lips.

I had no idea where Annabel was going to fall on the body-heat spectrum, so I totally over packed for her. The girl has to wear multiple layers, plus a blanket, plus one of those all weather bubble shields to cover her stroller. She has on so much stuff she can’t even put her arms down:

can't put her arms down

I’ll say one thing about that bubble, though – it did an effective job of keeping the wind out of her face AND muffling her screams of displeasure:

baby in a bubble

She is mid-yell in that picture.

Annabel does not dig the cold-weather clothes. This is a kid who starts slapping her belly the second I take her shirt off, she loves being naked. So all of these clothes?

just say no to scarves

She is not a fan. But, they are a necessary evil when it’s literally freezing outside (and to all you anti-shoe people, I’d like to see you push your shoeless child down an NYC street. You’d get mobbed by old ladies yelling at you to “put some shoooes on ya kid!” Old ladies judge and I’m pretty sure they practice black magic. Like I need an old lady curse? NO. THANKS.)

Having Annie here in this climate has given me a whole new appreciation for you parents that live in this weather. There is SO! MUCH! STUFF! required to go outside with a kid. I would never leave the house. I mean, I barely leave my house in LA, and I don’t have to bring a blanket, or a weather bubble thing, or baby coat that weighs as much as I do.

And, that’s on top of getting around town! I am Of The People, I take public transportation. How the hell do you people struggle with strollers and your kids and buses and subway turnstiles and not lose your damn mind? I LOVE New York City and I really would move back but holy cow. My patience is low under the best of circumstances, and my desire to schlep Annie’s stuff around like I’m her pack mule is even lower.

Plus Annie would enjoy seeing me wrestle her stroller a little too much. She’s like that.

But seriously, HOW DO YOU PEOPLE LIVE LIKE THIS?! In the cold, or a city, with kids? Really, how? Because I bow down to you.