There are so many things that make me LOVE New York City more than any place else in the world. The holidays are one of those things. There is literally nowhere else to be when the holidays roll around.

Maciej and I have established some pretty fun traditions and we’ve been even more excited to share those with Ellery. This will be her 2nd Christmas and although she still won’t fully understand it all, the fact that she loves the Christmas tree in our living room and wants the dancing Santa to play all.day.long (thanks, Grampy) makes me SO happy.

(see picture below with her dancing with Santa)

Every year we get our Christmas tree from the Romp Family. They have the most beautiful trees and it doesn’t hurt that they park right on Jane street 🙂 Here is an interesting article if you want some background info on the Romp Family business.

 

Last year, Ellery was only a couple of months old when the holidays came around so we skipped the whole sitting on Santas lap thing, but this year M and I were so excited to partake. I wanted it to be a really calm and nice Santa so we ventured out to ABC Carpet and Home as I heard great things. We got up early, did nap time in the Ergo while waiting in line. It was pretty magical as it was snowing beautifully and the line wasn’t so bad (we got there at 9:30am for a 10am opening).

Success! Santa was beautiful and Ellery didn’t seem to mind at all. Ahhh…I will remember this morning forever!

After Santa,Grammie and Grampy treated us to lunch at ABC Cocina-

for more pancakes 🙂

There are a million amazing things to do in New York City for the holidays but we are keeping it pretty simple this year.

If you find yourself in NYC this weekend, American Express is spreading some holiday cheer by giving away free cupcakes and hot cocoa from their holiday truck! It’s just the sweet treat to keep everyone going on these cold days! The cupcakes are candy cane crunch by Baked by Melissa (love the mini bites)! Here is the schedule if you want to find a truck near you:

Cupcakes and Cocoa Truck Schedule

Day 1: Saturday, Dec 21
– Meatpacking (Vehicle 1, stop 1) – noon
РChelsea/Highline (Vehicle 1, stop 2) – 3 p.m.
– Midtown/5th Ave (Vehicle 2, stop 1) – noon
– Central Park South/Columbus Circle (Vehicle 2, stop 2) 3 p.m.

Day 2: Sunday, Dec 22
– Washington Square Park/Greenwich (Vehicle 1, stop 1) noon
– West Village (Vehicle 1, stop 2) 3p.m.
– Cobble Hill (Vehicle 2, stop 1) noon
– Park Slope (Vehicle 2, stop 2) 3 p.m.

Day 3: Monday, Dec 23
– Herald Square (Vehicle 1, stop 1) noon
– Midtown/5th Ave/Rock Center (Vehicle 1, stop 2) 3 p.m.m
– Bryant Park Area (Vehicle 2, stop 1) noon
– Soho (Vehicle 2, stop 2) 3 p.m.

Happy Holidays!

We went to brunch this morning at one of our fave spots, Bubbys. We only used to go once in a while (which was safer for our wallets and our waistlines) until a new location opened a mere three blocks from our apartment.

While they are still working out their kinks at this new location, there is no denying the deliciousness of their biscuits and Ellery will be the first to tell you how amazing their blueberry pancakes are 🙂

While we were waiting for our food (yes, be prepared to wait a bit) Mach and I couldn’t help but notice all the babies around. It was 9am and the only people out and about were the parents who are no longer allowed to sleep past 7am, the tourists who are waiting for the Highline to open and the new parents who aren’t sure what time it is but have decided to attempt a once normal outing pre-baby.

Babies are on my mind a lot these days. Several of my once “new” mom friends are either pregnant with #2 or are talking about if/when #2 should happen. I don’t think there is right answer-from what I’m hearing it’s nice to have siblings that are somewhat close in age (two years apart give or take). There seems to be a feeling that you don’t want so much time to pass that the older sibling gets too used to be the only child. The other side of the coin being that the older the first child is, the more likely s/he will be to understand and be able to “help” with the new baby. I’ve also read several articles on the importance of waiting for your body to heal at least 12-18 months before you get pregnant again (both emotionally and physically).

My sister and I are 21 months apart and while I cannot even begin to tell you how much I appreciate our age gap now, my parents will be quick to tell you how painful things were for a good chunk of our adolescence. Two pre-teen girls (one a little chubby with bangs (me) and the other a little too skinny with braces, sorry Jess) made for a lethal combination of raging hormones. I can truly say I don’t know how my Mother made it out alive.

