Drinking from a cup

Maeve has mastered a new and very important skill – drinking from a cup! We bought a couple of plastic tumblers this week with bugs and flowers on them and she has a hard time choosing which one to use. She is very proud (as are we!) and says, “I love it” when she has one of the cups.

We had a nice visit last weekend with Grandma, Auntie Beth and Uncle Matt, where Maeve got to sing her new favorite song (Happy Birthday!) and even got to see her first snowfall of the year. This week has been busy with a little friend’s birthday party (“I want cake” is Maeve’s new constant phrase), our last Lil Kickers and Lincoln Park Zoo classes, and a trip downtown on the train today (“Look Mommy look!” every time we saw another train). We also had a wonderful family dinner at Zlatka’s house tonight and are looking forward to music and art classes tomorrow after playgroup! All of this will be topped off with a pre-Thanksgiving cousins’ gathering at Katie and Ben’s on Saturday with Megan and Pat, before we finish packing to head out west for Thanksgiving next week! I’m exhausted just reading this and now really need to go to bed…

I will try to get more pictures up before we leave, but likely will not post again until we return from Colorado. Hopefully we will have “Maeve on skis” pics to share!?!? Until then, Happy Thanksgiving and welcome winter…the holidays are officially upon us.

Maeve sings and paints

Since “Obamama’s” success last week (that’s how Maeve pronounces his name!), we have had many other things to celebrate… We had a wonderful visit from Zlatka last week who is back from Bulgaria. It was so nice to see her and Maeve is looking forward to spending the day with her later this week!

We had some fun trips on the bus since while we were getting our car fixed, and Maeve painted her first water color at her Zoo class. We laminated it on the spot to preserve it, and she followed it up by painting a t-shirt in her park district art class! Today we had a fun trip to the Field Museum and a sing-a-long tonight to one of Maeve’s favorite songs…

CLICK HERE to see the video!

I promise to try to get some others up soon as we have so many good videos and I am woefully behind in posting them. I’m still learning how to use iMovie… The photo gallery is updated though!

History was made tonight

Barack Obama will be our next President and we couldn’t be more thrilled for Maeve – this change will impact the world she lives in and her opportunities for the future! I’d like to paraphrase my favorite quote of the night:

This is our chance to make the changes this country needs
– Barack Obama, President-Elect

OBAMA 2008

Happy Halloween!

We’ve had such a fun Halloween week! Maeve was Pocahontas for our outdoor Halloween adventure to the Green City Market and Zoo midweek, then we carved our pumpkin singing pumpkin songs from Ms. Julie’s class.

PocahontasMy pumpkin!

We watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown together. We lost her after the first commercial but Maeve loved the beginning and even shouted “I like it!” which she often says about food too. Maeve and I went to music class on Friday, then celebrated Reilly’s birthday at a costume party with her playgroup friends. Maeve was transformed into a fairy princess, doning her flower girl dress again but adding wings, a crown and a wand!
Fairy princess
We trick-or-treated to Aunt Katie & Uncle Ben’s, as well as Uncle Pat’s, which was so much fun and just our speed. This morning we went out to Cantigny for a 5K walk with my friend Trish and her 10-week-old son Dean, and Maeve even participated in a little bit of a tot run.

Aside from a minor car accident (a very important reminder to always wear your seatbelt and tighten the straps on the car seat!), it was a really special week of Halloween celebrations. Another highlight was Maeve’s constant checking on the blowup pumpkin and mummy across the street. She always wanted to check if they “fell down” or “stand up” – they were deflated during the day so we told her they were sleeping, and then were usually inflated when she got up from her nap. Unfortunately, she is going to be disappointed today as I saw our neighbor putting them away.

We are looking forward to a visit from Nanna while Daddy is out of town this week, and then I will be attending a preschool fair next weekend to start investigating the plethora of options for 2 and 3-year-olds. I’m just starting to get an idea of what’s out there and fully expect to be completely overwhelmed!

A few of Maeve’s favorite things to do now are make silly faces and share Eskimo kisses – they never fail to crack us all up! She never leaves a room or lets us leave without saying “Bye, see you my-no” (tomorrow). She also started using a new phrase last night which luckily was caught on tape… Here’s a Halloween clip for your enjoyment – it’s the audio that matters, not the visual! (special thanks to Katie & Ben)