Tag is 1 (betcha thought I forgot!!!)

Well better late than never, right? Finally got the 1 year photo shoot in. I have been holding off because Tag's been having a rough few weeks getting this big mean molar and it's just made him very fussy and sleeping weird and such chaos. So he's feeling better these last couple of days and sleeping more so I figured it was time to get out the camera. He's loving this cell phone and I was doing everything I could to keep him still for pictures! Yesterday he started picking it up and saying "heh-whoa". Love this kid!

As always, the hardest thing was keeping him away from the sign :) I brought out the dragon, which he loves, but he didn't want to turn around for me. But I love this shot of him cuddling the dragon.
...and trying to climb on it.
For those interested in vital stats, here are Tag's measurements:
46.4cm head
24lb 5oz
31 1/4" long

For Tag's birthday celebration, we knew we were going to go the low-key route. He hadn't been feeling well, so after his vaccines (and truly what more can you do to show a kid his birthday is special than stab him in the leg three times???), we went to the church office and Douglas took the kids over to Round Rock Donuts and grabbed some cupcakes.

Now keep in mind, Tag has never had sugar. So it was really funny to see his reaction. Here he is gently trying to figure out the cupcake. I have a great video, but for some reason it is not wanting to upload so I need some time to figure it out and then I'll post, I promise!

Here are some more still shots of him cramming it into his face :)So it was a low-key birthday, but I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it :-).

It's been a long time since I've blogged, so there's quite a bit of catching up here to do. Bear with me if I get out of order :)

Here's some cuteness of Daddy and Tag with the guitar.
So Tag got his first haircut this week. It was way past time! Lately he's been hanging with Daddy in the bathroom in the mornings and he comes out looking like this: So it was definitely time for a major trim! Of course my good friend Melissa handled his styling :)
Here's the before.
She got it wet and we tried to make it work with the hair drape thing but he just wasn't feeling it so we took it off.
Once we got that off, he seemed much more interested in what Melissa was doing. He loved looking in the big mirror. And the goldfish snack helped :)



And now, the after. He can see!!!! Thanks Melissa - as always you rock!
Tag has learned to climb. He pushed the laundry basket over to the chair and climbed up. I'm so not ready for this!!!
He also likes to climb on Kinsey's bed. Usually if I can't find him, this is where he is...Or he's here, in his room, pulling stuff out of drawers. And he loves helping me on the computer. Tag loves hanging with his sister. Unfortunately he doesn't really grasp the concept of time-out. So Kinsey was sent to time-out this week and Tag couldn't seem to stay away. Kinsey tried her best to stay serious and ignore him, but finally I just gave in and cut the time-out short. Probably me taking pictures didn't help the situation :) He likes to pull up on everything now. It's really fun to see him playing on this piano since it was also the first thing Kinsey started practicing with for standing. He is also really digging Kinsey's castle. He's figured out how to push the music button and make the moat spin around.
So Tag's latest favorite foods are rotisserie chicken and black beans. He would eat them every meal. I don't know if you know this, but our little boy is not-so-little anymore. He is still in the baby nursery at the church until he learns to walk, which I love because those are the sweetest folks ever (although the next class up is awesome, too!), but he's pretty much exploded out of all the baby toys. A couple of weeks ago I came in and nearly fell over laughing. He was asleep in a swing, but was hanging out of it and had bottomed it out so it wouldn't even swing. You can't get the full effect here in this picture but you can tell how far his legs hang out. Apparently he was tired and crawled over to the swing, climbed up in it, leaned back (bottomed it out) and then fell asleep. Unfortunately he opened his eyes like one second before I snapped the pic. Unfortunately Tag spent quite a bit of early May not feeling well due to an ear infection. Here's a shot of him on the couch in his sleep sack watching the Wiggles. Thank goodness for Disney and Noggin - there were quite a few late nights where we needed entertainment. Since the weather's been nice lately, we've been spending a lot of time in the backyard on the playscape, hammock, and the swing. We set up the Elmo sprinkler on the playscape and let the kids play in the water for a while. Tag wasn't quite sure what to think of it but he loves to smack the water. Apparently the hammock is a great spot to cuddle with Daddy. The other evening we were in the backyard and well...
Now I know how this looks grandparents, but truthfully these were taken a few minutes apart and were not related. Kinsey decided she needed to reach for the leaves on the tree and when we told her to be careful, she said, "Mommy, I will never learn to reach if I don't try." She did not fall, I promise. Then a few minutes later she decided to slide down the slide on her tummy. So Douglas was taking pics from the hammock and these just looked too funny not to put them together, especially since I'm just standing there (yes in pajama pants) watching her "fall" down the slide.

