Christmas 2013

Maevy -

Here is your note to Santa-

 

And from Santa-

 And some pictures from Christmas Mass..and Christmas (in general)

 

 

 

I think the big hits this year were obviously the iPad mini that M hooked you up with, the tent, and the board games. We usually set up the tent whenever you have a friend over, and you've taken a few naps in there too. We've also started doing Saturday or Sunday night game night. I think your favorites right now are Sequence and Uno.

I hope you had a great Christmas! We love you lots!

- Mom

Christmas Pics

Hey Maev-

Here are some pretty adorable pics of you during our most recent Christmas card shoot. It was 20 degrees outside, and you had no coat on...so we finished up the shoot in under 10 minutes. Check out your red- rudolph nose.

I love the one with your eyes closed.

Love you,

Mommy

Love Note to Mom and Dad

Hey Maevy-

Lately you and your friends, Mille and Lily, have been writing a lot at school. Your favorite things to write are I love Mommy, Daddy, and Carter. Love Maevy. We usually get daily drawings or notes with some variation of that information on them.

This time you actually wrote us a love note.

Mom & Dad-

Have a great day at work. Carter. I love Carter. I love my whole family.

Love,

Maevy

Very sweet, Maev.

Love you!

1st Mad Libs

Maevy,

Last weekend, we headed to the Nashville Children's Theater to see Schoolhouse Rock Live! Then you got to see it again with your class later in the week.

We learned all about nouns, adjectives, the 19th amendment, and how a bill becomes a law. In the program there was MadLibs game. You (with Daddy's help) came up with the words later that night after dinner. 

Here is the final story-

Today when I woke up, I was so excited because I remembered I was going to the land of make believe to see Schoolhouse Rock Live! But I almost didn’t make it. Let me tell you the books. As soon as I woke up, I conversely jumped out of my noun and put on my pizza and my yellow shoes. I ate a brown breakfast of rainbow and skittles. As I was leaving my house, I found two Poppy dollars on the buffet. I ran easily to the park so I could give them to Margot. But when I got there, all I could find was muddy, toothy, warm bear! I thought it was going to dance me! I quickly escaped from the bear only to find a pack of loving rabid stuffed animals! I threw some drinks at them to try and distract them. It didn’t work! Instead, they dressed me all the way to Nashville Children’s Theater. But hey, at least I made it on time for the pasta. 

You die laughing at the ..."put on my pizza" and "made it on time for the pasta" parts. 

Pretty silly, but I think you know what a noun and adjective are now. :)

Love you,

Mom

1st Love Note

Maevy-

When you started Pre-K, parents were asked to write love notes to their children daily, as a way to encourage reading. These are usually read at nap time. Above is Daddy's 1st Love note, and probably his shortest one ever. Since then the love notes have gotten a lot longer; so much so that Daddy usually writes them the night before. Now loves notes include a word of the day and sometimes- song lyrics, a movie plot, a made-up story, or a joke.

Mommy will occasionally write, but they are never as creative as Daddy's. You, of course, love the long notes, and like to demand that they are a full page long. One thing I did start, is signing Carter's name with an animal. He's usually Carter-koala, Cart-dog, Carter-kangaroo, or today he was Carter-piggie.

Here's a more recent love note-

Daddy has decided to tell you Star Wars triology via love note. Also he started including a Word of the Day. If you remember the Word of the Day when we pick you up, we give you praise and usually offer a small treat, like a skittle.

The example below is one of many reason why you have a pretty awesome Daddy!

Side note: Since you are one of the 1st people in your class to arrive at school, you have some extra time in the morning. Lately, you have used that time to decorate your love note with pictures. You noted that the one above didn't give you much room to decorate. 

Love you and your love notes-

Mom

Pre-K Field Trips

Maevy-

One of the cool things about Pre-K at Holly Street, you get to go on a bunch of fields trip. Here are some pics from a recent one to Shelby Bottoms, and here's the plan for the rest of the year-

Disney on Ice
Pumpkin Patch
NCT play- Lily's Purple Plastic Purse
NCT play- School House Rocks
NCT play- Lyle and the Crocodile
Ringling Brothers Circus
Shelby Bottoms Nature Center (multiple trips)
TPAC Swimmy show
TPAC High Five show

Friends- Pippa and Margot

Exhausted after eating and missing your regularly schedule nap time.