It’s a funny thing this whole timing of second babies. (No, we are NOT pregnant). But, once you make it through that first year you begin to get the questions. I feel like I’ve spent the past 10 years with people asking me the same questions. (Usually relatives and friends you don’t see that often). It starts when you’re seriously dating someone. They immediately want to know when you’re getting engaged. Once engaged, when are you getting married? Then married, when are you having a baby? Baby one is barely out and they’re asking when number two is on its way?! What the heck?

I don’t know when the time is right but I have a feeling it doesn’t matter because when the time is right it will happen.

For now-all those people who are so curious as to when baby number two will happen, come on over and check out life with just one, we are always looking for a babysitter!

 

13 months has come and gone but I still want to squeeze in a quick update!

Ellery is growing so much! I feel like I turn my back for a minute and she changes.

She is very busy these days-walking everywhere and trying to talk (but not able to say too many actual words yet). We think she’s said “hi” a few times along with the usual mommmaa and dada (not directed at us but just out loud when she feels like it!) She’s working out the “shhh” sound as well as “haa” but in a tiny, whisper when trying to say “hot”. It’s quite cute if I do say so myself.

I’ve really been slacking with photos! So, excuse the lack of options for this update! I’m working on it 🙂

 

Silly selfies before bed.

 

The pony tail is growing!

Waiting for breakfast in CT over Thanksgiving.

Gobble!

My kind of Turkey 🙂

Visiting Arethusa Farm in CT. The cows were inside at that time but they go out to pasture every day. They are stunning and so sweet! If you ever get a chance, go visit. It really should be the only way we drink cow milk.

 

This lady gave loads of kisses!

I’ve had a few people (both out of towners and new moms) ask about what they need for their babes in the cold weather. We are headed into our second winter here in NYC and so I thought I would put together a short list of items we loved and are still loving as well as some new items for my now walking toddler!

7am Enfant:

I have been loving this brand since last winter when I discovered their stroller mittens. I am still using my stroller mittens and HIGHLY recommend them to anyone who is out and about with their stroller on a daily basis. They’ve come out with some great new styles and colors this winter.

 

Also from 7am Enfant is their baby carrier cover. I love the look of this cover which can also be used as a blanket for the stroller or car seat. It’s great to have a cover for the baby carrier because it’s hard to put your baby in a big, bulky coat before getting him/her into the carrier. Comfort for Mom/Dad and babe!

 

 

Once we had a few consecutive cold days our apartment building kicks on the heat and you can feel any moisture in the air get sucked out. It gets very dry and fast! We started up the humidifier the other night to try to prevent Ellery’s room from getting too dry. Moist air is cleaner and warm, moist air is easier to breathe. We have this Vicks humidifier below.

 

Now that we have a walking babe on our hands we were in need of some great boots!

We found these at UGG, which we are loving:

and we just ordered these from Gap because they were too cute to pass up!

 

We were on the hunt for a great snowsuit and I was able to find a bunch of options for little boys but I wanted to find something a bit more fun and colorful (even though we were tempted to just go all navy as per usual). Gap had some great options but we ended up with this cute one from Baby Boden.

 

Last but not least we needed some mittens and a hat (well, we will probably need several of each) but some cute options to get the season started.

I fell in love with this Oeuf hat-I mean, come on. It’s adorable and SO soft. It’s hard because I love everything Oeuf!

I found these adorable mittens on Etsy and we cannot wait to try them out! They are from a shop called SweetKM. They also have the sweetest bonnets that might need to be our next hat 🙂

 

I’m a few weeks late to this post but I wanted to wait until Ellery had her 12 Month appointment so I could record all her stats.

Some facts about our growing nugget:

• She took her first steps at 11 months but really began walking steadily at about 11 1/2 months.
• She loves to snuggle with us and with Sophie
• She has 4 teeth (two on top and two on the bottom)
• She chats a lot but no words other than dada.
• She can sign “more”, “please”, “milk” and we are working on “water” now.
• Ellery loves to take dirty laundry out of the hamper. She is also an expert “unfolder” of the clean laundry.

