Category: Personal

The last few weeks have flown by.  When I look at my calendar for the next few weeks, well really few months, it doesn’t look like time is slowing down anytime soon…okay, realistically does it ever?  The last few weeks we have made so many memories with family and friends that I am so thankful for.  Every day Madison is growing up more and more and truly interacting with everyone.  The 3 of us went to Pullen Park for the first time and Madison rode the “Horsies” and the Choo Choo Train and drove the boats!  She had a blast, and so did we!  We had family over for Easter lunch and the kids had an Easter egg hunt!  We went to the zoo with Tim’s parents and had a blast!  Madison can tell you everything she saw and what they were doing when she saw them!  “Madison, what did you see at the zoo?” “Monkeys!!” “You saw monkeys?  What were they doing?” “Swinging!” “What else did you see?”  “Black Bear!”  “Wow, what was the black bear doing?” “Night night” “Yea, the black bear was sleeping.”  Yes, these are the types of conversations we have now!  And one of her new favorite phrases…Right there, or Right here.  You might hear her say something like “Daddy, sit down right there.”  And in fact she MEANS Daddy, sit down right there!  Holy cow…when did she start to speak and totally comprehend these types of phrases!  It was in the blink of an eye!

I am sad to say, we got to the Zoo and I took out my camera only to realize…I left my memory cards at home…HOW did I do that????  Well…I don’t wanna talk about it…

While I’m admitting things…I am going to be away from Madison overnight for the first time EVER this weekend.  I know you probably think that is nuts, but it’s true.  I have not always been there to put her to bed, but I have always slept in the same place and woken up to my baby girl since the day she was born.  My younger sister’s bachelorette weekend is this weekend, so not only am I away from her for 1 night…but 2!!  I will say though, that I think it is time.  Tim and Madison will have a great weekend together and although I will miss her terribly, I will be laying out on the beach Saturday, and yes…just laying there, and there is a very good chance I’ll have a drink in my hand and having some good girl conversations!

Madison fell at school and had to get X-Rays of her Thumb.  It was extremely swollen and black and blue.  She is having a lot of trouble with the doctors right now so getting X-Rays was NOT easy!   She did get a hospital band that she called her bracelet!

She wasn’t so sure if she actually wanted to ride on the horse or not…she finally let go a little bit and had a blast!  (Thanks to Tim for the pictures!)

Easter 🙂

Madison loves Baby Henry.
Drew has no idea what is about to hit him!
Hanging out at home!  I truly love family time and just hanging out with my husband and my daughter.  It doesn’t get any better!Playing basketball with Daddy with his new basketball hoop!!Enjoying our Sunday night on the porch.  Weather was awesome and some nice quiet time before a long week of Tim being out of town!

Madison wanted to walk Kali…that was until we were about 1 house down and she saw the “Big Truck”.  A little Mommy and Maddie time.

One of my favorite pictures of all time!!  Kali got very sick when I was pregnant with Madison.  I was afraid we were going to have to put her down and was so sad that my baby that would soon be here might not have Kali to run with, play with, and love on.  Thankfully, Kali pulled through and this…this right here is EXACTLY what I always dreamt about.  My puppy and my baby loving on each other.  There is NOTHING better than this right here.

Life has been busy lately!  Tim has been traveling a lot more for work, my work has been crazy, and all the while sweet Madison keeps on growing up!  When Tim is gone, I tend to take a little longer to put Madison to bed, well….because it is girls night, or girls day…or well really girls week sometimes.  Last week one of the nights when we just finished reading Pout, Pout Fish (one of her absolute favorites!) she dropped her baby and said “Oh Man…”  I asked her again what she just said and there it was again “Oh, MANNNNN”  I was laughing harder than I had laughed in quite awhile!!  Of course then, she knew she had said something funny so we repeated back and forth to each other “oh man” as we just laughed and laughed!  She is truly such a joy in my life and I absolutely love every minute I get with her.  Okay…maybe I’m not being totally honest, because along with Oh Man…has also returned, the horrible, terrible…”No!”  Yes, that is right, “No” is back for round 2, only this time it comes with a whole bunch of attitude with it!  So yes, that is being dealt with in between all of the laughing!

We are so excited the weather is finally warming up!!  That means more outside time, more walks, more chats with neighbors, more time in our back yard!!  (Our fence was complete yesterday, so we are very excited to hang out in the back yard!)

