Come along with the Castros and help Maddox find his toys...

Maddox loves playing hide and seek. Every night when Harold is coming home he finds a place to hide. He has his favorite go to spots, like under the table or under the pillows on the couch but no matter where he is when Harold walks in the door and calls out to Maddox "donde estas" it never fails that Maddox will say "over here" papa. He has recently been "hiding" from me during the day, although I always know where he is before he even says "mama come find me". So I have decided to make a few games up with his love for finding things. He was playing with play dough one day when I thought about putting a few little toys inside the play dough for him to have to find. He loved this idea and was excited to look for more and more toys. When he found them all he wanted to do it again and again. Then today when sitting on the patio I was trying to think of what to do with him. He had these little Wonder Pet figurines outside that he was playing with. So I told him to close his eyes and count to ten (of course he couldn't help but peek) while I hid them in the grass. It turned out to be a great activity. He then asked to hide them from me and would tell me "no peeking" and would be giggling the whole time. Then when he was done "hiding" them he would wait about 5 seconds and then tell me where they were. I love these simple little things that make his (and my) day.

Come along with the Castros and watch Maddox sleep...

I think all kids have their own style of sleeping. Recently Maddox has been asking to take another stuffed animal into the bed with him to add to the ones that he usually has in there. It started with puppy and lady, then added 2 more dogs spot and snoopy. Now he has added about 5 other animals to his sleeping routine. Luckily he doesn't have a checklist to make sure they are all there every night so if one is missing (unless it is the special one for that night) it is okay. This week it has been his green frog "Froggy" (I know how original) from his buddy Sienna in Mexico. On some nights he comes into our bedroom and sleeps on the floor on a make shift bed. It is very interesting to see where he ends up in the morning. He moves so much even if I wanted to let him sleep in our bed we would get no sleep. 

Here is "Froggy" and Mickey is under there too. 

Freestyle

His pillow is actually under the nightstand and thus so is he!! hehe

Come along with the Castros and watch these brothers together...

It is so funny that when a new baby is arriving you expect as they grow for the little brother to look up to the older brother and do everything that he does. However at this stage it is interesting to see the opposite. I'm sure in a couple months it will change but right now Maddox has reverted back to his infancy. He has to try every toy I bring out for Landon and even tells me that he is a baby and makes baby sounds. Just recently though the boys have been interacting on a different level. It is so cute to hear them in the back seat of the car laughing hysterically. I also love how every night Maddox has to give his brother kisses before Landon lays down and tell him "have a good night and see you in the morning". Maddox really is doing a good job at being a big brother. He runs to tell me if Landon is crying and get very concerned. Maddy even shares his toys with Lu too. I love watching them interact on a daily basis it is such a great feeling as a mom.

Come along with the Castros and see what Landon is eating...

Landon has been teething like crazy. For the last 4 nights he has been waking up 3-4 times a night when he typically only wakes up once. This makes for a very tired mommy! Thus the reason I haven't posted in a while. I'm back and have lots to tell you about. Since Lu has turned 6 months we have started him on solids. It did not go too well at first when I started him on the rice cereal. I decided to move onto oatmeal after a couple days of getting nowhere with the rice. He loved it. I love when he opens his little mouth leaning towards the spoon in anticipation. I now have to give him his own spoon to hold or else he tries to grab the spoon I am feeding him with every time. Since then Landon has had his first taste of avocado, peas, sweet potato, and banana even a little red pepper to chew on. He is doing great and now even eats the rice cereal. I guess he decided it isn't too bad.

Come along with the Castros and paint in the tub...

I usually give Maddox and Landon a bath at the same time. But last night Landon fell asleep earlier then usual which meant Maddox had the tub all to himself. I have been waiting for a night like this to happen so that I could do this activity with Maddox. He was so excited that we were going to play "a game" in the tub. We have a set of stacking cups that are always in the bathtub as they are awesome for pouring water into but on this night I put some shaving cream with a drop of food coloring in each cup. I gave Maddox a paint brush and "let him loose". At first he was so curious as to what it was and asked numerous times if he could eat it. Then he asked me to write his name on the tub which was when he really started to get into painting the tub and his bath toys. It took him almost 30 minutes in to try and paint his body. Which he didn't like at first because oddly enough he doesn't like to be dirty. In the end he was super wrinkly and super happy. We will definitely do this again. 

Come along with the Castros and paint our toys...

