2. Party One was on Saturday with Jak’s Calgary grandparents.  We wanted to do something low-key, but something we knew he would enjoy.  The answer — a trip to the park!  (Thanks to auntie erin for suggesting Helicopter Park…it was a hit!)Jak’s favourite part of the park wasn’t the swing.  It wasn’t the slide.  It wasn’t the merry-go-round.  It was a ramp.  Yes, you read that right.  He spent the majority of our time at the park just going back and forth, up and down the ramp.  Crazy kid. 

3. Here are some “behind the scenes” shots of our time at the park…

4. Maguire was at the park, too.(I promise he’s under that blanket…)

5. One last round of photos from the park — boys being boys!

6. We had dinner at our place after our park adventures, and I made sure to have a giant chocolate cupcake for Jakzen for dessert.  In preparation for what I assumed would be a messy experience, I stripped him down and plunked him back in his chair, all ready to dive in and get dirty.  First, he was unsure what to think of our singing…and even more unsure of the sparkly candle.Once the sparkler had burned out, he picked up the cupcake and we were all ready with our cameras to capture him attacking it with gusto.  No such luck.  He took one lick, and put it down.  Apparently there really is such a thing as too much chocolate…

7. On Sunday, it was Olivia’s birthday.  Crazy that this weekend marked her FIRST birthday.  Already!  She’s such a happy little girl — and a total ham for the camera.

8. Yesterday we had a party with some of Jak’s best buddies…and of course, more cupcakes.

9. Maguire, the party animal.

10. Jakzen got the obligatory cupcake with a candle in it again…and once again, he wasn’t sure what to think.

Thankfully Jak has good friends like Ronan who *tried* to teach him how to blow out the candle. 

Jak made a couple feeble attempts at blowing, but in the end, Ronan saved the day and blew out the flame — and Jak was grateful!Of course, Jak didn’t want anything to do with eating the cupcake, and opted instead for a chocolate cookie.  Which he LOVED…and his mommy finally got those messy birthday shots she was looking for.   

It was pretty near impossible to get a picture of Hayden.  He was on the move the entire time!  Busy guy.  It’s nothing but warp-speed fun for him!  Miss Olivia was on the move, too — just at a bit of a slower pace (for now!), and at the expense of her mama’s back!  And yep, Jakzen was moving, too.  But he’s not quite sturdy enough to be left alone, yet he definitely doesn’t want his mama’s help.  Mr. Independent explored every inch of the park…and was the most mad when it was time to leave! 

2. JEN’S WEDDING IS THIS WEEKEND!  (I pick up my moo moo tomorrow, in case you were wondering…)

3. Had girls’ night here on Friday night, and then the same girls (plus Kara and her munchkins) went to Theresa’s on Monday.  Holy moly, what a difference in visits!!  Friday night was all about the food and the conversation.  Monday was all about chasing kids around, while snacking when we could, and broken chats between “don’t touch that’s!”. 

4. Theresa’s new pad.  Awesome.  And HUGE.  You could get lost in that place.   

5. Had a hair appointment on Saturday morning.  With a new girl — only because my usual guy wasn’t available on short notice to do both a cut and a colour.  My hair turned out just fine, but I don’t think I’ll be going back to her.  For one reason.  We had decided together on the lighter colour for my highlights, but apparently my hair (so I’ve heard) doesn’t take well to lightening (as in, it takes longer than most).  But once she realized this, rather than say “hey, this isn’t as light as you wanted it to be”, she said “hey, I decided to go a shade darker than what we originally planned”.  Riiiiiiight. 

6. The Nick-ism of the week:  He wanted to tell Jak to go get his Elmo…but instead he asked Jak to go get “Emo”.  That’s right — Elmo’s distant melodramatic cousin who wears skin tight jeans, black t-shirts and listens to moody music. 

7. When is fall going to get here?!?  I know plenty of you enjoy this weather, but I truly don’t want 30+ degrees at the end of September!  I want to wear sweaters, dang it! 

8. The doc said my iron is low.  So now I’m taking big blue pills.  But I’m still sleepy.  How long does it take for these suckers to kick in?? 