Speaking of Daddy, here's some cute shots of the kids with him lately. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful Dad to my kiddos. A couple of weeks ago we headed north to visit Allie, the Schout's new baby, and say hi to some Ovilla friends. Here are some pics from that visit.
We had a great time. One of Kinsey's favorite parts was getting to sit in Mr. Paul's closet and watch his tv. She thinks that's just crazy! Speaking of crazy, here's some of the weird things that happen at our house:
Kinsey loves to get in the laundry basket and pretend it's all sorts of different things. This day she got a pillow and a blanket and it was her bed. Last week it was a boat that she rode in all the way to Grammy's house.
She absolutely LOVES to measure things. Douglas' tape measure is a favorite toy. Apparently the door is 77 and the window is 55. Can't remember what the tv was :) Yesterday Kinsey put a towel on her head and decided she wanted to "be Mary forever". Luckily she had on her yellow heels because really, you know Mary never went anywhere without her princess heels!And Tag is maybe starting to give into the "princess" pressure around here. He has developed a fondness for this feather boa from Kinsey's dress-up stash.
This month we had a Bapstism for the church at San Gabriel Park in Georgetown. It was awesome - several of our friends were baptized and a ton of kids from church. Praise God for changed lives!
Afterwards, Kinsey and Emma and Ava found a tire swing and went slightly nutso.
And Dionne gave Tag some crazy hair on the slide.
For Memorial Day weekend, we stayed close to home because Tag is getting a molar and had decided that staying up all day AND all night was a good idea - for several days. So we took the kids to Mooyah for burgers (soooo good) and then went to ride the Zilker Zephyr, which is the train at the park in Austin, and then to an awesome place called the Cookie Lounge (it's like Marble Slab only instead of ice cream, it's cookie dough). We tagged along with the Kedroskis, who are super cool, and a blast was had by all.

So you all know that Daddy has great ideas. Well the other day he got her a paint-your-own piggy bank. She calls it a "money pig" which cracked us up. So here's the nekkid money pig and the nekkid Kinsey because we are figuring out this parenting thing :).
So the pig came with instructions for where to put each color paint. Which lasted about 2 seconds.
Douglas very patiently showed her where each color should go and how to use the paintbrush to spread the paint evenly.
And then she just started randomly painting the colors everywhere and having a grand ole time so he had to take some deep breaths and let it go :).
She kept saying "look at this beauty" the whole time she was painting it. Here's the finished product. I think beauty must be truly in the eye of the beholder/painter/free spirit 3 year old.
Here are the latest in Kinseyisms:
-Headed to the bathroom, I asked her if she needed any help and she held her hand out to me, palm up and said, "No, no Mom, I can handle it."
-She got a bracelet at a playplace that had a security number on it that matched mine and it was one of those you have to cut off. So on the way home she's back there grunting and pulling it and I told her she needed to wait for us to get home so I could get scissors and she very dramatically said, "Oh there MUST be a way."
-Talking with her on the way home from an event. Me: "Ok punkin, when we get home, it's going to be bath time." Kinsey: "Ok, I will eat a popsicle in the tub" (which she does often). Me: "Hmm, I'm not sure if we have any popsicles left." Kinsey sadly sighed: "What a shame!"
-Tonight at dinner - "Mommy, when will I turn into a boy?"
- We've been singing the easily-stuck-in-your-head Beyonce song "All the Single Ladies" which has the very catchy line "If you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it." I know, this is stellar parenting, right? Anyway, this weekend she says "Mommy, I don't like it so I definitely shouldn't put a ring on it." So true Kinsey, so very true.