Harold has been taking a CPA course on Saturdays. This week they had a break but he still needed to spend some time studying. So I needed to come up with something to do outside with Maddox so that it would be nice and quiet for Harold inside. So I grabbed the washable paint and a couple of bath ducks and took him outside. Maddox was very surprised and said "I can paint my toys?". While he was painting he continued to tell me "Maddox is making a mess". It was so cute and so much more fun for him considering it was something he normally wasn't allowed to do. Usually I give him something to do so that I can get other stuff done but this time I got to enjoy the activity with him. After you see the pictures guess which one is mine. hehe After we finished painting we filled up his little pool with water and I gave him a washcloth and an old shampoo bottle (that I had filled with water and a couple drops of hand soap) and he gave them all a bath. When he finished giving them a bath he asked to paint them again. This is activity is a keeper!

He was hiding from the camera....sort of.

   

Come along with the Castros to Matheson Hammock Park...

This afternoon we decided to go to the beach to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful day here and we needed that relaxing family time. Maddy even went into the water although it was a little chilly but there were other children in the water and wherever there is other children playing you will find Maddy. He is such a social kid and has not found out yet that 8 and 9 year olds don't always like an (almost) 3 year old tagging along with them. Landon is always happy being outside. If he is fussing I know bring him out to see some sunshine and it is an instant cure. My little sunshine boy!

Come along with the Castros and keep Maddox busy...

Maddox is always looking for something to do and I am always trying to find things for him to do. It is essential for me to keep him busy so that I can keep up with the housework and take care of Landon. Some of the things that I have found that really keep him busy are the simplist things like scissors with paper, different sized cups filled with water, and a dry erase board with markers (that I found at Target for $.75!!). Why do we spend good money on toys....everyone always says it but we still do it.

I just threw some paint in a ziplock bag and taped it on top of a piece of white paper and let him squish it around. Fun!

Here we set up a spider web using rope. I cut out spiders from felt and hung them on the rope with clothes pins. I told him he had to rescue some bugs I cut out from the spiders without touching the rope.   

 Here he is using scissors and a hole puncher.

 

Come along with the Castros and make Landon laugh...

Landon (especially when well rested, fed, and changed) will pretty much laugh at anything. Maddox walking towards him always gets a chuckle. On this day in particular I heard the word "zip" on a show Maddox was watching. So while acting silly with Landon I said "zip zip Landon" and he started cracking up. Over and over I would say it and the laughs kept coming. I ran to get the camera because it was a pretty good laugh and usually at this point he would normally stop doing what I wanted to record but this time he didn't. So just how cute is this laughing baby! Please ignore the toddler in the end of the video asking for food I just didn't have time to edit. Thanks! :o)

Come along with the Castros and have a Happy Valentines day...

For Valentines day we meet up with some friends in our playgroup. In the morning, Maddox and I made some "cupid crunch" to bring with us to the park and share with our friends. It is just popcorn, mixed with peanuts, cranberries, and M&M's all held together by melting white chocolate. This stuff is soooo yummy I almost didn't want to share. hehe. There were 7 kids at the playgroup but I only have pictures of Maddox and one friend. The reason being is that he was stuck to her like glue. I guess you could say that she was his little Valentine.

Come along with the Castros while Landon is teething...

We are expecting a first tooth to break through Landon's little gums any day now. It seems every picture I have of him lately his hands are always in his mouth. When its not his hands, it is anything else he can get his little hands on. One of his favorite things to chew on right now is the strap to my camera. Since I am always taking pictures he has many opportunities to get it into his little hands and in about .2 seconds it is in his mouth. Poor little guy I hope these teeth come out quickly! 

He is obssessed with this tag because he can reach it and pull the whole arch down and then get it right to his mouth

The camera strap

Sometimes he gets so desperate he shoves two hands into his mouth

Come along with the Castros and go to the Miami Seaquarium...

Today we took our first trip to the Miami Seaquarium. To start, it was 50 degrees here today! brrrr! It was funny watching how the two boys reacted to the cold. Maddox walked around half the day wrapped up in a blanket, that thankfully we had in the car. If you know Maddox, it must have been cold because being wrapped up slows you down a little and he does not like to be held back. Landon did not like all the layers and was wondering why we weren't taking him out of his seat. Despite the cold, we had a great day! The park is impressive. We had the chance to watch fish get fed in the shark tank, we also watched two dolphin shows, a sea lion show, and a killer whale show.During the killer whale show Maddox and Harold sat in the splash zone. When they say splash zone they mean you are going to get soaked zone. Yea for the blanket again as Harold was able to cover them so they were only a little wet (while everyone around them were soaked). Maddox thoroughly enjoyed it. Overall we all loved it all! Both boys did so great considering it was way past nap time. We finished the afternoon by coming home and all (except me) taking a nice long nap. However, I did enjoy the quiet time. It was a great day!

All wrapped up!

He has been camera shy lately so when he asked me to take this picture I was thrilled!