Lately

 This boy loves the slide

 And this girl loves her jewelry

 Such a big boy at the Children's Musuem

 Look! There's a dragon guarding the musuem, Mom!

 Summer has officially started

 And that means carry water bottles as big as you are to keep hydrated

 Tatum has been asking me to make her an "M - E - Em" for the last few weeks. After several probing questions and lots of tears, I figured out that she was asking me to make her an amulet like one of her favorite characters, Sofia the First, wears. He she is proudly modeling it.

 Taking a cruise together before swim class

 Smile

 Really, she was very pleased with the tutu that Miss Ashley brought her when she came to visit from California. Channeling her best diva pose

 Sunset buggy ride

 With Miss Ashley and her beau, Kevin (not pictured)

 All boy. Black eye, dirt face and all

 This is how Tatum hikes - in Daddy's arms. 

Water break to take in the view

Graham is Officially Walking

And as you can see he is very proud of himself. His took his first steps before we left for padre and has since built his stability to where walking is now his choice of transportation. 

 Apparently he has been perfecting his sneakiness too. How in the world did he manage to get on those stairs - the gate is still hooked?

 Graham has also been working on feeding himself using utensils - this morning he went big with a spatula! 

Tatum's First Haircut

 My friend, Melissa, came over to cut my hair yesterday. When I came downstairs after blow drying mine, this is what I found..."I'm just combing her out and taking a look - I won't cut anything if you don't want me to but she would look so cute". I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. I wasn't prepared for this moment. I of course planned on getting her hair cut at some stage, but hadn't yet built up the courage to do it and face the reality that doing so could possibly take away her sweet curls. She assured me that they would still be there and after her promising on our friendship (no really, we have been friends since we were born so she got that my joke was actually really serious;)) I got my camera and said "OK, I'm we're ready. This is exactly the sabotage I needed

 Tatum was beside herself. So sweet to see my baby feel so proud

 "My hairs hurt, Mommy" "No, sweet, this makes them feel healthy and strong" 

"oh, OK"

The cut looks great. She wanted to wear her polka-dot princess dress this morning and when she put it on I couldn't help but think of the last time she wore that dress...

Her first birthday party. Wow! Tatum's personality, strength (and hair) have grown so much over the past two years

Happy Birthday, Graham

Today we celebrated!

We invited all our friends to party like animals

As we wished our boy, Graham

 A Happy...

 Happy 1st Birthday!

 Let's get this party started

 As fast as we can!

 We are so fortunate to have such fun friends to share this fun day with

 But I mean, come on...

 Who wouldn't want to party with this guy

 The Wiegand's wouldn't have missed it

 And there was no shortage of smiles

 A few friends' faces are missing but this is by far the most collective group shot to date

 Tatum with her best friend, Amelia and her little brother Benson

 Birthday boy

 and friends

 We are thankful everyday for this kind boy

 and his sweet manner

No worries, Tatum's frown turned to a smile as soon as Graham shared his birthday cookie - he preferred the pizza

The Pitts Hit The Beach

Our family has doubled in size since Rodney and my last visit to South Padre and though Rodney got to kite again, there were no books in my beach bag this trip. 

 After an 18 hour travel day - bad weather trapped us in Houston for almost 9 hours - this gem still was still smiling

And ready to hit the beach despite the rainy weather

 Graham rockin' Daddy's shades

 The clouds cleared and we went to see island wildlife at the bird watching center

 The gal up front told us there was a resident alligator between blinds 5 and 6 which immediately sent Tatum into hot pursuit

 We found "Alli" perched on a grass island and even shared (spilled) a bag of cheerios with her

 Why didn't we bring the stroller again

 Happy hour smiles on the beach

 It's nearly impossible to get a photo with both of them looking but at least they both look cute

 This is the one time that Graham crawled away from the water the entire vacation

 He loved the water

 Even...

 When...

 It...

 Knocked...

 Him over...

 Check out this beauty

 and these two turtles too

 We explored the dunes

 And gathered our most favorite shells

 She ran up and down, up and down the dunes

 We hit the beach early every morning

 Most days before the fog even burned off

  Negotiating for a spade

And he was successful

Score! Touchdown arms

 So happy to be in the sand

 and in the water

 You can take the two year old girl to the beach but the beach can't take the two year old out of the girl

 So Daddy devised a perfect solution - the time-out circle. Unfortunately, she didn't mind much

 And though there wasn't as much wind as Rod would have liked

 There was wind - and it was strong. Rodney is the one way way up in the air

 Posing by the BEST Kite truck at the kite round-up

 Attracted to the kites just like her Daddy

 A slide today, a kite launch tomorrow

 The boys at sunrise

Thanks for the wonderful week, Padre