9. Jakzen developments:  He’s mastered the art of the fake laugh, has figured out how to turn the TV on and off with the remote — although it still surprises him every time he does it, he loves socks and shoes — which bodes well for #1 above.  And his poor fingers have taken a beating this week.  He’s figured out how to open the cupboards all the way, but unfortunately he got his fingers stuck when he closed the doors back up.  Yowch.  And then we were at Walmart the other day, and the car parked next to us was real close, so I had to wait for the auto van door to close before Jak and I could get by.  So I casually said “Hey, Jak — look at the door!  It’s closing!”.  Note to self: Don’t call attention to something you don’t want your kid to touch.  He stuck out his hand juuuuuust as the door was about to close, and his fingers got pinched.  Thankfully, I yanked him away before the door closed all the way.  Coulda been way worse.  Lesson learned. 

10. Some pics from our playdate the other day…

2. Why do I need to know how to refer to my/his umbilical cord, you ask??  During one of my ultrasounds they found  that the umbilical cord (see?  mine or his??) only has 2 vessels.  Normal cords have 3 vessels — 2 arteries and 1 vein.  My/his cord has 1 artery and 1 vein.  Not a big deal, apparently, but it can be a marker for something else more serious.  Thankfully in my/his case, all’s good.  I had a fetal echo done last week and the tech didn’t see anything alarming.  Good!  I wonder if I’ll remember to ask to see what my/his 2 vessel umbilical cord looks like after I give birth……

3. And speaking of giving birth, TWO friends had babies in the last week!!  Welcome to baby Rhys and baby Zac.  Yup, more boys.   

4. Water park last Friday.  Water park tomorrow.  I wasn’t sure how Jak was going to like the water since he didn’t like the pool when we were in Great Falls, but he LOVED it.  He scooted right in and proceeded to sit and kick and splash for quite some time.  It was only after I noticed that his little bottom lip was shivering that I knew it was time to get out!  I had my camera, but didn’t get any shots of Jak in the water.  Nick, however, got this cute one of Hayden! 

Oh, and I just remembered!!  Jak was splashing and playing in the water, and then all of a sudden decided to bend forward and dunk his face.  Once.  Then twice.  And on the third time, he came up spluttering.  Got a little water up his nose, I think.  Regardless, I was super happy that he wasn’t scared, and even when he spluttered and it spooked him a bit, he still didn’t want to get out.  Atta boy! 

5.  An observation at the water park — us moms covet other mom’s cool stuff.  Theresa had the best sun shade/umbrella any of us had ever seen…and apparently that anyone had ever seen, since a number of other moms came up to ask where she got it.  I liked it so much, Nick is (hopefully!) picking one up for us, just in time for our repeat visit to the water park tomorrow, and our camping trip scheduled for the long weekend! 

6. With holidays, busy schedules, etc., it had been a few weeks since we saw Nick’s family, so we got together for a BBQ on Saturday.  What a fun afternoon/evening!  We started out at the T&T Market to pick out our dinners.  On the menu??  Lobster and crab…and a few meaty shishkebobs for us anti-seafoodies (although I did have quite a bit of both lobster and crab, and found it quite tasty!  I’m blaming on the pregnancy…).  Monte picked out the crabs. 

This is pretty much the exact same shot as above, except for the inquisitive lady in the background, perfectly positioned between the crab claws!

Here’s Jak checking out all the crabs.  He wasn’t quite sure what to think, and lost interest quickly when they stopped moving. 

7. Aren’t kids supposed to sleep less the older they get??  I’m finding that Jak needs more sleep these days.  Perhaps it’s a growth spurt or something — he’s already so tall!  All I know is that he’s a grouch if he doesn’t get enough sleep…and he’s been grouchier than usual these last couple of days.  But perhaps it has something to do with the heat, too.  Huh.  I dunno.

