For Memorial Day this year we went to Dan's brother's house for a family barbecue and Madelyn's first pool experience. ( I'm finally posting about it because I finally got around to getting the pictures from my mom in law.)  The water was still pretty chilly and we weren't sure if she was going to like it.   I only wanted her feet in, but Dan decided to dunk her bum.  She didn't seem overjoyed about it (notice the clenched fists), but she didn't really cry either, so we'll call that a success!  The "cover up" dress she's in was a souvenir we picked up for her in Cancun.  And thank you Alyssa for the hand me down swimsuit! Cute!

We're planning to go to my parents' house to stay a night or two during the 4th of July weekend, so we'll probably give the pool another go around...basically it's the only thing you can do outside here in the Arizona heat.

Friday was Madelyn's 2 month Dr. appointment, which means...dun dun duuunnn...shots, shots and more shots.  I was REALLY dreading it, but also anxious to get it over with.  Dan was able to meet me there for moral support.  Madelyn was already cranky because she was tired and I had to wake her up to undress her for the doc.  So she wasn't entirely happy with me, but put on her happy face for the doctor for her exam.  Then we had to wait, what seemed like an eternity, for the nurse to come back at the end for the shots and unfortunately Madelyn's contentment had expired by then. 

I'm happy to say we all survived and Madelyn promptly fell asleep on the drive home.  The last few days she's battled a fever and hasn't quite been herself.  She seemed so out of it especially on Friday and Saturday, with little awake time.  And even when she was awake she wasn't quite all there, despite her efforts with weak smiles and limp kicks and wiggles.  Fortunately she seems to be coming out of it and back to normal and we had a good Sunday visiting both sides of the family.

You can see her owies in this picture, although I took it to show her cute socks.  My brother Scott gave her a set of these for Christmas last year while she was still a fetus. haha

Here are her stats:
Height: 23 3/4 inches (90%)
Weight: 10lbs 7 oz (50%)  (that's 11oz gain since last appt a month ago)
Head: 39.2 cm (50%) (her hair probably makes it look twice as big as it is)

We got ourselves a healthy growing baby girl with thighs like her mommy and dimples like her daddy! ;)

MY DADDY'S HAND
Daddy, Take my hand in yours and you will plainly see,
How very much I need you now to love and care for me.
As my little hand grows, I will need you even more,
Everything I do in life, I have never done before.
Teach me to be kind and loving, sharing and forgiving,
Show me through your acts of love the pure joy of living.
The years will pass by quickly and one day I will be grown,
I will pass what you have taught me onto children of my own.
Hold me always in your thoughts and remember when we are apart,
The special love between a child and a daddy's heart.

Madelyn is too cute with all her crazy hair, but it's getting harder to manage as it continues to grow but refuses to lay down.  She has a big section at the back top part of her head that WILL NOT lay down.  I think it is cute to have it all over the place, but sometimes it needs to be controlled.  On Friday the MacKinlay ladies got together for lunch and my sis in law, Shauna, asked me to go with her to Babies R Us so she could get Madelyn some hair accessories.  We walked out with 3 different sets of barrettes and ponytail holders. 

I'm still learning how best to put them in, but she looks a little more girly amongst the craziness, don't ya think?  :)  It's fun having your very own dress up doll, I mean baby :)

What a great day this has been!  Today Madelyn received her baby blessing.  Dan put a lot of thought into what he wanted to say and  it all turned out great.  As much as we hoped she wouldn't be fussy during the blessing, Madelyn had her own plans.  Saturday night she slept like a champ and only woke up once, which I was grateful for since I had limited sleep Friday night and was feeling achy all day on Saturday.  BUT, that meant I had to wake her up to get dressed, which she was not used to.  Usually I'm trying to keep her sleeping as long as possible.  So I disrupted her sleep, got her dressed in her frilly dress (actually, the one I wore when I was blessed) and tried to speed nurse her in order to get to the church.  Well that kept her happy right up until she was surrounded by a bunch of men being bounced around with her feet over her head (apparently they weren't holding her very level...)  She cried the whole time, but Dan said it was better that she cried from the start, otherwise it would have thrown him off if she started up half way through.

All in all it was a special occasion.  She was surrounded by almost all her uncles (a couple of brothers-in-law were out of state), both grandpas, and some friends from the ward.  I even submitted to Dan's coaxing and bore my testimony.  With Dan contemplating what to say in the blessing, and me trying to plan for the day's events, I completely forgot about that tradition of the mother bearing her testimony.  My words were a little "sputtery" since my thoughts were kind of all over the place, but the sentiment was there. 

We feel truly blessed to have this new little spirit to love and nurture.  Happy Blessing Day Maddy!

So Madelyn has this friend on the stairs.  We're not sure what exactly she's looking at, I think the 3 circle mirrors (see below), but without fail if we stand her up on our laps while sitting on the couch facing back, she stares in that direction and smiles!  If she's happy, it's lots of smiling....if she's not...like yesterday, she was hungry I think and gave her sad pouty face with her little bottom lip sticking out, and then her friend caught her eye and she gave a quick smile, but then right back to pouty....quick smile....then pouty....This happened about 5 times.  It was TOO funny!  She is such a character.  Maybe she thinks it's a face???  I don't know.  It's kind of creepy and cute all at the same time.  Hopefully we can catch it on video and post it.