She has a beautiful easter. Watching her face light up when she saw her Easter basket certainly made my day. Her basket was filled with toys and clothes an plastic eggs filled with graduate puffs. She was fascinated by the eggs and even more fascinated when they broke open and she found food inside. The look on her face, again, was just priceless. She is beginning to talk more and more, she says mom, dad, duck (referring to her rubber duck), and a lot of gibberish. Sometimes she just sits here and talks to me for minutes. I just wish I knew what she was saying. She LOVES music and dances every time music comes on. I can tell already she has rhythm, and she certainly doesn’t get it from me.

She laughs all the time. It’s so stinking adorable. If I could laugh with her all day, I would. It truly makes my day. I love her more than anything……

She’s becoming more and more talkative and interactive, and has just recently developed a strange fake laugh. It’s so cute because she does it until she laughs for real. She is truly an amazing baby…… am absolute blast to be around and the life of every party. I can tell she’s going to grow into a beautiful person.

She now has 4 teeth and more on their way….. She’s so close to walking on her own. I know she’ll do it any time now. And…………. she just woke up so I have to cut this short.

I get my organizational skills from my mother… we’re both pretty awful. I’m actually worse. One thing I can say she certainly did an exceptional job at was saving the memories from my childhood. My baby book, which I also received today, has everything… every step, every tooth, every holiday, every move. Plus some written words about how cool I was. Hopefully Alana can come back to this blog in 20-something years and feel the same way. Looking at my baby book reminded me to update  hers with some key milestones. The date she first crawled (Nov. 26, 2009)..  Her first teeth (creeping in as we speak all at once). The difference between my baby book and hers I’d argue is technology. She does have a traditional book like I did that houses most important details. But where my mother handwrote entries throughout the book on every blank page she could find throughout, I’ve found a place on this blog. Every now again I’ll bring it out and insert the pages into the book so we don’t lose anything. It makes me wonder where technology will take us by the time Alana has children. What will their baby books look like? I’m going to make her fill out a traditional book like mine, hers, and my moms….. to keep tradition.. but what else? That will be interesting.

As an update… She is turning into one crazy girl. Crawling EVERYWHERE! climbing on EVERYTHING. Opening every drawer. If you leave a glass of water on the table, better bet she’ll dump it. Leave a paper on the table, she’ll pull it off and probably rip it up. She climbs over me turns around climbs back over me the other way. She laughs.. and gets into everything. She still loves getting into dog food. Poor Cabo is actually gaining weight guarding his feast. She has hundreds of toys and loves to play with them all and dances to the rhythm when they play music. She is beautiful, exciting, funny, and extremely entertaining. The other day we played our first couple rounds of hide and seek. I hid. She laughed when she found me… I look forward to so many more rounds. Her daddy just loves her to death. So does everyone else.

She started going to daycare part time a couple weeks ago and seems to have a blast there. The teachers just adore her. Every time I arrive to pick her up someone is playing with her or holding her. And I’m constantly getting compliments on how good she is, how independent and adventurous she is and how low maintenence she is. She’s really easily entertained… You just have to watch her because she wants to explore everything.

The three of us also started our first Music Together class last week. Music Together is a 45 minute class on Saturday with singing and dancing and music. She’s probably slightly younger than the ideal age but she seems to like it… she of course, loves music.

She has the most beautiful smile and the cutest laugh….

Christmas was just amazing. We took the trek down to Las Vegas to spend it with my family. I thought Matt and I spoiled her with all the toys we bought but my parents really took it to a different level. Needless to say, my house makes Toys R Us look bad. We are sooo thankful to all of our family who bought Alana toys and clothes and stuff galore. She is so entertained. She just loves everything. I have to say though, she would have been happy with boxes, paper, and a bowl of dog food. Those things keep her entertained until we take them away… For reference, Alana doesn’t eat the dog food. I think she would, but she doesn’t have hand-to-mouth coordination down yet. For now, she just plays in it. Eating it is something we can look forward to.

What else? Today was the start of 2010! I don’t really believe in resolutions but I have a lot of things in mind I’d like to improve or change in the coming year. For one, I need to focus more on my health. I’d also like to get involved in some mom-activities. There’s a family music class Alana and I are going to join…. it starts in a couple weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes. Alana has mastered the art of crawling like she’s been doing it for years. She’s not getting good at pulling herself up to her feet and standing with support. She has a toy her grandma bought her that encourages her to do that more often… here’s a video of her playing with it on her feet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYmzJCztbik. She’s babbling away like crazy. I’m certain that she’s saying mama now.. mostly when she’s angry. But she laughs in the most amazing way and has the most gorgeous smile I’ve ever seen.

Okay.. she wants me.

Only a few days, maybe a week, after she began crawling, she became interested in standing. She is perpetually on the hunt for something to help her pull to her feet. Now that’s scary! She doesn’t have it down all that well yet, but she’s been successful a few noteworthy times.

She’s a communicator too. Maybe she’ll be a broadcast journalist. She  talks and talks and talks.. always with a smile. bababablananamoma never sounded so beautiful. She’s the happiest baby ever (other people really tell me that) and an absolute joy to have around. My mom was lucky to have the opportunity to visit and spend a few days with Alana this week. She says they really bonded.. (I was mostly at work while she was here). She left last night and today, Alana is more cuddly. Thanks mom. While she’s always been happy I’ve always struggled with getting her to want to cuddle. Her independent spirit usually leads her wanting to head off on a crawling spree, or chasing off to find the next object to chew on.

Still no teeth! at least that have poked through. She’s working on a few you can see that will soon peek through the gums.

Other than that, she’s just wonderful!!!!!

