St. Pattys Parade & Other Things...

Carter was very "in to" the parade - he watched the entire thing...


Firetrucks are always popular -


Connor got a few pieces of candy - although he is not aggressive enough yet, as the big kids get the most.


Horsing around at the parade...


Connor and Dad's journey to the park - I made him walk - to see if he could do it - as I made Connor do it at his age = there will be no whiney kids always wanting to "ride" everywhere in this household ;) To my surprise - he made the 7 blocks all on foot with no "ups". Although he liked to pick all the utility flags and political signs out of the ground.


The next day - we tried again - he did it, but was much more distracted with all 4 of us there.

Connor loves manufacturing those smiles...

Fun in the community sand box...


Soccer star...
The 2nd bubble machine - the one from last summer got left out in the rain and rusted out...oops.



Connor and Carter both got there first trip to the house. Both were pretty mesmerized...Connor called it his house.

Carter was not too happy to be on foot in the dark basement...

Winter is Over...

...or at least thats what Tom Skilling pronounced in the Saturday Trib as "meteorlogical" winter ended at midnight on Saturday. Only to wake up this morning with a dusting of snow on the grass. Oh well. 60 by Friday sounds good to me.

Given it was all of 30 on Sunday, we made a journey to the Chuck E Cheese 1 mile down the road to play games for an hour or so to get the kids out of the house for a bit. Yes, we are those folks that go to Chuck E Cheese and dont actually eat. Anyways, it was just enough for them, as after an hour they were ready to go. Looking forward to starting to get outside on weekends again and heading to the park.

Big news on the potty front - last night Connor finally agreed that wearing "pull-ups" was cool, so he is now off diapers - or thats at least what he says. He says "I no wear diapers - diapers for babies - Carter wear diapers." Little does he realilze its still a diaper. Will see how it goes at school today - where he occassionaly goes potty on the potty.

And after over 2.5 years of absoluting banning the Wiggles from ever being present in our household, somehow, someway, Connor saw them somewhere and now asks for it TV. At least it is in HD now...but my god, what an absolute waste of 25 minutes that show is. I just dont get it. Every other show on PBS or Disney at least has some sort of story or learning element. This Wiggles stuff is just awful - no story, no learning (other than dancing), and the same "schtick" every single show. I'll take Thomas Train, Handy Manny, Mickey, or Imagination Movers anyday over the Wiggles crap - ughhh. And I get that its an "Australian" import - but some of those dudes are a wee bit creepy.

Fun at the museum...

What Connor and Carter did with the $3 each they got from G'Ma for Valentines...split a Portillo's "ham-burger-burger" as Connor calls them.



Drawing at the museum.


Riding with Chuck E...

Cruising with Bob...

Calling G'Ma...

Riding the ponies...
267 prize tickets later (thanks to Carter hitting the jackpot on some game) - 10 Laffy Taffy pieces and a silly straw.

Trevor & Elton

We had received a xmas card from Connors best friend, Trevor, at the Bartlett Chesterbrook school he left in July...it turns out Trevors parents had asked him what he wanted for xmas, and he said "Connor". Apparently, the 2 year old mind is capable of forming strong friendship bonds. So we finally were all able to get together on a Saturday, as we met up at the Childrens Museum. While both were shy at first, it was a only a matter of time before they warmed. And I guess I can start to see that as your kids make friends at school, your firends become the parents of your kids friends...

Connor and Carter both had a nice Valentines day...we picked up a 6-pack of ColdStone Creamey Cupcakes for Bridget...which were good, but not a home run. I was walking over to the new Sugar Monkey Cupcakes store downtown to get something when I saw the sign at Cold Stone...so we gave it a try...

Both boys had parties at school and started the ritual of exchanging valentines...one of Connors teaches gave them all heart shaped, glitter filled, sunglasses. Well, somehow, it was the thing to wear on Saturday...as he seldom wanted to part ways with them...we even hadto go to bed with them on. The little stinker made sure he laid on his back in order to be able to wear them to bed....I was not about to put up a 45 minute fight about the glasses. When we stuck our head in at 11pm...he must have gave up and rolled over as he was "glasses-less" and sound asleep.

He looked very much like a flambouyant Elton John...


Dancing at the museum.

Painting w/ Trevor.

Yes, that is our kid drinking from the water bin like it a college frat party...

Driving the boat w/ Trevor...

Actually got Connor to walk 8 blocks (1 mile), with no asking for "Up", when it was 65 last weekend.

Being naughty at Lowes...
Making valentines for the school party...

Opening valentines cards for grandma and aunt Carolyn...the "monster" card is still quite popular...monsters apparently arent scary yet.


And of course, the "dinero" is the highlight...

Earlier in the day...


Later in the day...
Going to bed (not exactly making dad proud)...

Taco Fresco

Lately, we have discovered that the ONLY place we can really go out to eat with the boys is Taco Fresco (or something else in the quick serve genre, such as PotBellys, Buona, etc) We had occasionally stopped in at the Downers Grove location on our visits to the Great Indoors to check out house stuff. They recently opened up in North Naperville at the new Freedom Commons interchange (and how nice is that new I-88 interchange? very sweet...I guess Blago did one good thing for Illinois - as I am now to and fro Itasca in 30-35 minutes)

Back to Taco Fresco - I must say, it has turned into a favorite of ours regardless. Where else can you go and get a burrito (Chicken Burrito Fuerte) the size of your head that is actually good for you, under 575 calories, but tastes like 1,500 calories, and the kids can get a healthier chicken quesadilla that they both devour in about 4 minutes? Plus they eat free on Monday.

I had alwasy wondered why Chipotle or BajaFresh never offered a healthy wheat/fiber tortilla - as it would be a winner - well, I guess someone beat me to my idea...






Quesadilla time...




Maturing quickly...



Connor is getting very big feet...

Donkey Kick

The house is beginning to consume whatever other time we have - decisions to get in front of. All the while, the speed at which Connor and Carter are developing in there own way is pretty amazing.

Funny story of the week is that at school, GymStars came for a visit - its a gymnastics, active group that does activities with kids. Its a class you need to pay additional money for to have your kid participate in - as if $540 a week for two kids isn't already enough. Anyways, Connor's teachers sent him, along with a couple others to try it out - as apparently, they thought he was disciplined enough to pay attention and participate (which I guess is a positive!). Well, he apparently loved it - but for whatever crazy reason - they decided to teach the toddlers the "donkey kick" - basically just kicking your leg straight out. Well, in a 2.5 year olds mind - that meant donkey kicking everything and everyone when he got home. Carter got a few donkey kicks to the knee caps, as did mom and dad. "Dan-key keck" was the word of the rest of that day.

However, the more funny part - it wasnt but two days later and Carter was getting ready for bed...wanders over to Bridget...and mumbles out "dan-key kick" and proceeds to go for the ankles. Carter probably has a vocab of 10 good words and the rest are all mish mash - yet, he has the ability to mimick his older brother within 36 hours.


The "two stooges" watching TV. Connor can't be anywhere without Carter - soon as he wakes up its "get carter". If were eating, its "sit by Carter." If Carter wanders out of the room, its "where Carter go."



And Connor likes nothing more than to pile on Carter...of which Carter not always the biggest fan of.

Somewhere, Carter learned to close his eyes and smile when you say "cheese." And yes, he is doing "perfect pushups".