Who do you love…

Nana!! I have been singing that song for 2 years now :) I started singing it when Ella was a tiny baby as a fun way to get her to say “Nana”. Of course just as she was starting to talk (with clarity), Isabella was born – so the song continued. It is to the tune of the original song and when you get to Nana, you put your hands up and semi-shout it! Fun! For the longest time, all I had to do, even out of the blue, was sing ‘who do you love’ and Ella would finish it for me… hands in the air and all, without even thinking about it. I haven’t even thought recently to see if she remembers but I’m gonna surprise her with it and see if she does. Now don’t misunderstand – with all this effort, Nana was still one of the last ‘names’ she said; go figure! Do you think there could be just a tad of stubbornness involved, lol. She is my son’s child after all :)

So anyway, last night sweet Isabella was here with Bull and me after Christmas with my family. She was very sleepy and being such a sweet girl while trying very hard to stay awake. The three of us were lying on the bed together playing (well, actually she was rolling around in all directions, as well as standing up just to fall back down on her hynnie and roll around some more – all which she found to be very funny); and every few minutes I would take the opportunity to sing my song. She loved it! She thought it was extremely funny – I’m going to choose not to believe it was my singing she found so amusing :) And after maybe 3 or 4 times of singing it, she very clearly said “Nana”! Bull and I looked at each other in shock and of course I was going to tear up anyway, but when I saw Bull’s eyes get misty, well that just did me in!! She said it at least 2 more times before getting bored with the whole thing :)

Before I finish up about “Nana”, let me take you back by about 30 minutes - she had already said “thank you” several times before we laid down on the bed… Bull was holding her in the recliner and I had handed her a gift bag that she was pulling paper out of. She tore a piece of the paper and so before she could go to the mouth with it I took it from her hand and said ‘thank you’. She looked at me, looked at the paper, tore another piece and promptly handed it to me so I took it and again said ‘thank you’. In the sweetest little voice ever, she said ‘tank ou’. We tore paper and practiced ‘tank ou’ for several minutes… she also thought that was VERY funny!! I cried, Bull tried not to cry (he’s so not the macho guy he tries to pretend to be) :)

OK, so back to her saying Nana! I am not delusional – I know that she calls her other grandmother something very similar to Nana and is apparently already saying that. I’m not really sure I remember exactly how it is pronounced, or how to spell it, but my best shot is Nonie. That’s the same thing most of the young kids in the Fields family, as well as all the children in church call Cookie’s sister Brenda :) So I understand that she has had practice in saying something that sounds very much like what I was saying. But it was clearly “Nana” (I made sure with every repeat) and it was a wonderful early Christmas present!!