Maeves Website

Monday – Morton Arboretum where Maeve did some spider web crawling and chocolate chip cookie making

Tuesday – storytime and pool in Oak Park with Olivia, Welles Park concert with Mia

Wednesday – day trip to Janesville, pool playdate with Sierra

Thursday – Lunch with cousins, playdate with Evan at our house

Friday – Playdates with Will and Avery (school friends)

This weekend, Daddy returns from his week-long trip to DC and we are getting ready for our trip to Grandma’s. We will be at Grandma’s next week with many fun activities planned, like berry picking and a trip to the Curious George exhibit at the Children’s Museum in Grand Rapids!

UPDATE: Our photos are posted in the gallery and my dad’s pictures can be viewed here!

So, Altman Summer Camp took a road trip hiatus to Nanna and Grandad’s boat for two weeks. This trip started off with a fun surprise party for Aunt Cinda and Uncle Bill’s 40th Wedding Anniversary! We met up with the Foley family in Charlevoix, MI at the end of June. We stayed with Nanna, Grandad and Duffy on the boat and saw members of the Foley, Anderson, Fitzpatrick, Arms and Thompson families for the special occasion.

On Monday after the party, Nanna, Grandad, Duffy, Maeve and I embarked on our boating journey (Daddy had to head back to Chicago for a week of work before his vacation could begin). Our journey that day was not ideal, with waves bigger (and more side to side) than we expected. Maeve did not enjoy “going up and down!” But we arrived safely in Leland, MI and spent several days in that marina, exploring the cute surrounding town and parks. Gail and Linda came to visit for dinner one night and we found some yummy jam and cute stores while we were there.

On Thursday of that week we traveled across Lake Michigan to Sturgeon Bay, WI. We were excited to make it to Wisconsin so that Chris could join us on the weekend and we could explore Door County. We had so many fun experiences there and didn’t even see/do it all in a week! We highly recommend the area and have specific dining and outing recommendations to share, especially if you have kids.

Here are some of the highlights of our Door County leg:

iPad – Maeve discovered Nanna’s newest Mac toy and did some amazing art work in both Doodle Buddy and Brushes.

Duffy – Maeve has reached a point where she is stronger and bigger than Duffy, so she requires more supervision to ensure that she is gentle with him as he grows older. But, she loves him dearly and lays on him and “doctors” him whenever she can!

Swimming – Maeve started the week by trying out her life jacket in the pool and found by the end of the week that she could float, jump in by herself and swim all the way to the ladder at the other end of the pool.

Dinghy – Maeve only had one outing in the dinghy this trip, and did so with Daddy and Grandad. She enjoyed touring around the marina and under the big bridge nearby, and visiting the tugboats in the area. She got to drive in circles and practice her skills for a bit as well.

Sturgeon Bay, WI – we stayed in Centerpointe Marina with its great heated pool and nice families. There were stores, restaurants and parks to walk to from here and it’s a cute little town to explore.

Door County – We had really good restaurant and excursion recommendations from family and friends who had been there. We took a day trip on the ferry to Washington Island and visited a neat rock beach. We also went to mini golf at Pirate’s Cove (Maeve loved it and went twice!) and a fish boil at the White Gull Inn. Two of Maeve’s favorite meals were at a bakery with a play area and a restaurant that delivers its food on a choo choo train! Of course, we all loved the old fashioned ice cream parlor in Ephraim with its chocolate malts.

Week 1

Monday – Maeve and I took the el train and a bus to the Field Museum on a rainy day in Chicago. We spent our time there with Sarah, Olivia and Tessa!

Tuesday – Another rainy day took us to the Y, bowling (which Maeve loved!) and the Laura Doherty concert at the Old Town School of folk music. We have listened to “the concert CD” in the car nonstop since!

Wednesday – We spent the morning at the Green City market and had a picnic lunch with Georgia and Evan at the Lincoln Park Zoo. We saw animals, got ice cream and enjoyed the sunshine. Then, we went to the park with Avery for another fun playdate!

Thursday – Maeve and I spent the morning at the Dempster Aquatic Center, our favorite pool in Skokie, and then had lunch with Megan and Lucy in Lincoln Square.

Friday – We went downtown to visit Mommy’s old office and have lunch with Daddy on Chris and my 5th wedding anniversary. We went to visit Daddy’s office, and then went over to Will’s house for a playdate during a storm that took out our power! Will is a friend from Black Bear.

Saturday – The Altman family took the el downtown to Millennium Park to play in the fountains and have a picnic while listening to the Midwest Young Artists perform in the Pritzker Pavilion. A perfect Chicago day.

Sunday – We took Daddy to lunch at Rockwell’s for Father’s Day.

Week 2

Monday – Maeve and I went to the library this morning and then went to Oak Park for lunch with Sarah and the girls on Tessa’s 1st birthday!

Tuesday – We had a fun playdate with Sisi at the Nature Museum this morning. Sisi is a friend from Black Bear and Little Gym.

Wednesday – Today Altman Summer Camp took a roadtrip to Rockford for a playdate with my college friends’ kids Sierra, Felicity and Ryan at the Children’s Museum. The kids enjoyed many different exhibits and the outdoor playscape once the rain stopped.

Thursday – We did an art project at home – a fun T-Shirt to color on that my friend Tammy sent – and then went to Maeve’s dentist appointment. She got a great report and was very brave during the cleaning!

Friday – Today held another fun playdate with Evan at Centennial Pool and then lunch and a visit to his new home.

Saturday – The Altman Family headed up north to Charlevoix, MI to embark on our two-week boat journey with Nanna and Grandad!

Sunday – Our family celebrated Aunt Cinda and Uncle Bill with a surprise party today on their 40th wedding anniversary.