8.  Jak has mastered the stairs and prefers standing now whenever possible.  He’s still not keen on getting back down to the floor, so hopefully that will be the motivation he needs to walk unassisted!  We shall see…

9. I wish I had a green thumb but, alas, I definitely do not.  Jen came over for a visit on Friday night and brought peonies (is that right, Jen!??!) from her backyard.  They are these HUGE flowers that look and smell amazing.  And they are lasting a long time, too!  She’s got a great backyard, Ralph and Kara have a beautiful backyard, I could sit on the deck at Monte and Olwyn’s all day, and mom and dad have been slaving away at making their yard perfect, too…and well, we have some sparse, dry grass.  I suppose at least it’s not a hayfield anymore — thanks, Dad!!  I vow , here and now, to one day have a beautiful backyard.  Hold me to my word, okay??  (And perhaps come over and help me learn how to plant/grow green things!)

10. Speaking of backyards, I filled up Jak’s little inflatable pool today, and this afternoon we ventured outside to check it out.  I was a bit wary of his reaction — he liked the water park, but hated the swimming pool, and this was somewhere in between.  At first he just splashed around in it from the outside. 

And then, he dangled his toes over the edge.  And then, quite by accident, he slipped and landed on his butt.  The water was still a bit chilly and took his breath away, but then he decided it wasn’t too bad!

Add a few toys, do a bit of splashing, and you got yourself a pool party!!

2. No Jillian sightings today…but…Nick did run into one of the guys from the show.  And so you’d think that if Jillian is in town, and one of the bachelors from the show is in town…that perhaps he’s the guy she chose???  Yep, that’s right — we know who Jillian chooses.  And it was glaringly apparent that he wasn’t supposed to be seen when he immediately ran away from the big scary Nick — aka, the one with the camera! 

3. Useless information I learned on Twitter today…tomorrow at shortly after 12p, it will be 12:34:56 7/8/9.  And that only happens once a century.  Mark it on your calendars, kids. 

4. The Blakeneys went Stampeding with the Deters on Sunday.  It was super busy.  But we accomplished everything we wanted…which meant we ate corn dogs and mini donuts and cotton candy.  Mission: Stampede complete for another year.  

5. More Stampede pics… 

6.  Jak did pretty good while we were at the grounds, but he was super tired by the end…and a little hot, I think, too.  He spent about half of our Stampede adventure lounging and literally hanging out of his stroller. 

7. Happy Birthday to my ‘old school’ buddy, Mark!!  We went to college together, and he’s since moved to the other side of the world — Korea!! — and yet we’ve still managed to keep in touch and catch up every once in a while.  Happy Birthday, Markus!  Hope to hear from you soon.

8. Tomorrow will be the half-way mark in this pregnancy.  Half-way!!  How the heck did that happen???  That means in just 20 more weeks, the Blakeney household will be +1.  Time, you can slow down anytime now.  Especially since I like this part of being prego…I’m not quite the size of a whale (yet) but I can feel the baby kick…and kick…and kick!  Makes it much more real when you can feel that wee one move around in there.  Love it.

9. Theresa had our crew of mommies and kids over last Thursday for lunch and an afternoon of chatting and playing.  It’s always nice to see the girls — and all boys, too (plus one wee lone baby girl!).  I took my camera, but I didn’t take one single shot.  Goes to show how good the conversation was, I guess.  My favourite moment of the day was when I looked over to the table, and Jak was sitting with his mouth open like a little bird, and T’s little dude was feeding him anything and everything within reach.  Jak was in food heaven!!  The only mishap was when Jak’s buddy attempted to get a slice of pepper dipped in ranch dressing in Jak’s mouth.  A full-on miss…and ranch dressing up the side of Jak’s face.  It think it’s very cool that all these guys are going to grow up together and hopefully get to play many, many more times in the years to come! 

10. Major accomplishment of the week — Bridesmaid dresses are ordered!!  Wahoo!  And seriously, Jen has got to be the most laid back bride ever.  She gave us free reign to get whatever we wanted.  Even the lady helping us at the store was amazed that there wasn’t a controlling bride hovering over us, telling us exactly how she wanted us to look.  Thanks, Jen.  You rock.  T-minus less than 13 weeks ’til you’re hitched!!  Can’t wait.  Now put us to work doing something for you!! 

Ahhh, now this feels like summer.