FRANKEN-PEET

Yesterday Allegra had an accident. She was spinning around and around and around in the family room, when she lost her equilibrium and went crashing to the floor. Unfortunately, between her and the floor was a small square wooden table. She managed to hit the corner dead on with her little forehead and crumpled to the ground. Kristen and I were doing dishes and Kristen went running to check on her, and then found the gushing head wound.

We scrambled to calm her down and stop the bleeding - the cut was only a couple eighths of an inch, but was atop a decent egg. Kristen stopped the bleeding almost immediately. While I was running to get Motrin and a butterfly bandage, Blane was bawling his eyes out, "Is she going to be ok?" I assured him she was. Sure enough, later in the day she was back to her normal self, telling me, "I all beddar."

This morning she's as if nothing ever happened - with the exception of the obvious white butterfly bandage across her forehead. I started calling her Franken-Peet. She giggles. Though before I left for work, she had insisted on having a Barbie bandaid. Which is much less conspicuous...

LATE NIGHTS WITH ALLEGRA

This little one stays up late. It's like she comes alive when the boys go to sleep (not that she's mellow when they're up), and just goes bananas. But it's cute, and we can't bring ourselves to deter her whimsical ways most nights.

Last night though, we both tried putting her to bed on different occasions. Neither worked. In fact, on the second try (mine), I took her up just as Kristen was dishing out some ice cream for the two of us. Allegra was back down the stairs just about 1 minute later, putting on her bathrobe, and telling us, "I uh ice cream too". She came down the stairs, headed to the kitchen, and wound up in our room with her own bowl and spoon. How can we possibly turn her down when she's that freaking cute?!

TWENTY-EIGHT

Allegra has locked-on to the number 28. We have no worldly idea why. At first, we thought she just said it all the time. Then we recognized a pattern - she associates it with night time. So whenever she realizes it has become dark outside, we'll hear "Huuu! Mommy, 28!!!" and a little finger points out the window into the darkness.

SELLING IT

The latest in Allegra's repertoire of tools for getting whatever she wants, is the pout. This is a professional pout too - none of those amateur tantrum screams or loud carrying on (that only frustrates a parent). The moment I have to raise my voice even the slightest, so that she knows I'm serious when I say she can't stab the wooden kitchen table with a fork (I know, I'm a jerk), this is about how it goes:

Instantly, she drops her head to facing straight down at her belly, and without a peep. She just let's it hang there, silently, in protest. After a few moments, she will very slowly start to wander off - away from the scene of the horrible injustice. Oh, and she sells it too - she keeps a perfectly even gait as she slooooowly exits left.

Should you try to run after her to console and explain the situation, she'll waive a dainty arm in your face and sadly say, "No dad." Nothing but a measured response to tug at your heart-strings (especially when you're the daddy that she has wrapped around her little finger).

If you go the other route, and let her wander off to have her own time for a few moments, and then go in after her a couple minutes later... Yeah, she'll be acting totally normal as you walk into the room she's in - that is, until she sees that you're there, and her head goes straight down again and the whole thing starts over.

This little two and a half year old princess knows what she's doing. I can only imagine how this will be perfected over the next 14 years. I shudder at the thought.

ARGH MATEY!

We're sitting in bed, Allegra between us. She pointed at Kristen's chest and asked, "S'that?"
Kristen said, "That's mommy's chest."
Allegra, cocked her head, scrunched her nose, and asked, "Pirates?"
It took Kristen a moment, before she realized, Allegra thought she was calling it a Pirate's treasure chest. How cute is that?!

EARS

Allegra has this thing where she loves to touch my ears as she's going to sleep. She'll lay there next to me in bed, sucking her thumb on one hand, and the other is reaching for my closest ear. Once she finds one, she'll just run her hand over it, occasionally holding onto the lobe, before moving around again. She does the same thing with our arms, so I guess it's about the softness of that skin.

Sometimes when I lay her down in her bed at night, she'll reach up one last time and say "ear". I'll lean over to give her access - she gets in one last touch of my ear and then rolls over to go to sleep. This is one of those things I hope never to forget. It's so sweet and soothing - for both of us I'm guessing.