 So fun!

Love you,

Mommy

Pre-K Reader

Maevy-ball,

Remember when I posted a few months ago about starting Pre-K, and how you had just read "Bark, George" to us. Well...cut to 2 months later and you are full fledged early reader now.

The day that your teacher told me that she wanted to pull you aside to work on reading, since you are ahead of the rest of class, I ran out to McKay's and bought you 15 Early/Pre-Readers. Books like Follow Me, Kit and Kat, I'm Not a Dinosaur, and Dick and Jane stories. Most of the books are easy concepts, short sentences, and lots of repetition...you know early readers! Grandma bought you the collection of Dick and Jane books and you've already read more than 1/2 the book. That's almost 60 pages!

Our new nightly routine involves Mommy or Daddy reading 3 or 4 books and you reading 1 or 2 books. It's pretty awesome, and you're doing great! Keep up the good work!

Love you lots,

Mommy

Flower Girl

Maevy-girl-

You are growing into one pretty adorable, sweet, smart, and thoughtful little girl. A couple weeks ago you were a wonderful flower girl at Aunt Robyn and Uncle Jake's wedding.

You did great during pictures, walking down the aisle, during mass, and even post-wedding at the reception.

Some our favorite moments of the night/weekend-
-  You explaining to everyone that you a read a book about flower girls, and you really should be tossing flowers down the aisle.
- Not even a minute after Robyn and Jake walked out the church (post-wedding), you asked them when they are going to have a baby.
- Post-wedding, you kept asking everyone if they were coming to your party!
- At the reception, you danced by yourself on the dance floor for a good 5 or 6 songs. Mommy and Daddy tried dancing with you, but you would shoo us away.
- You photo-bombed reception photos with Aunt Robyn multiple times.
- The fact that is was Robyn's wedding night didn't matter to you. She's still your Aunt Robyn and you wanted access to her at all times. The second we got to the reception, you wanted to know exactly where she was. 
- When M picked you up later that night, you told her that there was only wine to drink at the reception.
- M was so nutty that she let you stay even later when you got home to watch a show. You were so tired that you asked M when it was okay for you to go upstairs.

We couldn't have asked for a better flower girl. Save the dress Maev...Aunt Lesley is engaged now!

Love you,

Mommy

 

Quizmaster

Maevy-

A few months ago you and Daddy came up with a list of questions that you wanted to ask all your friends. Daddy wrote out all the questions. You wrote all your friends' names, and then crossed them off after you they answered the quiz. Your questions are adorable.

 

You also went through a phase where you took a 1st words book with you to school, and kind of did the same thing. The page would be all about colors, and there would be 3 or 4 pictures of red items on the apge. Then you would survey your friend/parent about what item they would pick. I'm not sure how, but sometimes I would pick wrong. :)

All of the above is pretty creative. I like it!

Love you bunches, 

Mommy

App Designer

Hey Maevy-

(Picture from a recent nail excursion with Aunt Lesley. Purple finger nails; green toe nails; reading Cosmo.)

We had this conversation yesterday on the way home from school.

You: How do you look things up?

Me: You mean on the internet?

You: Yes.

Me: (I attempt to explain google and the internet.)

You: Ok, well when we get home can we look for an app called Hide and Seek? People are hiding and then you double tap on the different places to see if they are hiding there. If they are, then their head or arm pops out. If not, then there's nothing there.

Me: Sure, how did you hear about this app?

You: I made it up.

Me: Oh that's cool.

You: Yeah, and people can hide in different places like at home, the park, or the zoo.

Me: Cool, so how does the app help you decide which location to look in? Does it give you clues?

You: Yeah, it would give you a clue. Like it would show you a hippo, and then you would know to go look at the "Hippo" park. (Hippo park is what we call the park near our house. There's a play-hippo there.)

Me: That's neat. Would it show you the word hippo or the picture?

You: The picture.

Me: What other types of places would people be hiding?

You: the jungle or the aquarium

Me: Very cool. (Then we talked about what place a seahorse would be in (the ocean or the aquarium), etc..)

