Here & There

Backtracking a couple months again, here's a selection of pictures from the end of August through the middle of September. 

The end of August saw the threat and heavy rains of Hurricane Irene:

Followed by beautiful sunshine at the Central Park Zoo only a few days later:

Maelee LOVED feeding the goats!!!

In mid-September, Maelee and I took a trip down to VA while Steve spent a week in San Francisco for a work conference (I know, tough job...). 

We were able to see Too-Dad and "Nart" one afternoon:

Enjoyed night time kisses and peek-a-boo with Nana & Pop-Pop:

Got to stay up late waiting for Nana to get home from work, only to show off our hyper/silliness when she got home:

Went to the National Zoo:

And even saw Cindy & Alli (!):

(Note the adorable, coordinating outfits)

Yet we still had some time to just relax on the couch with Gracie on Nana's lap:

It was a great trip and a fun month watching our little lady continue to blossom.  During the 17th month, we had to institute some "time-outs" for her feisty-ness and finally gave up on keeping track of new words cause one of her favorite things to do is repeat (or at least *try* to repeat!) what we say.  Steve's most proud of her attempt at "hydrogen" and my favorites are her emphatic "yucky!" whenever she sees trash and "good girl" when she's in time-out and wants to convince me she's a good girl and deserves to be let out of the chair in the corner. Much to our dismay, she got the hang of "no" and loved to use if for a reaction... sigh. 

She really is growing up so fast, but with all the trying facets to this phase, there are equal, if not more, delightful sides to this big personality.  Her hugs and kisses melt us any day and her exclamations of "I you!" in response to our "I love you" are priceless.  She definitely still is our little sweetheart.

Here are some more pics of the 17th Month in this slideshow: