Starting to Walk

First of all, sorry to everyone for us being such slackers out here. We have wanted to update this forever but just have not found the time. How you people do it with 3, 4, 5 kids is beyond us.A lot has happened since her 1st birthday. The first thing that happened was Alana took us on her first "vacation"... to the hospital.

She came down with a bug and could not keep any liquid down. 36 hours later we found ourselves in the hospital with all kinds of IV's hooked up to our baby girl getting her the liquids she needed. To say it was scary, heart breaking, and sobering would be an understatement. She checked in on Thursday night and wasn't released till Saturday evening. It didn't take too long for her to bounce back after getting fluids in her, but watching her there without any energy just broke our hearts. We both hope nothing like this ever happens again.




Now, enough with that sad stuff, on to what else has been going on. Alana is on a progression spurt like none other to this date. She is starting to make noises that sound a lot like words, but daddy isn't ready to give her credit for any real words yet. She says something like "daddy" and "mommy", but "what's that" seems to be her most coherent piece of the english language. If she continues to spend too much time around daddy, I fear what the actual first word may be...





One of the best purchases we have made is the $10 blow up pool at Wal-Mart. Alana loves her bath more than anything, so it was just logical that we get her a pool. Mommy and her try to get outside as much as possible to spend some time in the pool. Even though she is lathered up in tons of SPF 45, Alana is getting quite the tan. People comment on her bronze skin everywhere we go, and she really is turning into a very pretty little girl. Even though Alana loves the pool, it typically knocks her out and she has to take a nap. At that time, it becomes mommy's favorite toy and she lays out in the sun enjoying the water. A win-win for everyone!


The newest and greatest trick she has up her sleeves is walking. Mommy and daddy haven't realy tried too much to get her walking as we have been warned by everyone with kids to just let it happed with time. She has walked between us a couple of times and it was really heart warming, but from there she has taken it upon herself to learn. You would not believe the desire she has to learn to walk. When she gets in the mode, it will last for over an hour. She'll pick herself up, walk as far as she can, crawl to the next place she can pick herself up again, walk as far as she can, then repeat the process until she can barely stand up. It will be just a matter of days before she's done with crawling and walking is the new mode of transportation.

As we always mention, but it can't go without saying, we both still feel like the luckiest people in the world. We are blessed with the most beautiful, personable, and energetic child anyone could ask for.