Then we were home and we told Daddy all about your app. This whole conversation was pretty ingenious to me. Maybe one day you can actually design this app. I can't wait to hear what you invent next!

Love you,

Mommy

1st Day of Pre-K

Maevy,

Look who's in Pre-K! I can't believe how big you are! A couple weeks ago you asked to get your hair cut. Miss Nicole cut it right below your shoulders. I think it's cute, even though most of the curls at the bottom are gone. Now you are refusing to wear pony tails and only want to wear headbands or put it behind your ears. You still haven't quite mastered this.

Cool things about Pre-K so far-
- You get to play on the red playground.
- You get a whole building to yourself, including a special art room.
- You keep a journal and sign yourself in and out.
- Mommy and Daddy write "love notes" each morning that you get to read at nap time. 

I can't wait to see all the great things you learn in Pre-K. I know you'll be a full-fledge reader in no time. Just last weekend, you read Grandpa, Grandma, and me "Bark, George". I think you have most of it memorized, but you were reading it too! Keep up the good work!

Love you lots-

Mommy

 

1st Gymnastics Open House

It was all of 5 minutes, but you made it through your 1st gymnastics open house. I think all the people and the loud music freaked you out for second, and you almost didn't perform. But once everyone started going the tears went away and you did great.

We've been working on helping you be less shy in public. Just last weekend, you told me that you waved to someone and said hi without being shy. I was very proud. :)

Here's some of your performance-

Your cart-wheel is getting better every week!

Love you,

Maevy

Memphis Vacation

Maevy,

You just got home from a week long vacation by yourself in Memphis. Mom and Dad missed you like crazy, but it sounds like you had a great time.

Here are some highlights from your week with Grandma & Grandpa- 

Vacation Bible School- everyday at OLPH
- You learned all about Mary, including several songs, and the Hail Mary
- You've asked to say the Hail Mary every night at dinner time since.

Swim Lessons - everyday at Miss Michelle's
- You learned the ice cream scoop stroke, the froggy stroke, and how to pick up sticks

- You went swimming almost every night.
- You even got to eat pizza dinner at pool- your request!
- You made French Toast for dinner from your own cookbook with Grandma.
- You watched Carebears, the Movie, and Mickey Mouse and Beanstalk (You are still obsessed with this movie).
- One day you were kind of sick; so you got to take the day off from VBS.
- You only called us twice, and only cried 1 random time for Mommy.
- You got to spend Friday night and most of Saturday with M and Pop.
 - Grandma did a Pre-K and Kindergarten screening on you. Shocker, you got 100% on the PK test, and a 98% on the Kindergarten test.  (Nice work, Maevy!)

To top it all off, you even it made in the Commercial Appeal news article about VBS.

We're so glad you had fun, and can't until next year. :)

Love,

Mom

Maevy-Ball

Maevy-ball-

I've mentioned several times before that when it comes to story-telling, singing songs, and creativity I credit your dad with those genes. Well uncreative Mom recently came up with this quick song, inspired by you as I was holding you, all curled up in a ball, after books, and before bedtime. Here are the lyrics-

Maevy-ball, Maevy-ball sitting in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
Kiss on her nose
Kiss on her the cheek
Kiss on the shoulder
Now go to sleep

(To the tune of The K-I-S-S-I-N-G Song)

Well lo and behold, you love this song. You sing it all the time, and ask me to sing it whenever I put you to bed. You also made up your own version where you silently sing it to yourself (while I act like I'm sleeping), then switch the last line to "Now wake up!"

Clearly you are a big fan of yourself; so it doesn't take much to impress you. Glad you like my silly song.

Love,

Mom

Mother's Day/Father's Day

Maevy-

Neither your Dad nor myself make a big deal about Mother's Day or Father's Day, but it is fun to see what types of gifts you bring home for us at school. My favorite items from both holidays were the questionairres. You know both of us pretty well.  :)

Love you,

Mom

Heart-breaker

Hiya Maevster-

This is a first. A couple weeks ago two of your best boy-friends (Carmen and Spencer) got into an actual fight over who was going to marry you, at least this is what I heard from Spencer's mom and your teacher.