Sometimes I get down on myself because my life can seem boring… I start thinking that way when I think about all of the things I used to do for fun and how I don’t do any of those things anymore. Then I realize, my life is so far from boring. Being a mom is so many things. It’s a priveledge, a lifestyle, a job, an adventure, sometimes a chore, but always full of excitement. My daughter is incredible. It’s an absolute joy to watch her grow and to grow with her.

Halloween was a blast in it’s own way. I was completely disappointed when I learned that Matt would have to work.. How boring, I thought, to spend the evening alone with Alana. But it ended up being quite fun. Alana was an Elephant.. an Alephant, get it? We spent the day at the pumpkin patch… I’m not sure she liked it but we got a ton of precious photos (that’s what matters right?). After Matt went to work, Alephant and I spent our evening greeting Trick-or-Treaters. What a great time. Even Cabo dressed up in a pumpkin t-shirt.

Alana is so full of live these days. As I type she’s trying her best to crawl. She’s at the rocking and scooting stage but I have to say that makes her quite mobile. She can get from one side of the room to the other quite efficiently. Her other new-found pleasure is dancing in her rocker. When I dance (like a crazy person), she copies me. That involves her throwing her hands in the air and waving them like she just doesn’t care. It’s so stinking cute. Her favorite song is Party in the USA, by Miley Cirus.. what? I can’t control the music she likes She’s fantastic… I never realized another person could bring me so much happiness

It seems like I never have time to write anymore. Life is so busy. We moved into our new house a couple weeks ago.. We love it but it’s sure a lot of work. First major project was painting Alana’s room. It’s 90 percent finished.. All that paint is on, we just have another wall of chair rail to get up. That last wall has fallen prey to other priorities that have popped up along the way. We’ve been lucky to have family visiting almost every weekend. It’s lovely to share our home, our lives and our love with family. We’re always so thrilled to have them here.

Alana becomes more beautiful and full of life every day. She tries so hard to crawl now. She gets on her hands and knees but can’t quite figure out how to move. She gets frustrated but it’s simply adorable. She’s also made me realize that I might spend a little too much time on the lap top. She wants to play with it now.. she goes right for the keys like she knows just what to do. It’s crazy how much she picks up.

I wish I had more time to write, but she wants my attention and boy does she deserve it…

Enough mush, she is still growing and changing so much. This week she started using the walker and boy does she just love it. It’s so cute how happy she is in there. I was shocked at how quickly she figured out how to push herself around. It’s so neat to see how proud she looks when she does it. It’s like she’s already changing from baby to little girl. Besides the fact that she still reins in the 97% percentile for height and weight, she’s got such a dynamic personality. She talks and talks and smiles and laughs. Writing this blog is getting hard.. she’s doing so many new things I can’t think of what to write as more and more “oh yeahs” keep popping into my mind.

Matt’s parents left today after visiting for a weekend (daddy turned 25 Saturday).. and my mom is coming tomorrow. It’s so exciting for me to share her with everyone. I’m so proud to show off how beautiful and amazing she is. She makes everyone happy…. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she’s this pleasant forever.

We’re finally closing on our house tomorrow as long as everything goes as planned. A lot of things haven’t gone as planned so I guess nothing’s for sure. Seems like everything’s finally in place so we’ll see. First job on the list, painting. First room, Alana’s. Right now it’s very purple. We’ll be transforming it to pink on the bottom with a chair rail and a cream color on top. Sort of, kind of, but not quite like this. She’ll love it.

I am so looking forward to bringing up my precious daughter in our new house. Wish us luck It’s a fixer-upper…

• Baby Tylenol
• Baby Orajel (spelling)
• The crib mobile (even though it has to be rewound every 2 minutes)
• Rice Cereal……

At her doctors appointment this week, Alana weighed 17 lbs. and was 27 inches. 97th percentile in both height and weight. She’s a big healthy girl which is absolutely amazing. I also haven’t shared our new family photos with you.. Well here they are. Enjoy

Hopefully next time I don’t take such a long intermission from the blog. If you’re reading this, older Alana, mommy loves you. I’d blog more often but I’d rather hug you, hold you, kiss you and squeeze you. I hope you let me do that forever Love, Mom

She changes so much every day. Once upon a time everyone we spent time with asked me the question, “Is she always this mellow?” Yes. she was the most mellow baby I ever encountered. Things are changing a bit with this teething situation. Not that I can complain. She’s still perfect, and not among the fussiest of babies I’ve met. Actually, she’s probably still among the most pleasant to be around.

It’s been awhile since I blogged. My lap top suddenly started acting up, and made it really hard to do anything on the internet. Couple that with a few other issues the thing had and Matt and I decided on impulse yesterday that our lives would be easier with a new lap top… So here we are. There won’t be any photos or video in this post since I don’t have that all set up on here yet, but at least this is something .

We’re just waiting for our house to close now. We’ve done the initial mortgage paperwork and we’re anxiously awaiting the return of the appraisal. It will be interesting to see if it comes in at the price we’ve offered.

In more Alana news, I think she’s already addicted to TV. I am officially beginning to memorize the tunes from the cartoons on Noggin channel. I think my favorite show is Wonder Pets. “What’s gonna work? Teeeeeeeeeeeaaamwork!”

In even more Alana news, we’re taking a trip to Chicago in ONE WEEK. I have a conference to attend for work, so Alana will be joining me on the flight and will hang out with her great aunt Sherry while I work. After the conference, we’ll get to visit with family for the weekend. I’m so excited to show her off and to meet some other new babies that have joined our family recently. It will be fantastic. I just wish Matt could join us.