Hibernation?

Mother nature wasn't so kind to us this, uh...summer? Can I even call it that? A harsh winter followed by a lackluster summer makes for some pretty unsatisfied and vitamin D deficient Chicagoans. Hibernation is just around the corner. Even Luke has started the process - he slept in until 9:00 AM *gasp* this morning. This is a good 3 hours later than normal. No idea why he did it, but it fa-reaked me out. I couldn't take my own paranoid thoughts any longer (after being awake myself for an hour) and I went into his room and woke him up. He didn't really enjoy be woken up...sorry, next time I'll enjoy it! Luke was quickly cheered up by a trip to Einstein's bagels with Grandpa and Uncle Nick followed by a train ride and an outing to the park.

All the mothers on my street are already stressing/fearing the long winter months inside with energtic toddlers. We've got Luke scheduled for wiggleworms on Saturdays through December so that will be at least one outlet for his antics. We'll be in France for Luke's first Wiggleworms class so mimi will have the pleasure of taking him. She just doesn't know what an experience it will be trying to get Luke to follow some directions and stay in one place :-)

We are gearing up for our trip, well actually, we are thinking about gearing up - no doubt that last minute packing will be fun. We're gonna miss little Lukey B - I really miss him alreay, but he'll be here having fun with mimi. I see multiple trips to Dairy Queen and the Swedish Bakery in Luke's near future!

Story of the week time:

We have neighbors who have a little girl that is about 18 months old...we see them in the neighborhood a lot and they come play in our yard sometimes. Anyway, we haven't run into them in about 1 month and we finally saw them on Friday. As we walk up with Luke, the dad says "Oh my god, when did Luke turn into a five year old?" I almost cried. He proceeded to go on and on about how much taller Luke got, and how is hair and his face changed and how he looks so much older. :( He truly must have had a growth spurt because all of a sudden, his shirts and sweatshirts look like belly shirts.

Pics of us and the growing little man:

Beach,Rides,Pools, Oh My!

If I could look into a crystal ball, I'm pretty sure it would show me tons of beach trips in our future. My little crazy one is a beach bum! We all had a blast with the super warm weather and the super warm Atlantic ocean. Luke enjoyed the sand and had a habit of crashing in on other groups of kids playing with buckets and shubbles. When he got bored with the sand, the little beach bum took off for to water - running straight into the waves. I held my breath the first time he got knocked down by a wave but was quickly relieved when I heard his deep belly laugh. Who knew getting knocked around by rough waves was so funny. Luke especially liked it when other people got knocked down including mimi and aunt Emily. I guess his mother didn't teach him that it's not nice to laugh at others' misfortunes. We got him back though - we ghad quite the laugh when a wave took his little shorts down and exposed his bum. There can't possibly be anything cute than a squishy little baby butt.

Following hours at the beach were hours at the pool. Again, the daredevil surprised us by not freaking out about going under water! Lukey loves jumping off the side into the pool. We did get him down for a few naps here and there but there was so much fun to be had, he only got about 60% of the sleep he normally gets. So next in the lineup after the pool was the pier full of kiddie rides. Luke only wanted to be on rides that had some sort of steering wheel- rides without a steering wheel were not under consideration. Picky, picky! Most of the rides required a chaperone so we all took turns sitting in rides 5 times too small for adults with our knees up by our ears. Ok, ok, so I exaggerate when I say this happened to all of us - I guess I fit quite nicely in the kiddie rides (do not laugh!) and my knees were nowhere near my ears like Matt's.

If the Jersey Shore didn't offer enough options for fun, mimi decided to have Christmas in August for Luke. Funny, mimi claims she didn't know those trucks had sirens and made all that noise *raising one eyebrow.* I'm scared for Christmas in December!

Ok, so my last story about the trip takes place in the airport and on the airplane. Southwest was torturing me on the way home. A 3 hour delay is so not fun with a toddler, especially a very active toddler. So I was attempting to entertain Luke in a book store but that was going very badly as Luke was ripping books off the shelf and throwing them on the floor. So there I am picking up all the books when Luke runs at mach speed out of the store. I run after him and he almost duped me by scooting into the next store - which happened to be a CRYSTAL shop. So I see him turn into the store just out of the corner of my eye and I follow him in there and the little booger runs behind the checkout counter to hide. Luckily the woman running the store thought this was funny and helped me get him out but things could have ended very very badly in the crystal store. I'm pretty sure I got the side-eye from the customers in that store.

So part two of the Southwest torturefest came on the plane. Luke came *this close* to losing it because he was so tired but he sat there and said "All done plane, all done plane." I had to explain to him that he couldn't be "All done plane," halfway through the flight unless he wanted to try skydiving. Let's just say that by the time I was exiting the plane with a hot, sweaty, sleeping Luke flung over my shoulder, other passengers were complimenting me about how well I did with him - I think they were really saying "glad it was you and not me." LOL.

As usual, here are some pics:

Travels

So we're headed to the Jersey Shore on Thursday and I have so much to do before then. Not to mention I'm still recovering from last weekend - uggg - Matt and I spent about 6 hours on Sunday on a boat in 90 degree weather. I guess I should add that there were only alcoholic beverages and no food and you get the picture. Tons of fun but I am paying for it! So anyway, back to packing - there are lots of things I can't forget -ahh, the pressure! This will be Lukey's first trip to the "real" beach as I've been told that the Lake Michigan beaches aren't "real." Whatever, I bet the sand on our beaches makes just as much of a mess as the sand on the "real," beaches. We're very excited for our vacation and Luke is most excited to go on an "airpane" My mom told me that the last time she flew she sat next to a little boy and his mom. This little boy was well-behaved because he knew the "airplane fairy," was watching him. You see, you get a present from the airplane fairy if you are good. So I'm thinking the airplane fairy just might be booked on our flight to Philly!

Oh and if you are wondering about the lack of pictures, I have sad news to report. The camera was killed. Now, I'm not going to name names but the person responsible happens to be very small with blonde hair and sticky fingers.

Good night!

Woot Woot an Update

So I finally have the time AND more importantly, the energy to write an update. I've had great intentions for the last 5 nights or so to update but I haven't been able to scrape myself off the couch.

My little daredevil is back to his antics. He's learned what an underdog is! You know, when the person pushing the swing runs under it and pushes the swinging person really high? Yeah, he loves it! "Unnerdog, pease, unnerdog, pease...again...again!" Let me tell you that I was winded after like the 5th one. Pretty sure the baby bucket seats weren't meant for underdogs. Luke has also mastered the art of climbing the really high climby things at the park- it really makes me nervous but at least he'll ask for help when he needs it. And so our obsession with parks continues.

We tend to be in 1 of 3 places outside during the summertime: at a park, somewhere on Southport, or in our front yard. I have to say the front yard is becoming quite the social hotspot. There is usually at least 3 adults, a couple toddlers and a handful of dogs. Luke's little buddy Ben from upstairs is his main partner in crime. The crimes being eating dirty cheerios that fell on the ground and drinking the dirty water out of the water table. Luke affectionately refers to Ben as "Bong". Yes, Bong. All the adults snicker at this but hey, it's better that "Buck" which Luke used to call him. For some reason, he just doesn't say Ben.

Anyway, we're hoping to hit the beach this weekend. That is, if summer decides to stick around for a few more days!