Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I am finally getting around to posting some pictures and all that good stuff.
We had an awesome Christmas! We stayed in town this year, and it was very nice and low-key. My parents had John, Madilyn and I over and we did our traditional fondue... which was so much fun! I look forward to it every year. My sister and her husband came down from NC on Christmas Eve (after we were in bed) and Madilyn opened 1 gift on Christmas Eve before going to bed, and it was a baby doll from her Grama and Papa. She LOVED it, it was so cute. She kept kissing it over and over again. So sweet! Then, Christmas morning my brother got off of work and headed over (he was on night shift) and we all opened gifts. John's family has a tradition of having english muffins with ham, cheese and mayo on it. So, I made that... and then for the rest of the family I attempted to make Eggs Benedict, since it's pretty close in it's ingredients. Well... lets just say that was interesting. Next year I will get an egg poacher, and I will try a little bit harder to find a jar of hollandaise sauce. It didn't turn out quite as good as I was hoping, but everyone was a good sport and gobbled it up. :) We spent some great family time the whole weekend, and went to the lights at the zoo. It was so fun to be with family and remember the true reason for the season. I am looking forward to sharing the Bible reading of the story of Jesus' birth with Madilyn when she gets older.
Here's some pictures to enjoy!

I thought this picture was too cute. She is eating her first animal cracker from Grama that she got in her stocking

Here Madilyn is helping us with the tree stand... :)
Here is Madilyn opening her very first Christmas gift on Christmas Eve... she just talked and talked to that baby doll

and gave it kisses
ok, this picture should be at the top, but it's her opening the gift...

Well, I will post more later, but for now this will have to be it. Madilyn woke up from her nap, and she desperately wants to help with typing... here's a quick note from her...
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8 months!!

Yes, it has been a while... it seems I only am getting on here about 1x per month! Oh well... at least I am trying...! :)
Madilyn Belle turned 8 months old on December 17th, 2009, and she is growin, growin! I am not sure how much she weighs, but she's growing as she should be. She's in some 9 month clothing, but mostly still 6-9 month clothing. She is still in size 2 diapers (but I don't think for much longer) and size 2 shoes. She's a petite little thing, and I love it! She's definitely very girly and sweet. She is not yet crawling forwards, but she is scooting backwards. She is pulling up on EVERYTHING also. I found her standing up in her crib for the first time the other day after her nap. I was so shocked! I also walked into the nursery a couple of Sundays ago and there she was standing up holding on to a toy and barefoot! (She constantly is pulling off her socks!) She is too funny! I keep thinking that she will crawl, but she gets in the position, rocks back and forth, and then rolls to her back. Then, she will proceed to roll across the room to whatever it was that she wants to get to. lol! Her 3rd tooth is FINALLY breaking through, I can see it right under the skin and just know it will pop through at any moment. It has been coming for, um, what... over a month?! I brought her into the doctor last month and she told me she was teething and even pointed out the swollen gums... but just NOW the tooth is coming through. Luckily just last night was when she really started to be crabby about it. She refused to eat dinner and was very very clingy to mommy. I didn't mind a little extra Madi time though :).
I have a TON of pictures to put on here, but I can't remember where my card is at the moment, so I will have to post them later. I have us getting our first REAL Christmas tree, and Madilyn seeing it for the first time. John setting it up...etc. It's quite humorous really, he was SO excited. Madilyn just wanted to suck on the ornaments, but she is really liking all of the lights and Christmas decorations around the house. Our neighbor, whom we call "Miss Marilyn" came over last night with a dancing santa and Madilyn went crazy for that. She was squealing and kicking her legs, soo cute! That's one thing about Madilyn though, she sure does squeal. I am not sure if she's singing, listening to her voice, or just talking. Sometimes it gets so high that I really truly think that dogs might think it's a dog whistle. It has actually hurt my ears... lol! I am not kidding! She makes me laugh so hard sometimes! She will probably start talking early, but for now, it's squealing. She says "dadada" a lot, and "nananana", we have yet to say "mamama"... oh well, she will eventually. I am thinking that she is starting to know that John is "dada", because yesterday morning I asked where "dada" was, and she looked for him, and smiled when she saw him. SO... I think she's starting to know what we are called.
For Thanksgiving John's dad came into town, and it was so much fun. Sadly, we didn't bring the camera with us, and when we did, the battery was dead! We only have 1 picture from the whole time he was here, and it's on John's cell phone. We are pitiful! I made the entire meal for the first time, and of course, had my wonderful husband's help in the kitchen. We pulled it off though. I wouldn't say it turned out perfect, but it was pretty good for our first time doing the whole meal! Our stuffing was... well, terrible... lol! I put WAY too much bread, and not enough liquid, so it tasted like flavored bread crumbs... HA! The green bean casserole, I thought you were supposed to use frozen beans, and it's supposed to be canned. SO... the beans were still a bit crunchy when I put them on the table. The sweet potato casserole... my hand got bumped when I put the vanilla extract in it, so lets just say it definitely had the aroma of vanilla to it... oh man. I was pretty proud of the turkey though, it looked and tasted awesome. All of the food was hot and ready at the same time (which is quite a feat with one oven I found out!) and we had a great meal. Madilyn slept through the whole thing :). She'll be awake for it next year. The next day we took John's dad to Charleston and spend the day there and then went to the James Island lights. It was so much fun! Madilyn slept through a majority of the lights, but we got her out to roast marshmallows and warm up by the fire. I let her taste some graham cracker, which she thorougly enjoyed.
Christmas is going to be a nice quiet Christmas. Christmas Eve we will go to the candlelight service at our church, then that night we will be doing our family tradition at my parents house (who live in Columbia also) and having FONDUE!! YUM! Then Christmas morning we'll wake up and wait for my sister and her family and my brother to show up... and we'll have gift opening and then... just relax! Nice huh? I sure am looking forward to it.
Well, I will be posting pictures soon, I just wanted to make sure to get this up. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

7 months... it's been a while!

Madilyn is 7 months old today... she is getting so big! She seems to think so too! :) She is trying to be so independent, and really is getting a mind of her own lately! When she is done nursing she will take her arm out from behind me, and put it up near my shoulder and push herself up. She's really wanting to do everything on her own now, it's so cute! She prefers to feed herself now, so in between her bites I have to sneak in spoonfulls of cereal since she still needs that to keep her tummy full. She loves green beans (canned), peas, carrots, "puffs", cheerios, mandarin oranges, oatmeal, avocado, sucking on apples and pears, chewing on celery... the list goes on... If I have food in front of me, she strains to see what I have because she wants to try it too! :) She's a good eater! I am still nursing her 5 times per day, yesterday she was on an eating frenzy and I nursed her 6 times plus 3 solids meals. She must have been extra hungry yesterday! She sleeps through the night. Her last night time feeding is at 7pm and then she wakes up around 6 or 6:30 am. She's sitting on her own, and doesn't topple over as much... barely any more at all. She cries when she's on her tummy and she can't reach what she wants. She can scoot, but not well enough to get to what she wants. We're gonna have to work on that, because right now her cry seems so pitiful, I go to help her. I'll have to keep working on the crawling so she can get to her toys. I haven't weighed her since her 6 month appointment, so I'll have to get on the scale with her to see how much she weighs. She's outgrown most 3-6 month clothing and is in 6 month, or 6-9 month clothing. She still falls asleep in the car so easily, almost anywhere we go, if it's more than a 10 or 15 minute ride, she's out! Even if she just got up from her nap, so I try not to put her in the car unless it's around nap time, or she'll be all messed up and won't know what's going on! :)

Well, that's about it for now, I'll have to tell a couple of the cute stories about her that I have when I have a little more time to blog. For now, here is one of her 6 1/2 month pictures.

6 months!!!!

I should have posted this sooner, but we just went to the doctor on Wednesday for Madilyn's 6 month appointment, so now I have her "stats". :)
Madilyn turned 1/2 of a year old on October 17th... she's growing up so quickly! I say that every month, but I just can't believe it! Here are a few of her new things going on:
She is 15 lbs exactly! That is in the 25th percentile
She is 26 1/2 inches long, which is the 75th percentile. (where'd she get that?)
Her head is 17" around, which is 50-75th percentile.

She is sitting up on her own better and better each day completely unsupported! She has started kind of "lunging" for things from her sitting position and ending up on her tummy all frustrated, and wanting to move forward so badly. She just ends up either on her back, or going in a circle... poor thing!! :)
She's still sleeping through the night. She goes to bed between 8 and 8:30p depending on when she woke up that morning, and whether or not she took good naps... :) She then will sleep until somewhere between 6am and 7am. She's a good sleeper!
She also went with me to the library for the first time the other day! We had a great time, and she LOVED all of the books. We spend some good time looking at all of the board books that they have for babies, and then we looked for books for mommy. I will say one thing, I will never go back to the library w/out 2 things... a stroller or my drivers license. The reason I didn't have my driver's license was because it was in her diaper bag from when we were at the fair, and I of COURSE left that one at home... AND I didn't have a Lexington County library card yet. So, we disturbed all of the library patrons and workers with my darling daughters high pitched, excited squeals for 45 minutes... just to walk out of the library empty handed. Oh well... I'll have to try again another time and will be better prepared! :)
That's about it for now... I will be posting some cute pictures that I took for her 6 month birthday very soon.

Seriously?!

Ok... so, I am wondering what other mommy has experienced this... So, I had to go to my yearly appointment for my checkup at the doctor. My mom was out of town, and John was at work, so I thought, I can definitely do this by myself, I go shopping by myself with Madi, why not this? Right? So I got to the doctor's office with plenty of time to nurse Madilyn in the car before we went in so she wouldn't be fussy while I was in there. Well, that didn't work, because she so expertly exploded out of her diaper, up the front of her outfit... etc. So, it took me almost the whole time I had allotted for nursing just to clean her up! I was standing at the back of the car with her in the trunk wiping her up and trying to keep the dirty wipes and diaper away from her busy little hands... it was a MESS!!! People gave me some strange looks, but seriously, where else could I change her diaper but in the trunk, lol? She's too long to change her on either side of the car seat, she keeps bumping her little head and cries... SO, I finally get done cleaning her up and had to put her in a way less cute outfit and head into the doctor's office with diaper bag, purse and toy. I can't carry Madilyn in her infant carseat anymore, it's just too much. So, I get in, sign in and sit down playing with my sweet girl... suddenly I think.... where am I going to set her while I am being examined? Will I hold her, put her on the floor, have the nurse hold her... what?! Shoot! What am I gonna do? Suddenly I remember, the BUMBO!!! YAY! Bumbo to the rescue! I tell the receptionist that I have to run out to the car quick, but I'll be back. I gather up my "luggage" (lol) and traipse out to the elevator, go up one floor to the garage, get the bumbo out of the car, go back into the building, elevator down one level and get back in and sit down with the beloved bumbo, and the nurse comes out calling my name just as I sit down... So I get BACK up, gather all of my belongings and almost knock out the nurse trying to get thru the door! HA! First they take my blood pressure in a lab room, so I sit down and put Madi on the floor in her bumbo. I guess I put her too close to the chair, because while the cuff was squeezing the life out of my arm, she was licking the leg of the chair! I couldn't grab her either! Oh man, so as soon as they were done, I moved the chair back from her and they did the rest of their questioning etc. Then, I was able to find out (oh joy) how much I weigh, and then put into my room to put my lovely paper clothing on. I was trying to figure out the best place to put my sweet munchkin. Not in the center of the room, people might trip over her, not by the chair, now realizing she likes to lick them... so, I put her in the corner. Then, the nurse comes in and says... oh how cute! Is she in a time out??? HA! Seriously? It was so funny! Then, the receptionist came in hearing how cute my sweet girl was, and took a picture of her in her bumbo: playing with the crinkly package of wipes, sitting in the corner; all the while I am on the table in my paper clothing... so weird! People just don't seem to notice you are in the room when you have your little one with you! It's still making me laugh! So, then Madilyn starts to get hungry, I KNEW I should have tried to nurse her, but I didn't want to miss my appt, oh well! Luckily my Dr. came in and I was out of there quickly, but man... that was an adventure! Has anyone else had such an interesting time trying to just go to the doctor... man, what if it had been the dentist?!
Anyways, I just had to share my story, it was funny, and I know all the moms and dads out there could somehow relate and share a laugh.
Have a good day!

Sitting up, baby dedication and more...

So... the latest... Madilyn is sitting up all on her own! She still tumbles just a little bit here and there, so I put the boppy behind her, but she will sit there and play. She likes her independence so much that unless she's sleeping, she does not really like to lay back anymore, she wants to sit! She will strain to sit up on her own until I pull her up. Oh, the day when she can do it on her own, I will be in trouble! :)
Madilyn is moving up in the foods she has eaten world! :) She has eaten squash, bananas (she seems to be sensitive to these, so we may not do bananas again for a while) sweet peas, sweet potatoes, apples and pears. She loves all of it too! It's so cute! One of my friends gives her little one avocado and I have read what a good food it is. I may be mashing some up for Madilyn since I read it's ok for 4-6 month olds... we'll have to see what the doctor says. She also loved gnawing on carrots and celery and we put apple pieces into this mesh thing she can hold so I don't have to worry about her getting chunks of apple out and choking on it. She really loves chewing on that and getting all that apple flavor out!!
Also, lately... I am beginning to think that Madilyn just might be teething. I have been saying that for the last week or two, but I am beginning to think I am right. Today at church she had a couple of, shall we say, "blowouts". It is such a blessing to have such sweet great people working in the nursery that changed her, and put clean clothes on her... but man, I guess it was an interesting task that Madilyn found quite funny! She also is chewing on anything she can get her hands on... drool is quite abundant, and I keep thinking I can see something in her gums on the bottom... but then I think it's my imagination. Plus, this little cutie pie, has been having trouble with naps... these are all signs... lets just hope that the ultimate sign... a little tooth... comes poking out soon, or we may be having to go to the doctor a little before her next well visit.
On Saturday October 3rd we had a baby dedication with a few of our friends from Sunday school! It was so nice! Adam Beam's dad is a pastor and he dedicated the 4 babies that day. It was so nice to make that commitment to raise Madilyn in a Godly home and to be a good example for her. But it was also nice that the friends and family were also brought into the commitment. It was a very neat ceremony. Then, we all had a picnic and there was some really yummy food!! We may still go through the dedication ceremony with Shandon (our church) next Spring since my parents and grandparents couldn't make it on Saturday, but I am glad that we were able to while Madilyn was still young.
Well, that's about it for now!! Here's some pictures of Madilyn showing how she can sit up on her own, and also of the dedication and some other fun things. Enjoy!!!A family picture... Madilyn wasn't sure she wanted to look at the camer, she was being just a little bit stubborn, but you can see her in her cute dress that Grama picked out before she destroyed it with sweet potatoes at lunch time. I thought her bib would cover the dress enough... but she got to it with her little hands!! :)

Mommy and her little sweet pea

Here I am trying to get her ready, and she is chewing on a hanger...

It's like she's saying "what is this?!", it was her first time sitting in grass, she's so cute!

Here's my favorite picture. You can see how well she's sitting up, and she's got her heart melting smile... LOVE IT!

Some cute stuff

I took some pictures at home for Madilyn's 5 month "photo shoot". I started doing the photoshop thing and re-touching and it took me WAY longer than I thought! Man, I don't remember everything from college in my graphics arts class... I have to re-acquaint myself! SO, here's the 3 pictures that I did finish, and then there's a video of Madilyn showing her MAD talents!! :)

I got her to look up at the light, doesn't she look precious?

In her Gamecocks "cheerleader" outfit that Grandma got her.


My sweet girl, isn't she sweet? She was giggling at me here...



Here she is showing how good she's getting at rolling over! She kept doing it over and over last night, it was so cute! It was like she realized she could do it on her own and just wanted to keep showing us!!! She's so funny!

5 Months!!!!

So yesterday, my little peanut Madilyn turned 5 months old, I can't believe it?! How does time fly by so fast??? I am planning on taking her "5 month" pictures tonight, so I will make sure to post those later.
She is developing so quickly to me, but she's just amazing in all ways to me! :)
She has been getting so good at rolling from her back to her tummy, especially when she has a toy to reach for. She has been trying many different foods too! She has had so far: apples, pears, prunes and squash. She did so well with her first veggie, but I am nervous to start with the green vegetables, I don't want it to come back up. We'll have to see how it goes. I might try sweet peas next week. She is really getting better at working on her abs too. She tries to sit up if I have her leaning back, which I am so glad about. Before about 2 weeks ago she never really tried to sit up and I was thinking.. "I have a lazy baby!"!! HA! Not really, but I was glad to see her try to sit up, and she's starting to get her balance with sitting up too, not too long and she may be doing it on her own!!! She's not such a fan of the idea of crawling. I put her on her tummy and she pushes herself up with her arms, but as far as bringing her legs up under her, no... she doesn't like that. She wants them straight out behind her. I am sure it's too early for her to be really thinking about crawling anyways, I just think it's cute she wants to keep her legs behind her. :) Really, everything she does is cute, ya know?
Well, I will try to post her pictures later, I just had to get her 5 month posting up, I can't believe she's growing so fast right in front of my eyes!!!
We are going to try to make the Greek Festival downtown this weekend, might be fun!!! I'll hopefully get some pictures there if it doesn't rain the whole time...

