I am amazed that a year has passed since our little Alana joined us on this side of the womb. She has made such a huge impact on our lives. I know I often write about how sweet she is, but I really just can’t get over it. She is innately a happy, easy-going baby. Her smile really lights up the room.
Besides her smile, there are many remarkable things about Alana! Her vocabulary is blossoming. Language development is always amazing to me! She probably understands about 50 words. One of her most common phrases is “uh-oh” after something drops on the floor. She also says an-ma for animal, wa-wa for water, da (or something similar) for dog and duck, baa for sheep, ba for ball, buh-bye, up, and of course mama and dada.
Lately she has been showing a bit more of her sneaky side. She will look directly at me and pick up an imaginary crumb from the floor and smile at me. She will then place the “crumb” in her mouth and look at me with an innocent look. Uh-oh. We are in trouble with his little tease.
She doesn’t walk yet, but she cruises and loves walking with a walker. She is amazingly speedy going upstairs and already knows how crawl backwards down stairs. She enjoys interrupting Caden’s play by trying to take over whatever toys he is involved in. He does get territorial, but is never violent toward her. He’ll try to edge her out or will tell her, “It’s my turn.” In general he has been very good about letting her have her turns as well.
What else? She loves animals and books. She usually flips quickly through books though instead of observing the pictures closely. She’ll often flip through them and then point excitedly while grunting to the pile of books demanding another. At times she seems to get bored when nursing and starts to search around the room pointing at things for me to name for her. I am usually hoping she will nurse a bit longer, so I will often grab a little board book and try to balance it for her to “read” while nursing. Kinda a tricky position.
So precious and sweet! Lucky us!