Elizabeth and Friends.

I feel so lucky to have found a great group of moms to help me survive the first year of motherhood, because this stuff is tough. Advice from the older generation is great, but can sometimes be a bit outdated, or clouded by the ensuing 30 years. It's nice to have moms who are down in the trenches, surviving each stage along side you, so when you email freaking out about the amount of drool streaming down your child's face, someone else says "yeah, we had that last week, and now we have a tooth." Oh... a TOOTH! I hadn't thought of that in my sleep deprived haze.

At first, our "playdates" were all about the moms - in a perfect outing, all the babies stayed asleep in their bucket seats. But now they're all toddlers, and it's so fun to see them interact with one another.

Ellie (on the left) and her friend Clare, out for a morning walk.

Here Ellie and Clare are at Friday's play date. Ellie is telling Clare secrets of walking (Clare is 10 months.)

Ellie and her buddy Jonathan (just turned 1!) and all of the books, which ended up on the floor.

"Hey you guys, check out my sweet ride! Yeah, my grandparents gave it to me, they're pretty generous. My parents are still making me pay for gas though."