A LITTLE OFF THE TOP

Allegra got a haircut recently. It wasn't because she necessarily needed (or wanted) one. No, it was more a necessity. Here's how we got there...

The kids have these little bubble-blowing fans. It's a tiny AA powered push-button deal with a bubble wand circle over fan. You dip it in bubbles, push the button, and bubbles! (Because blowing through those things was wicked hard.) So she and Tobin were playing with one of these fans.

I'm not sure who was holding it, but the fan got wound up pretty good in Allegra's delicate curls above her eyes. It was in there pretty good, and Tobin took the initiative to get it out. Yeah.

So in walks Kristen to find that there's a big chunk out of Allegra's bangs. Tobin, head hung low, explains, "Mommy, I didn't think you'd want the fan stuck in her hair forever, so I cut it out of her hair." The poor kid. He really was just trying to help - I mean, no one wants a fan stuck in their hair forever! So Kristen suggested that next time he let her know so she can try to fix it first.

And thus, a haircut for Peetie.

WILD AND CRAZY

A change is in the air. Something has to be going on. Because the past few nights, it's been impossible to miss the fact that Allegra has lost her sweet little brain. She's been like Tobin on speed almost every night for the past week.

We'll be sitting there quietly enough, just winding down for the day, and all is well. And then, with that little curl of hair hanging down in front of her face, a devilish spark ignites in those beautiful eyes. INCOMING! In an instant there's a deranged smile, and a blood curdling squeal as she starts acting like a little crazy person.

She begins bouncing around, running in and out of the room whooping and hollering, trying to punch me, climb onto my back. And then she looses control. Sometimes I try to hide under the covers, but no one's safe, no matter where they hide. And to be honest, it's about the funniest part of my day lately.

It's a far cry from the nights of months past, when she'd lay quietly between us, sucking her thumb and stroking our arms soothingly. That was pure sweetness, the way she calmed down for the night. The recent developments are more spice than sugar.

NOT

Kristen: "Allegra, do you want to take a bath or not?"
Allegra: "A not."

WHO DOES NUMBER 2 WORK FOR?

A couple days ago, I got home from work to the news that Allegra had been wearing 'big girl panties' all day long without having a single accident. This was huge, because she has yet to show even a glimmer of interest in not utilizing a diaper. So that evening, miracle of miracles, she actually sat on her training potty and peed - and not just a drop or two as in past attempts. Woohoo!

So then yesterday I got a call at work, and Allegra shared the great news: she'd mastered the double deuce. So within two days, she went from several diapers a day, to nothing but her Princess (and Sponge Bob) underpants, with nary an accident to speak of.

We're on day 3 now, and while it may be too soon to claim victory, she's showing intent to keep up with it. While at Blane's teacher conference last night, she asked to go to the potty. So I'm crossing my fingers that this is it. I'm banking on this as my early Christmas present from Allegra, because being done with diapers (more or less) will be so terrific!

MOMMY DAUGHTER SHOPPING TRIP

As told by Kristen:

So After I dropped Tobin off for afternoon kindergarten today, Allegra and I went to do some shopping at Kohls. They were having awesome sales and this darling little outfit and jacket were down from $45 to $16. They had one left in her size and I loved it! It had a fuzzy coat over it with a large collar, ribbon waist and big crystal buttons.

I tried it on her, much to her dismay, and she told me it was too big. I persisted though and carried it around the store because I wanted this coat. After a little while I asked her again if she liked it. She told me, "No." I said, "Don't you like the sparkly buttons?" "No!"

A few minutes later I'm struggling with myself as to whether or not to buy this adorable coat. I asked her, "Allegra should I buys this or not?" "No!" "Allegra, will you wear this if I buy it? Because if you're not going to wear it, I'm not going to buy it." Yes, she's two and a half and she's that opinionated about her clothing already. Her response to my final question, "No mommy, I not!" I didn't buy the coat.

BEDDY-BY

Allegra has always gone to bed easily, but more and more often she has been waking in the middle of the night. When this happens, she'll cry, and cry, and cry, until Kristen or I bring her down to our bed. Which of course ends in a horrible night's sleep for the both of us (our three bodies usually form a nice 'H'). So we took a gamble that maybe she'd sleep better if she had a 'big girl bed'.

So four nights ago, I removed the gate, effectively creating a bed for her. We had out doubts, mainly that she'd actually stay in the bed now that she'd be free to escape. But as luck would have it, she has been sleeping in her bed, through the night!

She doesn't leave her bed when I put her in there awake, she just kisses me, waves goodnight, and rolls over. It's AWESOME. Though she did wake up the second night when she heard Phoebe in the middle of the night. But she didn't come downstairs - she went into Tobin's room and climbed into bed with her big brother to sleep! Yup, pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Maybe I'm claiming success too early, but we're just so excited that she's been doing so well with this change. Knock on wood that it keeps up.

BOTIN

As Allegra's vocabulary expands - and she's saying everything (as you'll see in my next story...) - her pronunciation is getting better too. But she still makes-up her own words for some things that are apparently too complex for her to form yet.

She can say "momma" or "mom".
She can say "dada".
She can say "Blane".
She can say "eebee" (for Pheobe).
But she's not quite there yet on 'Tobin', which comes out - very clearly - as "Botin".

We hear a lot of "Botin! No! Botin, top it!", and so on. It's funny because it's so clear, and I didn't think 'Tobin' was tough to say. Well, whatever she wants, she's the Princess.

CRAP

Kids are sponges. It's a common enough fact, but when your little ones don't talk yet, it's easy to dismiss the idea. The crazy part for me has always been that point in time where they start to verbalize things, and you realize they've understood you for quite some time - what do they really know?! What have I said? Well, in this case, it's not me (I'm proud to say).

When things aren't all roses, Kristen's four-letter-word of choice, is 'crap'. It's pretty cute when she says it, actually - it's fast, emphasis on the '-ap' part, and almost a proper pronunciation of the word, 'crepe'. And since Allegra's yet to start preschool, she's around all the time, soaking up the experiences. Yup, you can see where this is going.

This evening, as I was doing some dishes, some water splashed to the floor. Allegra was nearby, and I heard a small, cute, "crrap". It wasn't exclamatory, but rather matter-of-fact. "Crrap." I couldn't help but laugh.

As I was carrying her around the house, on the way up to bed - she knew the final destination - she laid her head on my shoulder, and just kept muttering "crap", the entire time. I was giggling. It was just too funny.

Now we've the task of not laughing at it, and getting her to stop. Wish us luck...

WHO'S THE BOSS?

Even before Allegra was stringing words together, she was communicating with her hands. And when I say 'communicating', I mean 'bossing'. Now that the words are coming easier, there is an awful lot of direction being given - not only to older brothers, but to mommy and daddy too.

TALKATIVE

It's been quite some time that Allegra has been expressing herself with about a dozen 'words' of gibberish. "Mot" meant milk, for instance. "Bots" was boys. But most everything was hand and body gestures. She just hasn't been talking.

Then suddenly in the last week or two, she's been trying to say absolutely everything that we say. Everything. It's been fun to hear her talking so much. She's still not stringing sentences together, but I'm sure that's only around the corner.

BED BUDDY 'BOBIN'

Allegra's always been a good sleeper for us. Bedtimes were easy, in that we could lay her down in her crib once she was ready (10ish) and she would go quietly and take care of the rest. But lately she's wanting to stay up later with us, before going to bed willingly. We of course, want some evening time with kids in bed, so have tried to get her down between 9:30 and 10pm - usually to heinous results. The Princess does not wish to be asleep so early!

Last night around 10, I decided to try taking her up to her crib. She saw the look on my face from across the room, and burrowed deep into my covers, hands waving me off, shouting, "noo noo noo!" She's a smart one. Suddenly my best friend for most of the day wanted to be in Mommy's arms. So Kristen took her up, much to Allegra's dismay. Now, I'm the one who puts Peetie to bed - she goes for me, but rarely for Kristen, so I fully expected disastrous results.

Kristen was upstairs for a few minutes - I figured, doing a little extra rocking to ease the hand-off - and then reappeared. Miracle of miracles, there had been no [audible] gnashing of teeth! But then Kristen explained,
"It was SO cute honey! She didn't want to be in her crib, and started gesturing to Tobin's room, saying 'Bobin, Bobin!' So I took her in there. She crawled over his sleeping body, pulled his sheet over her, stuck her thumb in her mouth, and shut her eyes tightly. She's been laying in there for almost 5 minutes without moving. You need to take a look."

So I went up a few minutes later. Sure enough, there she was. She hadn't budged, but her eyes were open as I squinted through the darkness to see. I tiptoed out and left them in there. I went back a few minutes later to see how it was going. From the door, I could see her gently stroking Tobin's arm (as she does to us when she gets tired), and quietly talking in her half gibberish, half english style. I tried moving her to her crib, but you would have thought I was trying to destroy her with the fit she let out. So I relented as she motioned and sobbed, "Bobin. Bobin."

Later in the night - before I turned in - I moved her passed out little body to her crib to sleep the rest of the night.

I woke at 6 this morning to her crying from her room. I went to get her. Typically she is thrilled to see me in the mornings, and gives me a full body hug, but not today. Today she pointed (again) for Tobin's room, and cried, "Bobin!" as I took her down to go back to sleep in our bed for another couple of hours. She calmed down and accepted our bed as a decent second option.

The whole thing was so adorable. I'm sure Tobin would be fine with his baby sister sleeping with him every night, but he's a thrasher, that ons is. Wouldn't be safe for her. But we're wondering if maybe this is Allegra's way of telling us she's ready for her crib to be converted into a bed. She's able to climb out of her crib - has been for months - but chooses not to (unlike her brothers before her). So maybe we'll try the bed option, and see how she does sleeping in her little princess bed. Either that, or Tobin's about to get a bed buddy!

ALLEGRA SEE, ALLEGRA DO

The boys are plenty of entertainment for anyone (especially when those observing them aren't their parents). Allegra's definitely recognized this, and wants in on the fun. She tags along most waking moments - and squeals (literally, it's ear-piercing) when they exclude her from their fun.

It's not enough anymore for her to just watch and be there however. she's begun mimicking their every action. (Clearly, this is no good at all!) It doesn't seem to matter what the activity is, she's fearless and enthusiastic about trying it for herself.

The boys found some ants on the concrete patio of a restaurant we were eating at. Tobin had the bright idea to spit on them. Minutes later, Allegra had replaced her brother, and was raining her own, dainty spit/drool down on the ant colony.

The boys are jumping from couch to couch because contrary to popular belief, the couches apparently are a playground... So Allegra starts standing on the arms of the couch, and throwing her body down to the cushions. Thankfully she hasn't [yet] attempted jumping from one to the other.

Last night Blane found a landscaping light shining up from the ground. He went up to it and put his arms out around the beam of light and made an 'ohmmm' noise as if her were conjuring something up. Allegra almost pushed him out of the way to give it a try for herself - noise and all.

I may have to send the boys off to Military School earlier than expected, because the way she's copying their every behavior, it can't mean anything good for our little Princess!

WATER WINGIN IT

The boys are champs in the pool. Blane was a little more tentative than Tobin, but he's finally getting into it too. Allegra is just over two, but has always been one to relish her time in the bath. Now, as we've begun hitting the pool with the warm months upon us, she's taking it to the next level.

Without a shred of anxiety, Allegra dons her pink water wings and just putters around the pool all on her own. She can spin herself 360 degrees in place, she can kick and move herself around the pool, and take any waves and splashing that her brothers dish up. Watching her just float around the pool without the need for Kristen and I right there is just unbelievable - and exciting.

It's so much fun to see our kids all becoming such confident swimmers. Hopefully family trips to Water World and Lake Powell aren't far off!

BLUE

Lately, everything is blue. And I'm not just talking about color, but rather every thing is 'blue' as far as Allegra is concerned.

She points at something - "Bleeew!"
"No Peetie, that's the refrigerator."

"Bleew! Bleew! Bleew!"
"Yes Allegra, the fan is going around and around and around."

However, there are the random lucky moments when she does actually point at something that is indeed blue. It's these moments when we get far more excited than we should about the blue stain she's pointing out.