A 6-year-old city kid

Dear Maeve,

We are so proud of the little girl you are – talented, smart, loving, coordinated, and enthusiastic. We had such a happy summer, enjoying trips to Michigan, summer camps at Lill Street and the Nature Museum, and pool and beach dates with our friends, among our many adventures. You took your first (and then many!) jumps off the diving board, bravely running right off without hesitation. You also mastered riding your bike without training wheels!

You planned your whole birthday party, helping me pick out everything, from Belle on your cake and princess plates & piƱata, to the art-themed activities and gifts for the guests! Your art work (especially your rainbows addressed to us and patterns) continues to inspire and impress us, and we promise to find ways to support and encourage your ability. Your confidence continued to blossom this year and it is such a joy to take you to the Chicago museums and attractions. Your current favs are the Shedd Aquarium, the zoos (Lincoln Park and Brookfield), and Garfield Park Conservatory. You walk around like you own the places!

You are now in Kindergarten and are adjusting so well already (despite the disruption of a 1.5 week strike). You are learning to navigate the school day and new routines, and Daddy and I are learning to navigate your new independence. I love that you still want me to hold your hand on the way to the door, but bravely go in without tears every day. I also love when you run off to play with Abby at pick-up without barely saying hello to me! We try to give you space and freedom of choices, but we are strict about manners and will always emphasize the importance of working hard. You can be quite a goofball though and continue to surprise us and make us laugh. We’ll eat you up we love you so!

You rocked your doctor’s appointments this week – only a flu mist and peeing in a cup at your check-up (no shots!) and were so brave during your teeth x-rays, which showed your 6-year molars hiding in there. The dentist told me that your bottom two front teeth and top two front teeth all are loose too! The tooth fairy is on alert. Check-up measurements: weight 38.5 lbs (10th); height 44.25″ (25-50th). We are so lucky to have our happy, healthy girl!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Our 5 year old

Happy birthday, Maeve! Our little baby is now really a kid. She has a new level of confidence and capability, seemingly overnight! Maeve was so excited about this birthday and really seemed to enjoy and appreciate the attention today. She normally doesn’t like attention, as you know, but was so polite in thanking people who wished her a happy birthday. This week, by coincidence, Maeve is the star student at school. She got to talk about our family and show pictures to her class today. She kept saying “this one is awesome!” each time – so proud!

Maeve had a great first Irish dance class today too and really seemed to enjoy it. She learned how to put her feet in first position and do a knee-kick! She followed that up by climbing the rock wall at the park. So multi-talented! Her bowling party is coming up this weekend and she is excited to have her grandparents visit. She got a new scooter today that is really fast, so she’ll be anxious to show that off, as well as her new markers and Hello Kitty slippers.

After she showed off her skills this afternoon I said, “Being 5 is pretty cool so far, right?” and Maeve said, “Yep, really cool. I think maybe I even talk different.” She’s growing up so fast!!!

Back to school…

I’m not sure where the summer went. I could summarize it, but there are many photos and a couple of videos that might do it better justice…

We traveled more than we expected, but had some wonderful highlights – at the boat, in Spring Lake, in Eganville, and at home in Chicago… We celebrated our nephew’s 1st birthday and had lots of opportunities to enjoy summer with our family and friends. We are so thankful!

The video that includes Maeve swimming by herself from the bottom of a very large water slide in 3’6″ water where she can’t touch is the most recent thing for which we are most proud. She also has rocked her recent doctors appointments in preparation for school – including her first eye drops.

Maeve will begin 2.5 hr/5 day/week preschool on Sept. 6. She will be joined by her neighbor and buddy Abby, and we hope it will be a really good year for her. She also will keep doing soccer and art, and will try Irish dance and swimming classes to build on her progress in the pool this summer!

As her 5th birthday approaches, it’s hard for us to find the words to express how amazed we are by Maeve. She is such a terrific, smart, playful girl and we love her more and more every day!!!

CAMP

Camp CBG (Chicago Botanic Garden) was a huge success! Maeve loved her Salad Science camp and they had terrific weather all week. She made a new friend, learned how to harvest and clean fruits and vegetables, made salads and strawberry jam, and brought home 4 new plants for our garden!

This week she is doing art camp at the Paintbrush art studio. They learn about a different artist and style each day. I published a portfolio of her work at week’s end (June 24)…

We celebrated our anniversary and father’s day this weekend. Lots of work and play outdoors, and great meals! Some photos have been added to Picasa.

P.S. If you’d like to see some of Maeve and her soccer pals’ moves from Lil Kickers this season, be sure to check out the new movie in the MobileMe Gallery.

