At the end of June Blake had his first sleepover, a co-ed sleepover at that! The little girl from daycare, Jaleah, came with us to spend the night so her parents could enjoy and evening out. Brian and I were really looking forward to it, and knew it would be a lot of work, but it was more fun than anything. The kids ate dinner and then played till they were so tired they didn't even know what to do. Husker was quite confused since she wasn't used to TWO little ones running after her. It was fun to see them play together at our house since they are so used to playing together at her house. So many new toys to fight over and new places to run around.
They really get along, and we are very fortunate for that. Blake really has a great little friend in Jaleah.For Father's Day this year Blake and I planned a little outing for us to the Como Zoo. We have been once last year, but figured Blake would get much more out of it this time around. We packed a lunch and surprised Brian with our day at Como. It was really fun to watch him see the animals, and walk around. Topping it all off was a cute shirt I found for Blake so he could join Brian in supporting the Huskers!
It was a great day all together, but one thing we realized it that there is no goodway to get family pictures....so we each got our turn!
The next day we headed out to Buffalo to surprise my dad for Father's Day. He was filling in for their pastor at church so he was preaching. His sermon was about T-Shirt evangelism {supporting something by wearing a t-shirt}...so we thought Blake's outfit was fitting. Another great Father's Day under his belt
Blake and I were also lucky to have a few days off in June and head out to a friends pool in Buffalo. She had 4 grandkids of her own so there were plenty of things for Blake to play with in his pool. Although it was super hot out, the part of the pool we were in was very shady, so that was nice. He really enjoyed kicking his feet around in the water and floating. He was so relaxed that he actually fell asleep while floating.
After a little while I took him out so that he could dry off and sleep, however I selfishly wanted to use my day off and get a tan too! Not completely thinking these two things through I wrapped him up in a towel--so he wouldn't get sunburned--and the proceeded to sit in the direct sunlight and "tan" for about 35 minutes. He slept quite peacefully while roasting in the towel. So we moved into the shade before leaving. 
The next day he was quite lethargic, and just wanted to cuddle with me all day. And when I say all day, I mean litterally ALL DAY. We watched a movie, ate lunch all from the comforts of our recliner. He didn't want to move at all. He felt really hot, and then it dawned on me that he probably was suffering from heat exhaustion!!! Such a horrible mother I am! So I stripped him down to his diaper, threw on the fan and we realaxed and slept the rest of the day. Luckily by the next morning he was back to his old self. To top it off...through all of that I didn't get tan either :(
The heat exhaustion lead us into 4th of July weekend. Due to the recent events, we ended up just hanging out at home, which is exactly what we needed. We are very lucky that the Eden Prairie fireworks take place about 3 blocks from our house. Each year we just walk up there around 10 pm and see a great show...just in our backyard! We also spend this day celebrating Husker's "Gotcha Day" since July 4th is the day she joined our family 5 years ago. She loves fireworks, well more the people watching, but all the same it's a family affair. This year wasn't going to be any different. We planned to wake Blake up and plop him in the stroller so he could enjoy the fireworks as well. So as it neared 10 pm I picked him up, brought him outside and threw a light blanket on him to protect against the mosquitos. Since I had given him heat exhaustion, I figured I should really step up the mom game and protect him from the 'squitos. We start on our walk and I realize, while I'm in shorts, that I didn't put on any bug spray...big mistake! We made it to our watching spot, and I only made it about 15 minutes. I was getting eaten alive. Meanwhile Blake is chillin in the stroller with not a care in the world. Brian and Husker seemed to be fine too. So after my 10th bite I decided that Blake and I were headed back. We started on our walk home and the fireworks started...Blake was very intrigued, so I stopped walking and realized there was a clearing litterally 500 ft from our house that we could see the whole thing. So we stopped and watched the show...but lesson learned--bug spray! After it was all done we headed back, Blake went right back to bed and we were soon to follow.
This last weekend Blake attended his first wedding reception. He's been to a wedding, just not any receptions. It was very nice...he had his own spot at the table with a highchair AND a goody bag. He loved the toys that were in it...they kept him busy for a while, but he really just wanted to get down and walk. It was a long night of chasing him around the Sheraton! But we had a good time.
The weekend ended with a trip down to Brian's aunt and uncle's house in Apple Valley. His cousin's wife was up with their two boys and the Oian's were there as well! It was fun to see all the cousins togheter, although of course I didn't get one good picture. The boys and Macie went on a boat ride, and Blake got his first taste of the life jacket...
Macie and Blake get along very well....well I guess most of the time, this is just a little video I took as we tried to get them to hug.Since I posted last Blake has really starting walking/running more and more each day. I haven't seen him crawl in weeks. One might call him a "drunk little person" when he stumbles and bangs into the walls etc. It's funny to think we all had to learn how to walk! Some things that we do, we take for granted so quickly. Now I understand why he's so frustrated, imagine all you want is a drink of water, you are SO thirsty, but you can't figure out how to tell someone and worse yet you can't walk anywhere to get any. With walking comes less frustration for him, and a little more frustration for Brian and I. We are constantly living with all the doors shut, baby gates up and following him around our house just waiting to see what he wants, and that is mostly follow up with "NO!" He's slowly starting to understand the word, but with that I also think he's learning how to "push our buttons," in particular the TV buttons. It seems everytime we sit down to play in the living room with him, and pop on the TV...find a good show he walks up and turns if off! After he does that, he realizes that we probably are going to tell him NO, so he turns around bats his eyelashes and pushes the button again. Just to make good with Mom and Dad, after a few minutes of enjoying the TV he decides to start the routine all over again...I guess we're just suckers to that cute little face. But soon we're going to have to start the Time Out process. Well I guess we've started it, but not with much success. As the SuperNanny says, kids should sit in TO 1 minute for every year of age. So when we have tried it we put him in the corner and tell him to sit there. The first time he was really confused, then he just spun his feet around and sat there spinning in circles. Not much of a punishment I guess, but we'll have to keep trying. Until next time, here's another video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg4YFB-PZ9k