I asked you about it, here's your quick reply-
"Yeah, well Spencer wanted to marry me, but I told him I only wanted to marry Carmen."

Ok...then I heard a week or so after that you and Carmen were playing "Mommy and Daddy" at school. 

Typically in general conversation, you say that you and Carter are going to get married or that Carter is your boyfriend.

Regardless of the preschool drama, all of this is pretty adorable. I just hope your "heart-breaker" status doesn't follow you through high school and college.

Love you,

Mom

Reader in Training

Maev-

You are rockin' the Bob books, and I'm very impressed. I thought Grandma would enjoy checking out your skills; so here's a quick video.

Keep up the good work!

Love ya,

Mom

Fun Run

Maev-

It's your 1st official race - the Purity Dairy Dash Fun Run.

You started off strong and loved running next to the people dressed in animal costumes. You turned in to a cat several times, asked to be carried two times, and complained about your tummy hurting four, five times (I lost count). We rallied at the end of the 1 mile race and were awarded with a ribbon, chocolate milk, and ice cream.

Great job, Maevy!

Love,

Mom

4th Birthday

 

Happy Birthday Maevy! I cannot believe you are 4 years old, and about to be a Pre-k student. Just crazy...

You have seriously been talking about your birthday and birthday party for months now; so I hope it lived up to all the hype.

This year you picked a Fairy themed party, inspired by Peter Pan and/or Tinkerbell, the movie. Plus you just really love wearing wings.

 

(Pippa, Zoe, Birthday Girl, Margot, Lily)

You also picked the colors, the invitation, the cake, what you wore that day, what (4) friends you invited, the birthday iron-sticker to wear to school and the balloons. Mom ordered the special fairy cake topper, made the funfetti cake, and organized the birthday party crafts. Grandma helped at the party. Daddy and Grandpa took Carter to the grocery store during the party; so the fairies could rule the house.

 Mommy and Daddy's birthday present to you was tickets to see Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. We took Grandma as our special guest. We had a lot of fun, and you thought the funniest part was when Nana, the dog, crossed her paws.  We also got you a few fairy books.

Some fun stories from your party -

- You were the winner (althought I didn't tell anyone) at the fairy dust relay. You had your technique down to filling up your spoon and putting your hand underneath to catch any dust and pouring it carefully into your container. Yours was the most full at the end of the race. :)

- At one point, you wanted to play with a stuffed animal that your friends were playing with and Grandma told you to share. You then collapsed on the living chair, declaring to Grandma that you wanted all of your friends to leave the party.

- Soon after everyone left the party, you told us you wished everyone was still at our house.

- While singing Happy Birthday, Lily declared that she wanted to lick the bottom of the fairy cake topper. Grandma told everyone that it was just a cake topper and no one would lick it. You still remember this and have told me about it 4 times this week.

- At one point, all the girls were underneath the table and you said you guys were "table- fairies". Of course!

 

Other fun facts -

- Grandma got you some BOB books and every night this week, we've read 3 BOB books, along with our 4 regular books. You are doing great sounding out the words and recognizing several sight words. I'm impressed!

- Mommy went to a parent-library work shop recently and they recommended doing collective storytelling at home (basically one person starts the story, then next person continues, and so on.) We stared this at dinner time and lots of times you ask to do it. It's hilarious to see what you come up with!

- Daddy never ceases to amaze me with his awesome story telling skills, and recently he told you a shortened version of the movie E.T. You loved it, and have asked for it several times since. You now describe E.T. as having a bulbous head and can reenact the Reeses Pieces scene. 

-  You love to dance. I would say your style is interpretative. I was telling Daddy the other day that your exposure to dance has been mostly through musical theater; so it's not surprising that your dance moves reflect that. The other night I came home from a run to find you dancing by yourself (jelly shoes on...they are the best for slipping/twirling) to the Once on This Island soundtrack (which Daddy had put on really loud). It was super cute.

- You love Carter so much that you sometimes you say he is your boyfriend and that eventually you two will get married. Recently Mommy and Daddy went out to dinner for a date, and you said that when you grow up you and Carter will go out on dates. Maybe you guys won't be married, but I do hope you guys go out on brother-sister dinner dates.

