Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Playing in the Dirt

As I've mentioned, Madison loves to be outside!  Ryan and I have been trying to get all our Spring planting done. This year, that included all our flowering pots and our first attempts at an herb and vegetable garden.  If everything grows, we will be very excited!  Madison has been enjoying all our trips to the Farmer's Market and Lowe's.  But, she especially loves helping out in the yard!
Here is Daddy supervising!  Our yard is pretty small, so we thought we'd start with a very small vegetable garden and see how it goes.  

Helping mix the soil with Daddy

Proud of her hard work and helping

Snack break - planting is hard work!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Catching up on Madison

I have taken quite the break from blogging, but would like to attempt to catch up. Madison turned 2 a few weeks ago and is just a delight. She has quite the strong personality, is barrels of fun, incredibly snugly and very opinionated!

Favorites: She loves to be outside.  She would be outside all day long.  Madison loves to hunt for Easter eggs (we throw them, she collects them. repeat. again.), she enjoys watering the flowers and most of all, bubbles.  She will gather her buckets and walk away, yelling, "Bye, see you soon!"  Luckily for us, our backyard is gated, so she can't make it far.


Park playdates are one of her favorites.  She likes to climb and swing.  She talks all about the slide, but generally will go down once or twice and then is done.



Her favorite show is Mickey Mouse.  Perhaps terrible that we let her watch tv, but sometimes, I need to cook dinner!  She loves Minnie and will sing and dance along.  She asks to watch "Rubies" (Max&Ruby), but is often bored quickly.  Elmo continues to be a favorite, but she won't sit to watch Sesame Street.  Inside, she is often coloring and playing with stickers. I wish I could insert a recording of her little voice when she asks for stickers (it sounds Russian).
Madison also loves letters. It is amazing watching her learn.  I cannot take any credit for her knowing and identifying all her letters before age 2, I guess they just learn what they are interested in? Hopefully she'll be a reader.



Dislikes:  Waiting.  Patience is something that Madison does not have! Please tell me this is a general 2 year old trait?  We are finding that we cannot even tell her when we are going to leave, because she becomes so frustrated with the "getting everything ready" part, she often has a meltdown while waiting.  Honestly, this tends to be the root of almost all tantrums.

Eating:  Madison weighed in at 25.1 lbs at her 2 year checkup, putting her right at 50% for weight.  She is off of whole milk now.  We have really tried to introduce her to most foods and at dinner, she has what we are having, or at least attempts to.  Veggies are not always enjoyed, but she will generally eat peas!  Madison loves blueberries and bananas.  She also has her Daddy's sweet tooth, so we will need to teach her portion control and moderation :)

Sleeping:  Madison has turned out to be a great sleeper.  She goes down every night around 7 and sleeps until between 7 and 8.  We keep generally the same routine of bath, books, and laying her down awake.  Sometimes she is asleep in 5 minutes, sometimes 30, but we cannot complain and almost never are there any tears.  At home, she naps from 12:30-2ish.  Daycare is a little rough, she generally sleeps only about 45 minutes, but it doesn't seem to have too negative of an impact on her! We think she's afraid she will miss out on any fun!  And, she gets extra snuggles from her teachers if she's the only one awake - so she may have it all figured out!  At home, there is no rush to get Madison when she wakes up.  She likes taking her time and we find if we go in too quick, she is often grumpy.

Routine: Madison goes to daycare all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She loves school and is running out the door to get there.  She spends Wednesdays with her "Aunt Shell" and they get to have so much fun.  Often they go to story time at the library and for walks to the park.  I get to spend all day Mondays and Fridays with her and usually try to attend playgroup.  Right now, we are doing a 4 week class at MyGym.  We did a Town of Cary ballet class, but at just under 2 years, were just not ready for such strict classroom guidelines - haha!  However, the leotard was adorable!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Coming Soon!

In case you missed our big news...Madison will be a big sister early this summer!

Luke Ryan Castile is due to arrive on June 8th.  We are over the moon excited and maybe just a little nervous about it!  Since most people ask, Madison definitely does not understand what is happening.  She thinks everyone, including men and daddies, have babies in their tummies.  She does like to pat my stomach and tell me "shhh" the baby is sleeping, but that is pretty much the extent of it.  Now that we are starting to work on his nursery (no judgement, we've still got 8 weeks...) we have been talking about "Luke's room" and his bed, etc. I fully anticipate that the first few weeks will be tricky.  And, I do worry about how she will feel.  I firmly believe that a sibling is one of the best gifts and I am so hopeful that she will love him and they will grow to be best friends!  Luckily for us, my mom has agreed to stay for several extra days to help with the transition.  Madison is the luckiest little girl and has such a special bond with her grandparents, so this will truly be helpful!

He is for sure, a second child.  While we are excited about him joining our family, we haven't been quite so diligent about our preparations.  Ryan just finished painting a dresser for his room and we just decided on bedding.  I'm hopeful that in the next few weeks I can start to do a little decorating and washing of clothes, etc.  My sweet sweet friends were pretty convincing and we settled on a "drop-in" baby shower for him. I am excited for all things little boy and how different this will be for us as a family!

Thanks for checking in on us!