The little lady is under the weather. Her little facial orifices were dripping but now they're just sealed shut. Her puppy and Sesame Street are keeping her cozy this morning as I've taken the day off from work to wait on her hand and foot. There's probably nothing that a parent wouldn't do to help their little baby to feel better.

Shane is away again. Today, New York City welcomed the first Noreaster of the season. It brought with it icy rains and howling winds.

I combat the mundaneness of my Mommy life with a green stripe in my hair. On the train I see a young woman with a nice nose piercing and I contemplate doing that to my own nose again. Mahalia chatters and chatters and never stops chattering. I pick out new words like, please and alright. Somehow her chattering makes me a little lonely for Shane.

We are ready for Ohio.

Thank you, Santa for this early Christmas present. We love it.

Baby Mahalia rocking out on her baby djembe

Mahalia's been exercising her right to choose. She's learned a handy phrase, "I want the other one," which she uses to let us know she'd actually prefer one sippy cup over another one or a different type of food. After insisting on wearing Shane's hat during lunch, she then asked for, "the other one" and pointed at Mommy's hat. She's unbearably cute in both of them. We also had her mullet chopped off today. She looks like a big, big girl with her new bob.

What happened to baby Mahalia? She's a big girl now. Here's a photo of her putting a blankie on her Ugly Doll. She also enjoys giving bottles to her stuffed animals.

I've already started saying things like, "You'll never leave home, right?" Shane and I seem to enjoy her more every day and marvel at this little creature we created.

We had an excellent Thanksgiving with Tani, David, Sasha (who Mahalia calls Saucy) and Sophie, aka Fifi. Mahalia's hair is long enough for pigtails and we're contemplating a haircut to control the mullet situation.



We had a blueberry pancake feast and Mahalia who was totally enthralled with her big cousins insisted on sitting at the table too.


Beauties.

Mahalia and I clawed our way thru a rough week without Daddy. It gets dark in these parts at like 3:00 in the afternoon now. DST did a real whack job on this household.

Shane made a movie of himself singing some of Mahalia's favorite songs. She can't seem to get enough of it and watches it daily.

Hurricane Vommitina Rolls Thru Ditmas Park, Brooklyn!!

The eye of the storm took out all three residents of 489 Stratford Rd. Mahalia was the first to get knocked out, followed by mom and then dad. In a strange way (and now that we're all done being sick) we actually think our very first all-family illness will make us chuckle with nostalgia in the years to come.

I should apologize for no new updates. My camera is currently out of commission.

I do, however, have a very funny series of photos that I meant to post in August. It's a sad display of what can happen when you let your baby inhale your beer fumes. It even ended with the inevitable naked soak in the hot tub!! How embarrassing.

Barb Shaklee, could we be arrested for this post?

A Visit w/ Gramma

mahalia walking at the zoo

Gramma came for a visit and went home exhausted.

Mahalia, who finally discovered that she has legs, spends her days frankenbabying all over the place. It's opening up a whole new world for her as she realizes that she can actually go where she pleases. For the moment, she only wanders around grasping firmly to mommy and daddy's fingers. We were pleasantly surprised when Mahalia decided that she preferred Gramma for this arduous task. Gramma, on the other hand, is probably rubbing her aching back as she watches the Food Network en route to Denver.

We had a great time with Gramma and took full advantage of the relief that mid-September provides from the humid end-of-summer-days. Happy almost Fall to all.

Faced with the impending school year, I'm filled with dread and anxiety. To cope, a total reorginization of furniture and clothing occurs (Shane's favorite, as you can imagine.) This reorginization has led me to places like Cosco and Ikea in search for those items that promise to make life clearer and less cluttered. I come home with buttloads of sponges, green for counter tops and blue for dishes, pork chops to get us through the fall and enough chicken sausages to invite the neighborhood over for brunch. The retail therapy improves my mood temporarily and then the anxiety returns. What is the saying? When mommy's not happy nobody's happy?

We are on the 4th night of Mahalia's rigorous sleep training. Her nightly protests have been met with a looped recording of me singing her favorite lullabies and more stuffed animals jammed into her crib than you can shake a stick at. Amazingly, she manages to smile at her father and I in the morning, despite our torturing her.

You can see that she appears completely unfazed by this, her first yucky life lesson.

We jetted out to San Francisco. Shane went to work and I caught up on Big Love. I sweat gallons in the muggy New York heat packing my suitcase and only brought sweet little sundresses for Mahalia. We had to do a little consignment shopping for the little lady, buying items like tights and pajamas with feet. Sarah reminded me what Mark Twain said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was the summer in San Francisco." I googled to make sure not to mis-qoute and found that Mark Twain never said that at all!!! Check it out: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=009Ckt The Internet is brilliant!