Moe's

I have to say that John's favorite food is anything Mexican... he LOVES it!! The only Mexican food that I really like in SC is probably Moe's or Qdoba, more a "fresh-mex" I guess you could say. So, anyways, we were at Moe's the other day and have discovered that Madi may be following in her daddy's footsteps!!! :) Here's some pictures!


Here is Madilyn trying so hard to get that burrito to her mouth... I think she thinks it looks quite tasty!!! :)

Here is the damage of her trying to get it into her mouth... poor John, he had to try to cover that with tinfoil to eat it...

A closer picture of the damage.

It's like she's looking at his mouth and saying... is that where that burrito went?? And now, "Daddy, are you listening to me? I wanted that burrito!!"

So, we had some fun at Moe's, we do love that place!!!! And, it seems, Madilyn does too! HA!

My cute little girl!

So, we have had a lot of fun the past few weeks! We tried out that new Drew Park splash pad that's downtown off of Harden, and it was pretty fun! I am glad it was free because honestly, Madilyn was only slightly amused... :) We dipped her toes in it, and her hands, and then she was done. Her cousin Preston had a blast though, as most little boys, he LOVES water!!
Madilyn is getting so much better at rolling from her tummy to her back! When I help her roll to her tummy from her back she wants to see me, and rolls right back over to her back again! She does that to my mom while she's watching her during the day quite often! Madilyn has also been trying lots of fun new foods! She has cereal 2x a day, and we mix in some fruits or veggies. She has tried apples (LOVES them!!), squash and now pears. I am not sure if apples or pears are her favorite, but she actually liked the squash, she kept opening her mouth for more!!! SO cute!
She's giggling at the funniest things lately. If she's in a funny mood, she'll just giggle at anything, I love it!
She's also really getting to know her routine. For some reason, the thing that I love is when I lay her down for a nap, or for the night, she looks for her music in her crib to turn on, then she curls up on her side clutching her blanket and sucking on her fingers and goes to sleep... how sweet!!!
The main reason I had to write today is because I got a really cute video of Madilyn that I had to share... enjoy!!!

4 months!!!!

So, as of yesterday, August 17th, 2009 Madilyn Belle is 4 months old! I just can't believe how fast time flies! We went to her 4 month checkup today and got all of the stats!:
She is 13 lbs, 2 oz which is btw 25th and 50th percentile
24 1/4" long - 50th percentile
16 1/4" around on her head - 50th percentile
Overall the doctor said she's doing fabulous! She had her shots today also. She cried so much harder with these than she did at her 2 month. I don't know if she's just more aware of the pain, or what the deal was... but she screamed and screamed and just clung to me! It made me cry, I felt so bad. My sweet baby, it's hard when something that they need can cause pain. She got over it after about 5 good minutes of crying, which finally turned into a whimper. I put her in her carseat and gave her that bit of Tylenol and she went to sleep. She's in her crib now finishing up her nap. :) Poor baby...
We just got back Sunday (around midnight... ) from MN! I went up there with Madilyn for my cousin Marie's wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding, and I enjoyed being able to be up there to see her get married. We grew up together, and were very close. It was such a sweet ceremony too. John didn't get to come since he had used all of his vacation to be with me when Madilyn was born... so the first airplane ride was up to me... and my parents. (Luckily I was able to get on the same exact flight sitting next to them there and back!!!). My parents were an absolute blessing, I couldn't have done it without them, I packed VERY heavy! :) Madilyn had a lot of firsts while in MN. She had her first plane ride.. (no pictures though, the pilots may not have wanted to hold a poopy fussy baby... she had HAD it by the time we got off); she had her first bit of cereal (in picture below); first time in a swimming pool; and her first time at a wedding! Daddy missed these things, and was so sad, but he got TONS of pictures while we were gone.
We decided to start cereal because all of a sudden she was a little bottomless pit by the end of the night! I just couldn't fill her up. She had also been sleeping through the night, and all of a sudden she's waking up at 4am... so cereal, here we come!!!
We will probably try veggies tonight with daddy, so he can be part of that first. We'll have to take video and more pictures... I am sure there will be some funny faces! :)
Here are some fun pictures to enjoy from our trip to MN, and some of her firsts!
This is her first time in a pool in the hotel in Charlotte the night before we flew out to MN... looks like she thinks it's pretty fun huh?
This is me, Madilyn, Julie (my sister) and Preston (my nephew).
This is Madilyn's first bite of cereal... she actually ate a swallowed it! She did really well, and we didn't get too much on the bib... :)
Madilyn waiting to have her picture taken at the wedding photo place before the ceremony... she liked the umbrella's.
This is Madilyn and Emma (my friend from MN, Michelle's little girl). They are destined to be best friends like their mommies.
Preston and Madilyn... Preston thinks that Madilyn is his... he always says "my baby"... it's so cute!
Julie and I with the gorgeous bride Marie
The Sjolund side of the family (my dad's side) all together... we're just missing John :(
at the rehearsal dinner
Papa Dave with his cute granddaughter... he looks proud doesn't he??? :)
Well, that's it for now! I will try to get pictures of the veggie eating, cuz I have a feeling it might be pretty entertaining.

Time Flies!

Yesterday I was talking to John about how quickly time goes, and I realized... August 2nd, 2008 we were in Gatlinburg, TN and I found out I was pregnant that morning at about 5:00am! (Luckily I wasn't up that early yesterday to be thinking that!). Man, from going to hoping against all hopes that I was pregnant, to holding my sweet little Madilyn in my arms, and just soaking up her smiles is so amazing! I remember talking to my grandma the day before, us both crying and talking about how hard it was to have a miscarriage, and us praying that this time I would be pregnant again and that I would be able to hold this baby in my arms. THANK YOU JESUS! You answered our prayers! God is so good!!!! I feel so blessed, it's just beyond words.
Madilyn is still growing like crazy! Some of my favorite pajamas on her no longer fit her, she has become too long. :0( I was so sad! But, I have a new favorite pair, and it's a 3-6 mo pair! I remember thinking that it would be forever before she would fit into such "huge" clothing! HA! Our first airplane trip is coming up in about a week and a half! I am nervous, but pretty excited. My cousin Marie is getting married in MN, and Madilyn and I are flying up there with my parents, and my sister and her husband and Preston. John is going to hold the fort down here in SC. He used his vacation for when Madilyn came, which, in my opinion, was a good use of vacation time! :) It will be so hard to not have him there, but luckily I got on the same flight as the rest of my family, so I will have lots of helping hands.
Madilyn has started to become so easily distracted, and noticing her surroundings. I have had to start feeding her in a quiet, slightly darkened room for her to focus. Otherwise she just looks around, smiles, and takes her sweet time... so cute, but, then it takes a little bit too long in the mornings, and then mommy barely has time to brush her teeth!!! She's so cute! She's getting better at her tummy time, and a couple of weeks ago she rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time! We got it on video, and I will have to try to post it. It was so cute, and of course, I wasn't there to witness it, I was at work. Luckily my mom had her phone and was able to get her to do it again so that she could get it recorded.
Madilyn has also really begun learning to grab things. She's getting my hair, the strings on my shirt, trying to reach for toys (mainly swinging her arms at them), and all sorts of cute things. She's developing so quickly, it's hard to keep track of "firsts".
Well, that's about it for now, I will try to get that video posted. I gotta go check on my sweet pea, her nap is about over.

Catching up!!

So, it has been a little while... SORRY!!!
This is an update, we will be catching up. Madilyn is 14 weeks today. She turned 3 months old on July 17th while I was in Brunswick, GA with my grandma, Aunt, mom and cousin. We had 4th of July, and also we had John's dad, Paul, come and visit us. He actually just headed home today... It was so fun having him here, and getting to introduce him to Madilyn. We will have to make sure that we get together with him often as Madilyn gets older. We don't want too much time between visits. Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.




