SITTING PRETTY

Allegra's growing up so fast! It's exciting and sad all at once.

These days she's trying her hardest to sit up on her own. She can't quite get there without help, but once up, she can balance herself pretty well. As the minutes pass she becomes more and more like one of those Russian stacking dolls that wobbles around. Only difference is she eventually falls over instead of steadying herself like the dolls...

It's going too fast.

ASPLODE

We'll earmark this one for the future boyfriends - I'm sure Allegra's going to be quite pleased when we share this little tidbit...

Every baby has had one of those crazy days where there was enough back pressure to result in a messy explosion that no diaper could contain. It shoots up the back, up the front, down the legs - anywhere but staying just inside the diaper. It happens...

However, MY baby girl does it daily. Seriously, it happens almost every day! Up the back, out the front, there's always some outfit being soaked to help remove a blast stain. A particularly interesting occasion was at Tokyo Joe's for dinner, when she shot it out the back of her diaper, and onto Kristen's shorts...Just at that moment the food arrived and there was a dijon sauce of the same color on Kristen's meal. She thought the sauce from the dish had dripped on her. No such luck!

My baby's got some crazy power - hoping she outgrows it sometime soon!

DROP, GIVE ME 20

Everyone says their baby is so strong. Well, so's ours. At just a few days past 5 months old, she's already pushing herself up from her chest to fully extended arms! Apparently the view from her belly isn't enough, she's gotta extend for that extra 6 inches of altitude to be able to take it all in. We've got a strong little baby girl on our hands.

AVS FAN

For my birthday, we took the family to an Avalanche Hockey game. We were thinking about having someone watch Allegra so we could manage the boys a bit easier (we had 2 pair of seats in different spots...) but we scrapped it and just took her along. She did amazing! She sat still and happy the entire game!

I had her for the first period along with Blane, and she was the easier one to manage. She sat facing out, 'watching' the game the whole time without a single fuss. It was fantastic. When Kristen took her for the 2nd two periods she was good then as well. It was fun to bring her along, and not have her get startled when people cheered or got excited about the game. She's quickly becoming a seasoned sports fan - First the Rockies, now the Avalanche. Daddy's quite pleased.

AIR JORDAN

Not so much in the 'air' sense, but more in the 'Jordan' sense of things. Allegra's discovered her tongue, and always has it sticking from her mouth. In fact, when she's especially happy, she smiles with her tongue out, curled up on the edges. So cute!

AIRBORNE

As with the rest of my kids, Allegra's quite taken with being airborne. Now at only 5 months old, I'm only holding her by the belly, above me in the bed, but she's all smiles every time I do it. On a couple rare occasions I've 'tossed' her (maybe an inch out of my hands) and she giggles like it's the best thing ever. She'll be another frequent flyer as she gets older, just like her brothers!