Things I never want to forget about Alana

I haven't been very good at keeping a tally of all of my kid's first. I didn't keep a date book with first step, word or tooth. So in an effort to catch up a bit...here goes.
Alana was 7 lbs 7 oz. She came out and had HUGE eyes. She was quiet and watching us, like she knew what she was seeing and she didn't want to stop looking. I remember holding her the first time and thinking, "Ah...this is what it is all about...I can do THIS!" She took her first nap on her dad's chest while I was sleeping. Alana was a pretty easy baby. I never had enough to nurse her exclusively, and it took a few weeks of her nursing 24-7 to learn that I would not be enough. She was brought into the world with the hope that my Dad would get to meet her before he passed on, and he stuck around for 8 weeks after she was born. He used to wake up and ask if she could, "do any tricks yet?" She always had these big, bright, knowing, eyes. We moved 3 times before Alana turned one. When she was born we lived in a little apartment in Gresham, then we moved to Corbet, then we bought our portland house. She was so good at riding in the car, she would just zonk out. She was a scheduled baby. She took two naps a day for a long time. She loved baths, and BOOKS right away. One of the first things she ever wanted to sleep with was a book. I don't remember when she rolled or when she got her first tooth, but I know that she was crusing at camp that summer. She was just 8 months old. She had these perfect little curls at the nape of her neck. Oh and she was REALLY in love with her bink and her White booboo. She fell in love with this one white bear that her Grandma Alice gave her before she was born. When she was old enough to talk I asked her what his name was. I called her booboo as a nickname for a time, and she decided her bear was white booboo. Her first word was Dada. I could get her to eat anything by calling it a cookie. We had cheese cookies, not cheese sandwhiches. She has always liked drawing, give that girl a crayon and paper and she will be busy for hours! She decided that she was missing a name at some point, and decided her name was Alana Fay Merz Banana. This year she convinced her teacher of that and her teacher had to ask us about it after class...already a good actor. Alana has always loved to sing and make up songs. She made up one when she was, maybe 3, it went, "when the clouds go by I realy love the clouds, the sun and the moon and the sky! When the clouds go by I REALLY love the clouds, the sun and the moon and the sky!!!!" When she gets tired she gets really silly, in fact we used to call her wacky baby at the end of the day.

Well that seems like a good start. Maybe, I will end this entry with a recent thing I don't want to forget, Alana loves to make Jewelry. She makes necklaces with buttons my mom gives her. Today My mom brought her home some lettered beads. Alana has ALWAYS been interested in letters and words. Her abilities to recognize and spell words has TOTALLY exploded lately. She made 2 necklaces today, one for me, it says Mom. And one for her sister, it says Jojo. She taught Joey how to spell JoJo too. But joey says, "My name is spelled j and j and o and o. JOSEPHINE!" Alana is a good little teacher!

I am going to post old stories as I remember them, trying to keep a record. A woman at swim class today, one of the grammy's there with her grand kid touched me on the shoulder today, and said, "THESE are the best most golden years. " I smiled and said, "I know."