- And finally, you are becoming quite the know-it-all. If we tell you something more than once or it's something you already know, you will often reply- "I know that Mom!" or "You already told me that. I know that, Mom!" Well...excuse me!

Love you Maevs. Here's to another great year!

Mom

Big Sister Reader

Maevy,

You've always been a great, big sister, but this video is one of the cutest things I've seen in a while. About every other night you and Carter take a bath together. He loves splashing around with you and we love knocking out 2 baths at 1 time. Carter finishes his bottle and goes to bed right after bath time. Then we all head down stairs for dinner. Besides constantly sneaking into his bedroom to "borrow" his baby books, you also have a fondness for a few particular "baby" books; one being, "Brown, Bear, Brown Bear". I think you've had this book memorized since you were 2ish (not sure if we have a video of this saved somewhere in our digital archives). Recently, you've asked to read Carter a book along with the other books Mommy and Daddy typically read him.

Carter has his ears off after bedtime; so Mommy usually reads loudly right into his ear while he finishes his bottle. So when you read him a book, we instruct you to "read it loud.", which you do. This video isn't a great representation of Carter's attention span. I think he was distracted by the camera and all the people in his bedroom. He's usually a better listener. Either way, I think you're adorable and a great, big sister reader!

Love,

Mommy

Christmas Kittens

Just a quick follow-up. You did, in fact, want Christmas kittens for Christmas. I guess the day you wrote your note to Santa someone brought in a kitten, which caused almost everyone in the classroom to ask for a kitten. It's been weeks now and you are still asking for your Christmas kittens. I keep telling you..it's never going to happen.

Lucky for you, a classmate, Margot, actually did get Christmas kittens. I'm working on playdate to satisfy your Christmas kitten desires.

Love you,

Never going to own a cat, Mother

Thumping the Threes

Guess who's pretty good at school... the girl above impaling herself on a pole at the Zoo. We had your mid-year Three's Parent-Teacher conference this morning. You're pretty much nailing preschool and have met all expections at or above your curriculum. Nice!

Daddy and I are so proud of you, especially all the progress you've made this year in writing, reading, and math!

Unlike some of your classmates, you really do love school (and a routine). Just this week, I left work early due to (potential) inclement weather. I got there at 3p and we didn't leave until almost 3:30p. You finished your snack, and then asked if you could sit down for circle time because "you wanted to see what was going to happen next." Granted, you do the same schedule at school every day; so you should know the drill. Either way, you wanted to participate in the next activity.

While Carter crawled around your classroom, and I waited patiently for you to finish circle time there were 2 other parents who came in and left with their children in under 5 minutes.

We finally left..and I got the third degree about why it was still light outside...and when are you going to get to stay until it's dark like normal, etc. I asked if you liked hanging out with Mom, as well as going to school. You said..."yeah. School first. Then Mom."

Awesome...(sarcasm). In all seriousness, I hope you never lose your love and enthusiasm for school.

Keep up the good work!

Love,

#2, Mom

PS. Later on in the evening, you told Dad that you really wanted to go the loft (the loft center). All the other kids were picking which center they were going to play in when we finally left. You were going to choose the loft. Sorry Maev...I'm sure you can have loft time tomorrow.

The House Began to Pitch

Hey Maevs-

The man who claims to not like musical theater sure does know a lot of music theater. I have a good memory when it comes to social security numbers, appointments, you know important things. Your dad, on the other hand, has a great memory bank of movies, actors, songs, and song lyrics. I'm horrible at song lyrics. Currently you love hearing songs from Into the Woods, Wizard of Oz, "Hallelujah" (from Shrek), "Tomorrow" from Annie, Mary Poppins, and just recently Daddy introduced you to West Side Story, not the whole movie- just "I Feel Pretty", "Tonight", and sometimes "Maria".

We noticed over Christmas break that your music memorization skills have really taken off. How? Well because you sang Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town about a million times. You also know a good chunk of your favorite song, "Call Me May(ve)". I think for months you've known all the words to "The House Began to Pitch"/Munkinland, but I finally grabbed a video. You and Daddy..plus the motions are pretty stinkin' cute.

Love ya,

Mommy