Summer is upon us…

I haven’t posted in awhile so here are some random newsy updates:

Maeve is counting orange cars. Every time she sees one, she says, “I found another orange car. That’s (insert number).” She’s on 28 as of yesterday and plans to go to 100! Why orange cars, we don’t know…

Between more rain storms we have finally gotten back to riding the train around Chicago. Maeve LOVES to take the train, talks about the letters at each stop, and gets really excited about the different color trains. The other day we took the blue line to the pink line, then the brown line to the bus (another favorite option). Yesterday we went downtown on the blue line to the Printer’s Row Lit Fest and saw a Justin Roberts concert!

After a quick trip to visit Grandma, Uncle Matt, Auntie Beth and Nathan, we made it to the beach on the hottest day of the year so far (Memorial Day). This week is shaping up to be a warm one too, so let’s hope we don’t kill our new sod. Check out the photo gallery for pictures of our new and improved back yard!

Maeve is proud to have her very own library card now and we have started her first series of chapter books, The Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne. She loves the imaginative stories about a brother and sister who travel into books and learn about different places and times. This week we are reading the first in the Judy Moody series, since we don’t have the next Magic Tree House book.

Last week we said goodbye to our beloved art teacher, Ms. Cheryl. She is retiring this year from the Park District, so Maeve was in her last class. I plan to put together a portfolio of Maeve’s work and have a few pieces to frame as well. I will get photos of them up online too. Maeve has a week of art camp to look forward to, but it’s going to be hard to top Ms. Cheryl’s classes.

This is Maeve’s last week of preschool at the YMCA. She has loved her teachers and made a good friend, Amia. Next year, she is excited to be going to Belding with our neighbor Abby. We went to see the classroom last week where she met her teacher and got a tour from a sweet 5-year-old. She left saying “I love it here!”

May flowers – we hope!

I wish April had not flown by so fast! We had a very special trip to the Bahamas and Maeve was, as usual, a great traveler. We didn’t have our luggage upon arrival – we rolled with it and I got to borrow a cute dress from Aunt Nancy, but we will definitely consider packing our swimsuits in our carry-ons next time! Soaking up the sun at the pools and beach was wonderful, we had many delicious meals, and Maeve and Gigi colored some beautiful pictures together. Also, Maeve started swimming with her face in the water during our trip and met two adorable girls from Ireland that I hope might be her pen pals someday! There is a huge grouping of photos (some of ours, my parents’, Aunt Peggy’s, and Aunt Nancy’s) here, and hopefully I will get all of ours up on Picasa too.

We came home to MORE dreary, rainy days, and Chris has been traveling way too much, but Maeve was ready to be back in her routine and having fun with her friends. Chris and I were honored to become god parents to our nephew, Nathan, on Easter weekend and Maeve loved playing with her crawling cousin! We welcomed the sun back this last weekend and Maeve is getting really good at riding her new bike. We also got to see butterflies released into the haven at the Nature Museum today. Now that we have some flowers planted we are truly hoping the weather warms up and stays nice and sunny for the breast cancer walk this Mother’s Day!

Playdates abound

We’ve had some fun times with friends in the past couple of weeks. Maeve painted her face with pals Olivia and Lily, went to the art studio with her buddy Evan, and had a play room party with some of my McCormick-colleagues’ kids. This week Maeve had a babysitter playdate at Mia’s while the parents dined out, we had our neighbor Aoife over to play, went on an egg hunt practice run at a local park with Anna who we met in science class, and had a lunch date with Lucy!

It’s been rainy, dreary and cold here, but we brightened our spirits with a new car and new bike for Maeve this past weekend. She was happy we picked a blue car (although she wants red next) and is excited to practice on her bike – the best parts are the red pedals and that it has no seatbelt!

A big accomplishment in Maeve’s world is pulling her shirts over her head all by herself. She is back in her art class with Ms. Cheryl for the spring, and still doing soccer and science classes when she’s not at school or attending playdates around town. We are off to visit Gigi and Aunt Nancy, and can’t wait to see them and soak up the sun after this long winter.

Happy birthday and vacation to me!!!

When Irish eyes…

My dad put together a wonderful video of the party that was Chief O’Neill’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration a few weeks ago and I wanted to share it here! Hope you enjoy the painted faces and Maeve’s dance moves…

4.5

I’ve been saying that Maeve is four and a half for awhile now, but today she actually is! We aren’t big on half-birthdays or anything, but we are looking at getting her a bike for the summer so I’ll use any excuse. She rode her tricycle to the park this week and her long legs made me realize that she is ready for an upgrade!

Happy belated birthday to Chris! He got to enjoy a fun St. Patrick’s Day party for his special day, and now we are gearing up for more work travel. Maeve has had some fun playdates in recent weeks and we lined up an additional week of summer camp for her – this one a Salad Science class at the Botanic Garden!

Maeve has started DJ-ing on her iPhone (a hand-me-down from me) and now knows how to take pictures with it. She continues to become tech-savvy and we love watching her discover new gadgets. She’s also been more interested in jewelry, wearing tights and tutus, and having her nails painted – all recently acquired tastes and super cute!