Standing without help!

My little Alana is standing so good now! I have a feeling that she is going to be walking by christmas. She will be standing in her playpen and something will catch her attention such as a cartoon or commercial and she will just stand up and let go of what she is holding and she won't even realize it but she will stand there for a few minutes. It is neat to watch her do this. She is even to the point that she is falling gracefully. Last week she started this thing out of the blue. She will stand up, holding onto the coffee table, and she will watch her feet as she practices taking steps (while still holding on), then suddenly she will focus on a target and slowly let go of the table and before she makes any steps she gracefully plops on the ground. But every time she does this it seems like she gets more balanced and closer to actually walking! This is just one of very many amazing things that I see her do and it melts my heart.

crawling like a pro! (and more independent)

My little girl is crawling like a pro now! She is even standing pretty good. I thought that she would end up walking first because all she ever wanted to do is stand, she never wanted to crawl. If me or her daddy put her in the floor she would scream until one of us picked her up (me). The other day, about four or five days ago, we put her in the floor and she was everywhere. Now before the other day when she was put on the floor she would roll around and get into stuff for a little while and then get upset and want to be picked up. Now she has a blast and can play in one room while I walk in the other for a minute because she is having so much fun crawling around on her own and getting to actually play with her toys, she is not so worried about mommy staying in the room with her anymore.

Flu Shot

I have had it on my 'to-do' list for like a week now: Flu Shots! So, I called the Health Department today and they acted like I was a crazy person for asking about flu shots. I ended up finding out that they acted that way because so many people frantically got their flu shots this year because of H1N1. Physician's have actually ran out of the H1N1 shot, oh yeah and if you have medicaid or medicare you are not covered for this shot(in my town). Anyway I finally sorted it all out with my daughter's pediatrician's office and they finally brought her in and gave her the seasonal flu shot. But since me and my boyfriend are 23 years old they don't even know if or when we can get ours. haha I have never heard of such a thing! What is this world coming to? Don't get me wrong, I am glad that they had enough sense to give my 8, almost 9, month old daughter her flu shot after a long complicated conversation, but since when did it get so hard to get a flu shot because you are an adult? Is this just my little hick town or........?
Anyway, Alana did great. The only time she cried is when we pinned her down. The shot didn't faze her. It was pretty impressive for a little baby. I am proud of her.

Happy Halloween

Me and my boyfriend almost missed halloween with our daughter, Alana. We had alot to do that day and at the last minute we both decided to go to walmart and see if we could afford to get some costumes and some candy to hand out. So we went to walmart and there was a very slim selection for costumes in our daughter's size. (she now wears 9-12 mos.) Then I stumbled upon the cutest little mouse costume and it was a nice price too, for last minute shopping. We decided that maybe we should get some masks to celebrate as well. We found some cheap little $1 masks and thought "well, this will do".
We went home, after buying some bags of candy, put Alana's costume on her, and put our masks on. Turns out,our little $1 masks scared every kid that walked up! We actually had to take them off! haha Anyways, we passed out candy until we ran out and then we went trick-or-treating through the town ourselves. We had a blast! And just to think we were not even going to do anything for halloween. My little girl had a great 1st Halloween! That makes me happy.

Spent time with my baby girl on my birthday!

Today was, by far, the best birthday that I have ever had! Just at home spending time with my little baby girl. This was my first birthday, as a mommy, and I loved it! A couple weeks ago I started making plans to get a baby-sitter so that me and my man could go out and enjoy my birthday in more of an adult-like setting. Well at the last minute all of our plans fell through and it couldn't have turned out better. I woke up this morning (forgetting that it was even my birthday) and felt relaxed and calm. Then when I was reminded by my boyfriend and some phone calls from friends and family that it was my birthday, I was very pleased with the day I'd been having with my little girl - relaxing, playing and just enjoying every moment. I love being a mommy and look forward to the birthdays to come.

She is EVERYWHERE!

My daughter is starting to get into everything, it is so neat to watch her get around. She will crawl backwards and then roll over quickly to get where she wants to be. I love watching her take steps in life that we all take but it is so amazing just knowing that she will be all grown up one day and I don't want to miss a thing.

Babies grow out of clothing so fast!

Today I noticed how lucky I am that my baby shower has helped support eight months of clothing for my daughter and will continue to support the next four to five months. But she grows out of her clothes so fast that she only gets to wear everything once! Actually, I still have some clothes hanging up that she has never worn, but grown out of! Whether I like it or not she is going to grow like a weed for plenty of years to come and hopefully I can be prepared for it. I think that I need to do some online shopping because it is going to be difficult to keep up with her clothing otherwise. Here is a little advice I can give to the first time mother (like me): I learned not to spend a fortune on your baby's "daily" clothing because they're going to grow out of it soon and of course baby's are messy. (By fortune I mean spending as much on your growing baby's outfit as you would on an outfit for yourself.) I think that as long as their clothing looks clean and matches, then you're making progress. Well, I am not going to lie, every now and then I like to splurge on a really nice outfit before we go to a gathering or event but for everyday clothing I stick with basics. She has some really nice outfits that I love but I wouldn't put them on her everyday.