Category: Milestones

We conquered a major milestone this week – Maeve’s very first day of preschool!

There were no tears when we left – she asked “where are you going, mommy?” and I told her I’d be just outside. She told her teacher “daddy’s going to work.” She only asked her teacher about me once during snack time (about halfway), but was never upset.

I could watch on closed circuit TV, which helped me deal with the separation too. Maeve was definitely her quiet self most of the time, but seemed to participate in the circle time and near the end said “it’s my turn” – they praised her for that and I was happy she was asserting herself!

Her teachers are Ms. Bailey and Ms. Becca and they seem great. One of their comments included, “she’s very polite.” I think we are only worried that she is so well-behaved that she will get overlooked… I mentioned to them that she loves to draw, so that’s what she did at first during free play and then she sat at table after all others were done with art project. It was funny and sad at the same time to see the teacher cleaning up around her.

When her class was over, she ran out to show off her glittery art project, give me a big hug and tell me “I love you so much.” It was such a great first experience and we hope she continues to love school!

Maeve exhibited some new skills at the park on Tuesday. She initiated and played a game of catch with another little girl about her age. She loves to play catch with us at home and recently has asked a friend during a playdate/group to play ball, but I hadn’t seen her start playing with a child she doesn’t know. They took turns well and even tried to introduce themselves with some help from their mommies – I think it was a good first experience as progress toward learning how to share and make friends without constant reminders about good behavior.

Maeve also tried to step from one stool to the other on the jungle gym – there are four low to the ground, but they are separate and require quite a bit of balance and coordination to get from one to the next. Her legs need to be just a bit longer for one of them, but she made it across the other three without holding hands and she was so proud of herself when she reached the platform at the end! I was super impressed with her skill and daring…

At Little Gym, Maeve got to jump on the air track (like a big trampoline) and try a new kind of somersault while we worked on upper body and shoulder strength. It was such a warm sunny day, that we met Aunt Megan and Lucy at the aforementioned park – and as a bonus got to visit with Uncle Pat and Lucy’s Grandma Sophie too! 

We had a really fun playdate with our friends Mia and Amy at Garfield Park Conservatory yesterday (pictures are up in the gallery) and we are enjoying the warmer evenings to chalk on the sidewalk with our neighbor Aoife! Later this week we will go for Maeve’s check-up, so I will post her new measurements after that visit.

We are ready…bring on the family and festivities! Well, we’ll be more ready tomorrow as the first wave arrives. Maeve and I stayed in today nursing our colds. I consider ourselves really fortunate that Maeve is going to be 27 months old this week and this is her first major cold – and by that I mean just a heavy cough with congestion and a slight fever. She is basically herself though with just a little less energy this morning (no complaints here about the sleeping in or the extra snuggling). After nap I asked her if she felt sick and she said “No, feel happy,” so I think she’s on the mend!

We had a busy and fun weekend last weekend, with a friend’s birthday party at Pump-it-Up (a big indoor play place filled with inflatables like bouncy houses and slides), then Mommy had some much-needed girl time with April, and Karen, Mike and Sierra joined us for a visit on Sunday! In between all that, Mommy also go to enjoy tea at the Drake for her friend Georgia’s birthday – it was so festive and she even made a new friend.

We’ve been doing lots of reading with Maeve and enjoyed going to story time at the library on Monday. We checked out Clifford and Thomas the Train books after reading some Christmas stories and singing carols. Maeve is pointing out the letters in her books and lining up the magnets on the fridge, saying “that spells” something. Usually she says something random – “W-N-P-Q-D, that spells Mommy,” but she has correctly identified her name, dog and cat. She really surprised Daddy with “P-A-N-D-A, that spells Panda” the other night when they were reading her Panda the Train Engineer book! Her new interest in the show Super Why shows lots of letters and spells out words, so I think that is helping too.

We got lots more snow yesterday and there is more coming – hopefully we’ll be feeling better to go out and play in it this weekend. We are wishing safe and happy holiday travels to all, and can’t wait to see many of you in the next couple of weeks. The Baby A. and Christmas excitement are building, so we can’t wait to welcome the next events!

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.

We had a really fun outing to Welles Park last night with the Steeves family – we listened to some big band and Maeve and Gwen did some hill running and tree climbing!

This morning we went to our favorite pool and this afternoon we are going to play at a neighbor’s house. Tomorrow morning is busy with classes and Friday it’s back to the pool before we head to MI. I will update and post photos after the weekend!

Breaking news update: Maeve peed in her potty today for the 1st time! She did not seem nearly as excited about it as I was. We are not actively potty training, but she talks about it a lot and will go in the bathroom to “use” the potty with her diaper on. I took her diaper off today and we had our first success! We are so proud, but the diaper went right back on… The latest: She went pee-pee in the potty for the second time tonight before bath! What a big girl.