I know of one thing for sure that Madison takes after me…or maybe it is just because she is a girl, but she LOVES chocolate.  We went for a grocery store outing on one of my Fridays (my day off work to spend with her…and cleaning the house…or perhaps making it even messier??)  Walking into the grocery store I told her we were going to get chocolate!  Little did she know it had to cook…From that moment on until we got home “chocolate? chocolate? chocolate?”  Just like her mommy!! 🙂  For the first time, we made brownies together!!  She LOVED baking them!

She was thinking so hard about whether or not to try this batter (dry!)

And when I told her not to…this is the look I got!! (Yes this is a bit of the attitude that comes with the newly returned “N-O” word.)

And after it was mixed…this happened!

I know, I know…what about the egg…yes, well….she really didn’t actually eat much of it, I promise!! Most of it was just on her face and it might have gotten in her hair and on her shirt…

We got to walk the lake with Aunt Stephanie and feed the ducks!!  Aunt Stephanie is so busy these days preparing for her wedding in August and closing on her new home later this month, so we are lucky when we get to see her for a couple of hours!!

And Aunt Stephanie graciously took a couple of pictures of Madison and I together!!

We went for a weekend getaway to Myrtle Beach and had an awesome weekend!  Madison LOVED the water just as much as she did last summer!  She also loved the view from the 17th floor!  It was a nice relaxing family weekend.  AND lucky for me it was during March Madness, so while Madison napped on Saturday, Tim got to watch basketball, and me…well yes, I was laying out…in my bathing suit…on the beach!!  It was awesome!

She is playing on my iPhone.  Yep, she knows exactly how to work it!  How to find the app (game) she is looking for, or the video of herself that she is looking for.  (There are a few in particular she repeatedly plays.)

From our balcony.  It was beautiful.  Sometimes we forget just how beautiful it is right here in NC!!  Ahhh, this view just makes me so happy!

Out to dinner at Broadway at the beach…doesn’t she look like she is behaving so well?  HAHA…that is the exact opposite of how most of this dinner was!!!  Yes…she was on the floor twice during this dinner, thank goodness it was while we were waiting for the check…so it was outside we went!I will say she went potty 2 times during this dinner and they had the coolest potties she had ever seen!  They were BLACK!  So now she always says Black Potty, Black Potty.  And when we ask her where was the black potty she says “At the ocean.”  Yep, sweet girl you are so right!

Then we got to feed some fish!

On our way home we were so lucky to be able to stop in to see some friends of ours in Leland!  Taryn was my big sister in my sorority and her daughter Harper was born the day after Madison.  The entire drive to Harper’s house Madison was practicing what to say when we got there…”Hiiiiyy HAPERRRR” (yes it is pronounced without the first R, most of the time…by Madison anyways!)  We enjoyed a delicious lunch and catch up time while the girls enjoyed playing outside together.  I sooo wished we lived closer!!

What a wonderful few weeks it has been!!  And time keeps on flying by! 🙂

WARNING! This post is primarily for documenting life…not as much on the perfect photos!  I can’t help but put our weekend into writing!

This weekend started off with a late Friday night with some wonderful friends we don’t get to see enough!  The Colvins were in town!!!   Caitlin, Alex, Riley and Noah all came over to play!  It was so wonderful to catch up with them.  We all ate pizza for dinner and had a blast!  The last time we saw them Madison was maybe a month old, and Noah was a young baby still in Mommy’s belly!  To watch the 3 kids play together was so much fun!   Madison and Riley both like hiding in kitchen cabinets…no matter what size cabinets they may be…

Noah started a trend…He stood on the ottoman and then Madison climbed up and thought she might show him how much fun he could have up there…and that might mean jumping…

Around 9 or so Madison started getting cuddly with Mommy, which is unusual, but I knew it was way past her bedtime so I thought nothing of it.  She then started laying on me saying Night Night, Night Night…hmmm I don’t believe this has EVER happened before…unless of course she wasn’t feeling well.

Saturday  morning she woke up happy!  Didn’t eat much breakfast, but I still thought nothing of it because her personality was perfectly normal!  We went for a family trip to Target and she fell asleep on me!  NEVER happens! She slept getting her into the carseat and then into her crib…3 hours and skipped lunch.  I was assuming this was all due to a 5th day of daycare last week, which she has never done, and a late Friday  night.   When she got up we went for a walk on our neighborhood trails and went to feed the ducks at the lake…we took blueberries, a banana, and cheerios…No eating!  (Although the ducks liked the cheerios!)  We came back and hung out on the porch and all was pretty normal!