Here Madilyn is very content sitting in her Grandpa Cain's lap with her little Teddy that he gave her from New York (where he's lives).Here Madilyn is checking out her new toy.... it looks like she likes it!
We decided to take Paul to Finlay Park so he could see how pretty it was, and we were thinking about hanging out for a while... but by the time they went up the stairs and back down... we realized 97 degrees is just not the right temp for us to be hanging out at Finlay Park.Here's a picture of the guys at the end of their "hike"...This is Madilyn on her first trip to Finlay Park... the heat put her to sleep, so she slept thru it! :)
Paul holding his grandaughter
She's likin' the teddy!!
The boys, and the little girl that has them wrapped around her finger!


This is the 4th of July, and us letting Madilyn (look like she's) eating corn
Madilyn during her tummy time
Madilyn yawning... but John says she's "singing the national anthem". HA!
Her cute coy look, but John says "This is Madilyn right after she saw a diamond for the first time... and she's plotting"
Madilyn eating her toe.
So all in all we have had a great month since the last update. I am not quite sure how much Madilyn weighs... but I can tell you for sure, she has outgrown some of her 0-3 month clothing, so I know she's definitely growing. She is so precious, and we enjoy every minute of our days with her. I miss her so badly at work, I just want to leave and go hold her. Luckily I only work 4 days during the week, and only 25 hours, so it's bearable.
We have our next appt in August for her 4 month appointment. I will make sure to post updates and more pictures at that time. I will also try to not let it go a month and a half before I post!
That's really all for now...

2 Months!

Today is John's first Father's Day! Happy Father's Day honey! Today was really great! We let Madilyn stay in the nursery for the first time, and she did wonderful! We got to go to Sunday school and service while she was in the nursery, and they enjoyed having her in there. She was still sleeping when we picked her up. We then went to John's pick for a restaurant "Mucho Margaritas" in Five Points. It was pretty good mexican food... (John's favorite). My parents also came, and thoroughly enjoyed holding and loving on Madilyn.
Last week was our 2 month appointment at the doctors. She weighed 10 lbs, 8 oz! She was 23 inches, so she's growing beautifully! She was happy, cooing, and kicking a majority of the appt... then came the dreaded first shots! :( She was cooing, then all of a sudden she realized it hurt, and just screamed! I cried too, it was so awful! Gladly, it was over very quickly, and we were able to go home and snuggle, and she slept very well!
Today we finally got some pictures of Madilyn smiling!!! We had to share them... Enjoy!!!

Time is flying!

It has been 6 weeks already! She will actually be 7 weeks tomorrow! I am truly enjoying every moment with her. I thank God every day for such a beautiful and happy baby! She has just started smiling a little, and it's such a gift! It makes our whole day happy, and worth every tough moment. Madilyn is on a pretty good schedule, she "usually" adheres to it! :0) It's flexible when we need to be. Because of the schedule though, she's sleeping between 7 and 8 hours at night, which makes mommy and daddy VERY happy!!! She has a tougher time with her daytime naps, but we are working on them.
Daddy is at work, and his job is going well. We were worried for a while when his company went thru a period of a bunch of lay-offs, but he was one of the survivors... thank you GOD!!! HE is good!
Mommy started back at work this week, a short week, but still back at work. I got to take Madilyn to work with me for part of the days, and then Nana took her home with her. Madilyn did pretty well, and enjoyed her time with her Nana. She's gotta learn how to eat from a bottle a little better, and not suck it down so fast! :0)
Other than that, we are just enjoying our little sweetheart! Madilyn is our entertainment! Who needs TV? lol!
Hope you enjoy the pictures!
Here mommy had to show off her cute outfit. She's on her tummy time mat, but I couldn't see the whole outfit, so I had to put her on her back.Here I was trying to catch a smile. When she smiles she moves, and it was so hard! BUT, I thought this was still pretty adorable and I had to share it! :0)This is the end of a smile... :0)
This picture is Madi telling me that she is just plain done with pictures... cute though huh? Lol!


Here Madilyn was watching daddy do the dishes... she's in her favorite jammies... too cute not to take a picture!