No Sleepy, Watch Meese

When your toddler passed the age of 25 months, you figure the days of getting up early are over. Not with us. Connor continues to get up at the crack of dawn (well, now way before the crack of dawn). His wake up time is now about 5:00 am - and he is more than ready to roll. He pretty much gets up and complains at the gate until someone takes him down to watch "Meese" - his terminology for "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" - which he is beyond obsessed with.

I have even slept with him one night to see If I could get him to stay down longer, but by 4:45 he was rollng around bed, trying to get me to open my eyes. Scary part is he doesnt go to bed until 8:30 at the earliest. So he is averaging a staunch 8 hrs of sleep!! Nowhere near enough. We have even kept him up to 10:00 on a couple nights - and was up like clockwork at 5:15.

He is simply like a robot from another planet - his battery rarely runs to empty...and somehow, gets recharged in no time. We had hoped it was a summer thing because the sun was up at 4:45 - but now it is dark to 5:30 - doesnt matter.

And what is with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse?? We now have 28 epidodes on the DVR - in HD no less - and we have probably now seen each 5 times or more. It is like crack/cocaine to Connor...stops him in his tracks when it comes on.

And I dont know what is scarier...Connors love of Mickey Mouse...or the fact that Wikipedia has a complete episode guide (as if it were Lost or the Sopranos). Dont believe me...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse_Clubhouse Sad part is the only two we have missed were the Halloween and Xmas episodes - which I am sure are about to cycle through again. Looks like we get a 'fresh' episode this Saturday morning...

Lack of updates lately as G'ma and Aunt Carolyn have been in town past two weekends as bookends to their other vacation.


Occassionally, the battery does run dry...

G'Ma is the only person so far that is able to trump me (dad)...when G'Ma is around, I am demoted to Vice President...

Note the shiner on the forehead from running into a wall at school...(doh)

Milk and Cereal and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...Carter is following right in Connors footsteps

And Connor is already picking up my 'anal' traits...as he likes to vaccum and put his stuff away.

Tour de Parks

One of the big highlights of Connors summer has been the proximity we now have to a buffet of parks. I think we have hit 5 parks now within walking distance (East Greens, Central, Highlands, Riverwalk, 5th Ave parks). I think we can discover about 4 others within walking distance, so Connor is getting to try out all the slide types and variations. His favorite is what we call the FedEx style slide (kind of like the box rollers).

By far our favorite is Central Park. They have live music in the Naperville outdoor band shell at the park on Thursdays and Fridays, which tends to draw hundreds of senior folks, but they also have food/cookies/pies for sale at the gazebo...Connor loves the cookies!! Overall a real nice slice of Americana. Or as my sister would say, I am a full fleged, granola eating, kool-aid drinking Naperville yuppie.

We bought a new laptop on Sunday...after getting tired of having to vacate to the den to go on the computer. Amazing the amount of laptop you can now get for $700...hadnt bought a computer in years. But man, have they come down. Top of the line HP, with Blu-Ray drive, DVD burner, etc...pretty nice.

Friday we headed down to the Riverwalk for the 95.7 Rocking on the River concert...not exactly, rocking, as was just a litte house band playing along the riverwalk, but what a great setting. Connor was able to convince us to buy ice cream cones, so we had ice cream cones and listened to some tunes. Connor (for the second time in two weeks) was able to sneak a snack while his brother was passed out in the stroller. Connor got a kick out of running up and down Rotary Hill.

The boys spent both days in the pool g'ma got Connor for his b-day. They both love it now and probably spent a good two hours in it this weekend.

Last night was probably the first night since we've been here were we actually did not venture out walking somewhere (due to the storms). Tonight we made a stroll down to Cosi for a sandwich - pretty good stuff. I have held 500 shares of their stock for years, but had not been there in quite some time...still hope it takes off ala Panera, as the food was pretty darn good, and can't beat the trendy atmosphere or ability to make your s'mores at the table...but still has a lot of competition in the quick serve sandwhich market.

Connor sharing his cookie at Central Park...

The artsy shot from the riverwalk concert...

Connor pointing the way to the ice cream...

Carter wondering where the hell his ice cream cone was after Connor got him up after he ate it all...