Eating crushed ice…which she loves.

Pushing chairs around…

Playing with Kali.

That night was a normal night of sleep…about 7pm to 7:15am. (Ate very little dinner.)

Sunday we woke up and went to Nana and Grandpa’s house for the morning while Mommy went to brunch for a friends Baby Sprinkle and Daddy went to play golf.  Nana took her on a walk with Goldfish to snack on!!  And….you guessed it…she didn’t eat them!  (SUPER abnormal!)

All the while, Mommy was enjoying some girl time with wonderful friends and food!

When I got back to my parents I put Madison down to nap there.  I heard her crying after an hour and a half and went to get her, but she was still laying down under her blanket…but crying.  Like a moaning cry.  I almost left her but felt too bad and knew something wasn’t quite right.  I figured I’d just let her sleep on me for awhile.  Well that didn’t work because Aunt Stephanie was there and well that was not a time to be sleeping, it was time to play!  Madison learned how to skip with the help of Aunt Stephanie, Mommy, Nana, and yes…Grandpa too!  She tried jumping rope, and ran up and down the side walk non-stop.

She also tried to play limbo…Madison Style!

And with some attitude…

Then she came to me and asked me to hold her and then she laid her head down on me.  She again, fell asleep on me.  I promise you…this never happens!!!!

Sunday night she went to bed around 7:30pm and luckily I had the day off Monday (since I went to work on Friday the week before) because my little girl slept until NOON!!!!  When she woke up she had a little bit to eat then asked to watch Sofia the First and actually watched the entire episode while leaning her head back on the sofa pillows.  Now my normal Madison watches the first song of Sofia the First and then is off doing something much more fun…But for those of you who know that song, you must admit, even you want to watch the first song and then turn it off now and again…(Okay, maybe thats just me!)  Oh and by the way, Caitlin (who came over Friday night with her husband and boys) and I met in A Christmas Carol in downtown Raleigh back in high school and have been friends ever since.  The moment I first heard her sing I was amazed!  I asked her on Friday if she knew the first song from Sofia the First…well because she would like it too…but then I remembered she has 2 boys and they probably aren’t in to watching Princesses.  (She didn’t know the song.)  But seriously! It is really good, for a children’s show anyways!

After the episode ended…Madison fell asleep on me…YES she slept 16.5 hours that night and then 2 hours after she woke up she fell back to sleep!!!  I finally called the nurses line at her pediatricians office and started waiting…and waiting…and then google searching while I was waiting…AND I officially started freaking out.  I saw things saying this could be the first signs of brain cancer!!!  I know…I shouldn’t google search, but it is SOOOO easy!  Needless to say, we didn’t wait for the nurses to get back to us, we made an appointment and went in.

Now I know by now you are all worried…as you should be!   Guess what it is!!!

Her 2 bottom 2 year old molars.  They both have just popped through.  Of course I didn’t think of this because well 1) My baby is not close to 2 years old, right? Really? How can that be??  Didn’t we JUST have her 1 year old birthday?? and 2) Teething was the one thing that was pretty easy for her.  None of her other teeth gave her trouble.

So there you have it…if your child is sleeping CRAZY amounts and has a loss of appetite it might be as simple as that!  Treatment: Children’s Motrin

More snow??  I was happy when it snowed once!  That was enough for this Family!  This round of snow we spent less time playing in it, and more time looking at it! 🙂  It is so special to see how magical snow is to a young child.  I hope everyone got home safely during all of the chaos as the storm began and enjoyed a little down time.

Hi! I am so glad you’re visiting Katie Manton Photography’s brand new website!  Although this is my Photography website and my blog will contain posts from my recent work, it will also serve as a personal blog.  It is important to me to keep a blog to act as a journal, but also to challenge me to become a better photographer.  I hope you enjoy reading!

Snow!  We finally got snow, and yes, although I am ready for spring now, (and we may get snow again this week??) I was so thankful that Madison was able to play in the snow this year.  As you can tell, we were less than prepared, but gathered what we could find for her and took her out to play!  No waterproof pants, no snow boots, and yes…no gloves!  But hey, she didn’t seem to mind!  We ate snow, we rolled around in the snow and we tried sledding on a piece of cardboard, which was by the way was very UNsuccessful…Don’t try it!  Luckily we found a little sled someone left behind and we let Madison sled down the hill on that a few times.  She had the time of her life and seeing that smile on her face over  and over again and hearing her laugh the whole way down was priceless!