I love my dad and my baby girl’s daddy! Maeve and I are so lucky to have them.

After a busy, fun weekend of World Cup and birthday parties and a Justin Roberts’ concert, Altman summer camp began on Monday. I have created index cards for all the possible things we can do in and around Chicago, and laminated our schedule. Maeve really got into her visual schedule this year at school and I thought having one for summer would help us plan and do lots of fun things! I intend to post a diary of sorts each week to catalog what we do around town.

We got to see Maeve’s teachers to say goodbye today…and Maeve got to play with a few of her school friends in a bouncy house!

One of the moms put together a book for Ms. Bailey and we were able to purchase a copy. Maeve loves the pictures of her first school friends – it’s her first yearbook!

We also had our last day of Little Gym class today and I realized that it is the last time mommy will be invited into class. Maeve is such a big girl now that she will be going to classes by herself, not the parent/tot classes I have enjoyed the past three years.

I guess we’ve been kinda busy! I have been regularly uploading photos, but can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last post. Some highlights of the past month include our outing to the Very Hungry Caterpillar puppet show, Maeve’s first live show and backstage VIP pass at Stars on Ice, her first princess party at Lily’s house, celebrating Mother’s Day with our annual walk for breast cancer, and a couple of visits from Nanna, Grandad and Duffy.

Maeve had her first lemonade stand during our garage sale and she was perfect! Very polite, offering people lemonade (“you want some lemonade stand?”), telling them it was $.25 and saying thank you when they put money in her piggy bank. I posted a short clip of her in action in our MobileMe gallery – a new place for videos (see above link).

Her new favorite thing to say is, “Guess What?” This is usually followed by asking us to watch a new trick or one of her favorite things like running and jumping, or hopping on one foot. Her other favorite thing is a running tackle hug – it’s best when I see it coming!

We have been working with her all year on the concept of a visual schedule, which can help preschoolers through transitions since they know what to expect. She loves it now and asks to check our schedule (sounds like “catch” our schedule sometimes)! I can’t wait to let her have some more choice of what gets to be on our schedule this summer – I just have to make a new one with all the choices!

There are many kind of grownup changes now that Maeve is 3.5 and one of the best is that she has switched to preferring a shower instead of a bath. It might have started after a certain fuzz incident, but I’m not complaining! She’s also somewhat obsessed with using permanent markers, which admittedly only should be for grownups…

A silly thing that Maeve and I have been doing after rewatching Finding Nemo a few times is speaking whale like Dory. If you haven’t seen it, click here. We think it’s pretty funny and a smile on her face is guaranteed every time!

Maeve did a wonderful job helping daddy plant our garden this weekend – she helped with the carrots, green beans and lettuce seeds. Daddy also got the tomato plants and herbs planted! Pictures of our lovely garden are in the MobileMe gallery.

We are gearing up for the last few weeks of school and classes (more on the summer and fall plans later…) and looking forward to Auntie Beth’s baby shower at Grandma’s in a couple of weeks!

At the park this week, Maeve jumped up to grab onto the bar and swung! She runs around like she owns the place, climbing slides, talking to other kids. She used to be timid and let other kids push her out of the way, but now she waits patiently for another child to do something (like go down the slide) and get out of the way, and then takes her turn without being rushed even if there’s someone behind her. I was just bursting at seeing her confidence and can only hope that this self assured little girl is beginning to harness this quiet strength she has.

I realized that I forgot to write down a cute thing that she does – Maeve covers her eye with the back of one hand when she’s embarrassed. We notice it mostly during movies in which there is singing; the most recent example is the Princess and the Frog. She runs out of the room when the frog first appears and she knows Tiana is going to scream, but then during other parts (with music and without) she’ll put her hand up. It’s adorable!

Maeve has been very particular about her friends again lately…choosing which ones share her bed (at nap time it’s ALL of them), which one goes to school with her (usually bear), which ones get to dance in the car (kitty and pig), which ones go to the park with her in her suitcase (trains yesterday). These are more than transition objects now – they are part of her extended family!

She is also particular about her hair – she does NOT like it in the back of her head, only in pig tails or down with a ribbon holding it back. The quote of the week on this topic is, “Mommy, I don’t like my hair. It doesn’t look like me.”

We are excited to go to the Field Museum in the morning to see a puppet show of a few Eric Carle stories, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It’s gotten great reviews, so we hope Maeve loves it too! Have a great weekend…

I’m not sure if we brought this beautiful weather back with us from the Bahamas, but we sure are reaping the rewards of Spring. We had a wonderful trip with Nanna, Grandad and Aunt Peggy and a nice visit with Gigi and Aunt Nancy – the pictures from paradise are up in the gallery! Highlights included lunch to celebrate Gigi’s birthday and beach/pool time at Old Fort Bay, the police band performing in Lyford Cay, and lunch at the organic farm. We had perfect weather and Maeve loved playing on the beach and building up her confidence in the pool!

This week was filled with lots of park time thanks to some very warm weather in Chicago, and Maeve was back to school and classes. She had her first drop off art class with Ms. Cheryl (I left the room but sat in the hallway) and we had our first playdate that Maeve requested with a friend she made at school. We met Avery (and her mom and baby brother) at a park in Bucktown and the girls had so much fun together! At school, Maeve learned about insects and butterflies – appropriate after our reintroduction to ants and flies in Nassau – and this week they will read various stories and write their own with the help of their teachers. Maeve is opening up socially and her confidence shows as she continues to learn new things and make new friends.

Happy Easter – we posted some fun photos from our celebrations this weekend with Grandma, Auntie Beth and Uncle Matt!