• She loves to hold our hand and will reach out when she wants it.
• Ellery points when she wants things and usually makes some sort of whine and grunt to get our attention.
• We are working on weaning from the bottle but Ellery still loves to be held in our arms and fed her milk (which we sneaky still love). By next week there will be no more bottles and no real necessity for milk (we are giving Ellery goat milk in leu of cows milk, FYI)

She loves apples!

Halloween on Bleeker Street!

She still loves the swings!

Pre-12 month appointment at TriBeca Pediatrics. Loving the play kitchen!

Post shots lollipop from her doctor-she’s never had one before! It definitely helped distract from the pain!

Stats:

Weight: 22lbs (77%)

Height: 30.3 (77%)

Head: 46.8 (88%)

Healthy + Happy!

This past weekend we celebrated Ellery’s First Birthday at FreshMade NYC. It was a blast!

There was no real “theme” for the event except to make it as wonderfully pink and gold as possible! You can view my Pinterest inspiration board here.

Here are some photos of the event:

Although there is a small chance Ellery will be able to remember her party, I am so glad we did it. It was a wonderfully long, amazing year and it deserved to be celebrated!

 

Happy 1st Birthday to the most delicious, smart, beautiful little babe in our life! I don’t know what life would be like without you.

Thank you for turning our world upside down in the most amazing way possible! We can’t wait to see how you grow in this next year.

 

xox Mommy (Daddy + Sophie too 🙂

For a look back at some related posts:

Birth Movie

Birth Story

This past month has been crazy!

I finished up a Wedding I’d been working on in Newport, R.I. and then headed off to AZ for my first trip without Ellery with some of the loveliest ladies I know. It was a trip to celebrate us all turning 30 this year. Here are a few spotty photos (mostly taken from our iPhones).

I was back for a few short days and then Mach, Ellery and I were off to Florida to visit our lovely friends who came from SF. We spent a few days relaxing, meeting/hanging with babies and drinking lots of wine!

Here we are on our very early flight (going on about two hours of sleep)

Learning about building sand castles

Bros and babes.

Waiting on some teeth.

Loving the wading pools on the beach.

Finny relaxin’ to the max

Getting as much snuggle time in as possible!

They have no choice but to be the best of friends 🙂

Elle Belle is turning 1 in a few weeks. Naturally, her birthday party will be a significant celebration – one that we’ve been probably thinking about since she was born. We wanted to create custom invites that were original, fun, and didn’t cost a fortune so we decided that with a little work, we could get them done ourselves.

The idea of the photo of her with the balloon just kind of came to us. We love these over-size balloons! You can buy the tassel and balloon set on Etsy, but as it turns out, most craft and party stores carry these 36″ balloons as well. We took the photo on the west side highway, causing a little bit of a scene as I jumped up and down to get Ellery’s attention while Maciej snapped away.

Maciej designed the front and back of the invite. The cursive pink font is called Thirsty Rough, which you can buy here. It is kind of pricey but the font is so beautiful and Maciej will use it for his graphic design business so it was worth the investment. A nice free alternative is Marketing Script.The font for the main text is called Lato Light, but really any crisp sans serif will do. You can find the final Photoshop files here (front) and here (back).

Pink and gold will be the color scheme at her party so we purchased pink and gold A6-sized envelopes to be consistent. Paper Presentationin NYC carries a huge assortment of papers, envelopes, etc. or you can find numerous retailers online that sell similar products. Paper Presentation also sells wrap around address labels available in packs of 5 with 5 per sheet. Paper Presentation also provided a template to use for printing the labels, which we used to set up our Photoshop file.

Printing the labels was trial and error as each printer is a little different. The gold border made it hard to line up the labels exactly on the wrap around label stickers on each sheet. A few tries and some nudging up and down in photoshop got us a close as we could get. Smudge Ink, a local print shop in the West Village, printed our cards for us on 100 lb. stock. About $50 for 30 prints. This was much cheaper than what some of the print shops offered – Paper Presentation $90 for 25 cards or $110 for 50 cards and FedEx Kinkos was around $3 per card. Furthermore, neither option offered the heavy card stock we wanted so this made the decision easy!

We got our photos back from our photo shoot with Mel from Mel and Co. We got a handful (and more) of incredible family photos that I know we will treasure forever. Here is a very small sampling I wanted to share…