The ABCs of NYC

As you saw in Ellie's five-month photo, she loves NYC.

My little city girl

And she is not alone in that sentiment. As of yesterday, Eric and I have officially lived here for four years and have enjoyed every minute. We love this city so much, and as Ellie gets older Eric and I are making more and more of an effort to take her to fun places around the city. Even though we know she won't remember it (we don't plan on living here long enough for her to actually form memories here, unfortunately), we think it's pretty cool to be able to introduce our baby girl to such an incredible city right off the bat.

As you know, Eric and I tend to take a lot of pictures. I think we've probably taken a lifetime's worth of photos since living here in the Big Apple. Every year, I make a calendar for us using our own pictures of the city. A couple of months ago, I was struck with another idea to make use of our NYC pictures: an alphabet book for Ellie.

So, Eric and I worked together to create a list of NYC landmarks to correspond to each letter of the alphabet, then I spent some time digging through the last four years' worth of photos for pictures we have taken of each one. I put them all together in a photo book on Shutterfly, with one landmark/letter for each page. I have to say, I love the way it turned out!

Here is a sampling of the a few of my favorite page spreads of Ellie's new NYC ABCs book:

If you're interested in seeing the full book, check it out below:

                                         Click here to view this photo book larger 

The book turned out so incredibly well, and so far Ellie seems to enjoy it:

Yay! Book time!

Learning all about her city

I am so glad that Ellie will have this keepsake from her time in the city, and something that was created using our own pictures from our own experiences. I can't wait to look through it with her as she gets older, pointing out all of our favorite places to her and telling her stories about our life here. And then one day, when she's old enough to remember, we'll bring her back here and take her to her favorite places from her book.

We are a family that hearts NYC, that's for sure!