I made a bold move deciding not bring the camera on this trip. We were, afterall, going to hang with our buddy, Sarah, who never seems to be awake without one of her cameras slung on her wrist. If you're interested in checking out some details (including some very cute pics of you know who) I recommend checking out her own blog http://halebecker.blogspot.com

I do regret not capturing some shots of the Endsluirigans taking a dip in Lake Tahoe or the signs for Donner Pass. If all goes as planned, I'lldo that on a future trip.

Celebrate good times. Come on!!!!! (It's a celebration.)All the cousins L to R: Sophie, Sasha, Olivia, Lilly, Mahalia and standing, Adia
"I'll trade you Clliford with the hose for Clifford in the innertube."


Kissy face

Ahhhhhh......Zuma Beach!! Um, why do we live in Brooklyn?

The very best part of having a child is introducing her to people that we love. She's hung with some of the sweetest and neatest this summer. I've been a little lackadaisical with the camera but did manage to capture some photos with some of these very special people.

Heather O'Connor
Emily Slotkin and Matt who was just off to the side
Bob Shaklee and Barb who was also just off to the side
Benny Wendel

First of all, I'm real sorry for the lack of updates/photos. I had high hopes of spending vacation working on the organization of video footage and cranking out countless clever little blog posts.

Instead, I've spent most of the vacation deciding which bathing suit to wear or what kind of crusts to order with our Villa Nova pizzas or whether or not I really should be buying organic peaches. Since Denver, we've seen two lovely people marry at sunset. We've faced a water phobia head on and conquered. We've sepnt time in Ohio vegging out and Munich, working hard.

Before Ohio and cousins, we had a picnic for Mahalia. Here are some photos of a little party she shared with her buddy, Isaiah. We made some new friends that day, ate delicious pressed sandwiches and a big bowl of the famous Endsley Dip.

Shane showing Clayton some footage.
We found a lovely tree with shade for plenty.
Daddies Shane and Derik giving some love to the guests of honor.

Summer, summer, summer, summertime!

Yes, it's officially here. We started off with a bang when, at the first available moment, we scooted off (one of us almost literally) to Denver to see Grandma and Grandpa. We saw aunts and uncles galore, ate loads of Mexican food, developed a water phobia (more on that later) and went to the zoo. It's taken me such a long time to post because I've been working on a little movie to share with you about Mahalia's first trip to the Denver zoo.

Well, it's 8:30 in the A.M. and after struggling to figure out exactly how to put the video directly into my blog I feel like I need a stiff drink. Alas, I have triumphed now all you have to watch this sweet, albeit slightly boring, movie is click play. Pay close attention to the gorilla scene when a strange little boy decides to put his tongue in my ear.

Mahalia's social nature has her father and I scratching her heads. She can entertain a whole row of New York subway riders, a jaded audience, with her smile and her wave. She waved at a homeless man last week who looked at me and said, "Is she waving at me?"

We envision arriving home in 13 years to a house filled with pimply teenagers and it makes us nervous. For now, it's a sweet and refreshing way to chat with New Yorkers, people who typically avoid making eye contact with each other. Here's a picture of her sitting in the window of the local coffee shop watching and waving at people passing by.

Mahalia is about to bust out with some crazy talking. She does a huge amount of gesturing with her hands (Grandma Endsley is half Italian) and makes so many expressive faces. The one above is the "I"M CUTE AND I KNOW IT!" look. Her first official word besides dada and mama seems to be kitty. That should come as no surprise to those of you that know the Endsleys. Most days Mahalia wakes up in the morning, waves at us and then waves at Peanut and says very excitedly, "KITTY!"

As it turns out, she's a little like her mother who was in speech therapy until 2nd grade. Mrs. Mawtin finally let me out of that cwazy business when I was finally able to say, "My father just bought me a brand new red ferrari." I had some twouble with my Rs. I also couldn't make the K sound and remember referring to myself as Tali. Mahalia is doing the same with kitty. It cracks me up.

Now she is 1!

It was a rainy Monday here in New York City. It cleared and Mahalia and I headed out to the park. Here's an action photo on the swing.




I pushed her home in the stroller and she chilled with a bottle. She likes to put her feet up like this. It makes strangers say things like, "Nice life." They're so right.



Our friend, Cory, made Mahalia this beautiful and delicious chocolate cake. Yum! And yes, the J on Shane's shirt actually does stand for jazz. BTW- Check out the June issue of Downbeat magazine. Shane is listed as one of the 25 hottest (playing wise, folks,) young trumpet players. Way to go Shaney!

Kaveh is in town from L.A. and was in charge of snapshots.



We sang "Happy Birthday" and she was totally psyched! She clapped her hands when we finished.