A Little Help From My Friends

At our amazing church home, Apostles NYC, the Spring of 2010 saw the birth of 5 baby girls within one week (!) with another girl & boy born just weeks later (to different families, not twins... although twin girls were born just days after Maelee!), and the baby boom has continued. Maelee was right in the middle of the late April/early May excitement and it has been such a blessing getting to know the other moms and their amazing children better. Pretty much since then, we have been so thankful to meet up with some of these moms and their babies in Thursday Playdates, as often as we can. Here's the crew in some shots from Month 11:

Maelee with good pals Teegan and Giavanna (w/ awesome mama Jen in back!) at the Children's Museum on the UWS

With Giavanna and Blake at Vinita's beautiful home

With Teegan and Giavanna again at our digs.

And all four at Danelle's home- Blake, Giavanna, Maelee, and Teegan
Technically part of the 12th month, but had to include it here!

I've also enjoyed watching her play with two very special boys of two of my closest friends since before Maelee was born. Heather's sweet boy, Jack, is quite the budding musician already, and knows how to strum the guitar like the best of them! Maelee is always quite captivated by it...

And Shawna's darling son, Wesley, was the male among many females born during the spring rush of 2010. I have a feeling Maelee will put up quite a fight to share him too much with the other ladies, though!

(one of my absolute most favorite pics EVER! look at those faces!!!)

At the end of Maelee's 11 month (can't believe we are getting that close to one year!!!), we were able to enjoy a quick trip down to VA to see Becky's folks and were delighted that Becky's childhood friend, Cindy, could come down for a quick visit with her precious and ridiculously sweet Alli (who also happens to be my Goddaughter!!!), born just weeks after Maelee. It was so awesome to see them!

Nana can't resist getting them matching outfits :)
(We don't mind- SO cute!)

If you can't resist more pics of sweet babies together, here's a link to a slideshow of more:

And finally, when we lived in San Diego, we were super close with one particular family who had a baby boy that we absolutely adored!!! (Yes, I'm talking about your precious Taylor, Summer!) We also got pretty close to another little man after moving to NYC (that would be James, Desiree!). We couldn't believe how much we could love these little guys, and always hoped there would be a couple that felt that way about our children. Well, meet Lauren & Nate!

They are some of our closest friends and I do believe they just adore our little girl. It is so sweet and we are very blessed by their friendship and the love they have for our daughter. With Maelee's separation anxiety, Laurens' arms are some of the very few that Maelee will tolerate being in other than mommy's or daddy's (or Nana & Pop-Pop's!)

And finally, I'm so thankful that my mom is one of my best friends. It is a relationship I treasure and truly hope that some day Maelee will think of me in the same way.

Speaking of my mom, and my awesome dad (!), here are a couple pics from our short but sweet trip a couple weeks ago to VA:

It even included a special treat of a quick visit from Too-dad and Nana-Nart!

And continuing with the topic of family now, here's a pic for my brother, Daniel. Anyone who actually reads this blog knows that he's been living just outside of Tokyo for two years now. He got a couple of adorable sweatshirts for Maelee for Christmas from a Japanese mall that showcase the affinity the Japanese have for the English language. Daniel describes it as being similar to how we like the French language. They think it's beautiful and will include English words/sayings on clothing, but most likely with literal translations, so they don't really end up making much sense. This one is classic:

Good Day Joyful Friend Good Luck

:)

Paired with some white tights, I think this could be a trend-setter, don't you?

Anyhow, your prayers for the entire nation of Japan would be greatly appreciated. We are thankful Daniel was not physically injured in the earthquake and is far enough from the tsunami-stricken region, but everyone there is suffering and is either directly or indirectly affected by this tragedy. Your prayers for him and his students would be awesome.

Finally, some other highlights of Maelee's 11th month include her new-found discovery that she can indeed CRAWL! Oh yes, she decided around 10 1/2 months old that she was sick of just sitting and rolling and now there's no stopping her... sigh. Our world has changed as we knew it. It's adorable though, and she's seems to be quite happy with it! Her confidence in "cruising" seemed to have improved almost as soon as the crawling started so what little time I thought I had before is now pretty much gone. Her top right tooth cut through this month and she's eating more & more and getting messier & messier (yes, I am eating my words...)

Here are some general fave pics from this month of some super sweet expressions...

Some classic "naked baby" shots...



And my messy eater enjoying yogurt...

More pics from the 11th month:

And lastly, but of course-ly, do I ever have a monthly post w/o the infamous "photoshoots?" Ok, so they're not infamous, or famous for that matter, but Steve and I sure have fun with them and it's been a great way to document this first year. Her expressions just melt us! Getting her to stay still is near impossible anymore, but we still try :)

If these weren't enough, here's one last slideshow of the "photoshoot:"

A Perfect Ten

(After-the-fact disclaimer regarding this title: As much as we adore our sweet Maelee, and as incredible as we think she is, we would never call her "A Perfect Ten!" Aside from accepting that she isn't in fact, perfect, that would just be weird to refer to her in that way... I realize it might come across like that but I'm referring to her 10th month, in that she got to start and end it with her loving Nana-Lin & Pop-Pop, so the month was "A Perfect Ten." Me and my cheesy titles...
Anyhow, just wanted to make sure that was clear- we are not that boastful! :)

How better for a little baby to begin and end a month than in visits with two of her most adoring loved ones! I'd say a quite "perfect" way, in fact, to start off and end month ten. Maelee was happy to take a trip down to see her Nana & Pop-Pop on the first day of her tenth month (her 9 month birthday in case you get confused with the whole "9 months old/10th month" thing...) and also saw them during the final days of her tenth month. And it ends up, she'll have just enjoyed a visit with them once she turns 11 months old, too, as we'll be going down to VA later in March! So guess that makes "a perfect eleven," too? (ok, perfect is a strong word... but you get the drift!)

We feel very blessed by our close proximity, even though the grandfolks might claim it's not that close, and the ease at being able to visit with one another so frequently. Here are some pics of our time in Alexandria, VA back in January, followed by more from Becky's parent's visit to NYC a couple weeks ago:

Loving her little truck from her Too-dad!

Going through all the "Nana Gifts" of too-cute outfits (including a top that says "Pugs and Kisses!"), and books...

Giggling with Pop-Pop

And here's a sampling of some random pictures throughout the 10th month, followed by, of course, a slideshow...

First time signing "more!"
(of course, now, it pretty much is just her sign for wanting food!)

With gal pals Blake, Teegan, and Giavanna

And "auntie" Brooke

And daddy!!!

It's been a great month with Miss Maelee. As the previous post noted, she is all girl (though we won't dare call her a "princess," and will give a stink eye to anyone who uses that term for her!) and she is so much fun. She is her mommy's girl with her love of music, and her daddy's girl with her love of books. And she is all Maelee as she is STILL pretty uninterested in getting from location A to location B. :) (unlike both her mommy and daddy who couldn't stay in one place!) Although, she has recently started to show some progress towards the big "C" (crawling...) so maybe by the next post, she will become more determined!

She seems to be quite accepting of new foods, so we are just enjoying that while it lasts. Those toddler-refusing-to-eat-anything days are sure to be here before we know it... She loves to wave and smile at passengers on the bus, then goes into a daze while we're out shopping, not too interested in interacting with other people most times, just curiously taking everything in. She's our inquisitive, sometimes shy little lady, but the giggles are becoming louder and louder and happening more and more. She LOVES to be tickled and sung to in a silly voice and we love discovering more and more ways that get that giddy grin.

Finally, here are some shots from her "10 Month Photo Shoot," followed by a slideshow with more: