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.

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."

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.

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!

ALLEGRA'S BUSY DAY

Just as I was leaving for work, we found Allegra in the hallway with Kristen's little tin of lip balm. Her hands were covered with the greasy stuff, and she had rubbed it all over her little Ariel push-bike, and smeared it all over the carpet. She smelled lovely though!

While I was at work, she got into the toothpaste. Of course that consisted of squirting it all over the place. Kristen said she even rolled the bathroom drawers open as far as they'd go, and smeared the toothpaste along the sides. What a through little girl!

For dinner we had Mexican, and Kristen made us some great Pina Coladas. Allegra only ate the Pina Colada for dinner. While we were clearing the table, she got ahold of one of the still partially full cups of Colada, and proceeded to spill it all over the floor. At least we got a nice clean mop-job out of the event.

Not more than 15 minutes later, Allegra was on the table with a full glass of ice water. This too - of course - was dumped all across our nice wooden kitchen table. Sadly, she had to be detained at that point. Oh! And we now call her Tobin.

ALLEGRA'S GOT A GUN

Allegra has discovered her brothers' nerf dart guns. She'll bug us until we cock the little foam-flinging pistol for her. Once we do, she runs off jauntily to fire at the dog (or whomever we tell her to "go get"). There's something about a narrow miss to the dome that isn't so bad when it's accompanied by a gleeful squeal and a toothy smile, partially obscured by her wild hair.

DISCONTENT

Allegra doesn't say much just yet. There are a few utterances that could be called words, and given the situation, we're pretty sure about what she's trying to say. But the 'words' still come out as sort of whispered mumbles - like when you don't know someone's name and you kind of trail off to mask the fact that you don't know what it is. Anyway.

The words she's had down pat for a while now (no surprise) are "mama" and "dada". But lately she's put a twist on them, so that we know, that she's not happy with us.

For instance, if Kristen tells her she needs to stop banging the [wood] dinner table with her fork, she'll get her growling face look, and tersely exclaim, "Ma maAAA!!"

If I have to get after my princess (yes, it pains me) for poking at or pulling on the dog, it's with a stern voice, letting her know that it's not ok. She replied in kind, with "Da daAAA!!"

Following any of these scenarios, she holds the growl-face pretty much until we start laughing at her. At which time she cocks her head to her shoulder with a little 'I'm so cute and you can't be angry with me' smile. Does anyone else see issue with this??

COLOR COATED

I couldn't decide what to title this. It was this, or 'PAINT BY NUMBER'. That is, because as I've mentioned before on this blog, Allegra colors all over everything. Today I got a text from Kristen to check my email. There I found a picture of my little angel, covered head to toe by marker. (Much like Tobin's marker incident a few months back - yeah, we call her Dr Destructo's Assistant.)

Turns out, she'd been busy coloring our home with an unapproved marker. Not sure how she found it, but she did and didn't waste any time. The way Kristen goes through Magic Erasers, I'm considering buying stock in the Mr Clean company...

Also thinking it's probably time we gave up trying to save our home. We're completely at their mercy, and I guess it's finally sinking in.

THE BOSS

Our princess has found her inner diva. She’s sweet as can be, but cross her and she’ll let you know it in no uncertain terms. She’s content to hang out with her brothers, being right in the mix - but the moment they try to pull something, we hear about it. ‘Bossy’ would be a good adjective for our 18 month old. Right now it’s cute, but we’re very much in trouble with this one.

THE WORLD IS HER CANVAS

It's been a good couple of months now that Allegra has been eager to pick up any pen, pencil, or marker that she can find (and hold it properly!) to scrawl on something. Today, she doodles on EVERYTHING. The walls, the couches, the appliances (Kristen's Kitchen Aid Mixer has some nice blue on it now), and herself - It's pretty out of control. Frequently we get the call from the boys, "Allegra's got a markerrrr!" at which point we go running to find her.

MIGHT AS WELL CALL HER "TOBINA"

Or Dr Destructo's assistant...

It's clear that Allegra loves her older brothers. From the moment she wakes up, she's looking for them. When they're not around, she's calling to them, "Baaaa? Baaa?!" When they're playing Legos or video games, or just watching television, she's hanging out with them, as if she were 4, rather than just 14 months.

But there seems to be little doubt, which she's showing an affinity for through her behavior. Emptying bathroom drawers, pouring out any liquids she can find, throwing EVERYTHING into the bathwater, climbing everything she can find, and generally causing destruction and havoc wherever she goes.

It's somewhat cute at this age, but if it continues, I guarantee that cuteness will fade quickly.

GROWLER MONKEY

Allegra loves to make noise. Seemingly her most favorite is a growl. She'll growl at you and wait for a response, and then do it again. This will go on for minutes upon minutes. Other times she'll just start growling at you over and over waiting for you to play. Kristen's guess is that her little growl actually means, "I love you." Sounds good to me.

CLIMBER, A LA TOBIN

Just a weekend before her 1st birthday, Allegra has begun her climbing career. Kristen told me just yesterday that Allegra is climbing up onto the dinner table via the chairs. I was skeptical until I saw it with my own eyes this morning at breakfast.

She got a foot-hold on the rungs of the chairs, balanced her body onto the chair's seat, grinning the whole time. From there it's not too far to the table top, and victory.

This is just what we need, a protege of Tobin...

GRRR BABY

The boys are constantly making noise. Now that they have a little sister, a lot of that noise is directed towards her. Usually they're trying to make her happy, but it's not always the case, as it typical with little boys...

But we realized recently that when the boys would growl at her (and we of course would scold them), she would respond by growling back, with a big smile! So now, over and over, we will growl at her, and she'll growl back. It's way too cute - especially since her growl includes that adorable scrunched-up nose face.

HOW MUCH WOOD COULD A WOODCHUCK CHUCK

There are 2 tiny front teeth on my baby girl's bottom gums. It's SO cute. She smiles and these little glints of white are just barely jutting above her lip. Looks like the 2 on top are not far behind.

With the new tools at her disposal, she's awfully keen on biting our ams now. That's not so cute. But immediately following our painful reaction is the devilish grin and a giggle (nose scrunched, eyes shining), that goes back to being impossibly cute again.

EVERYWHERE

That didn't take long. Allegra's figured out the crawling, and the standing, and she's moving all over the house with ease. There's no more sitting still and enjoying her in one place these days... It's pretty unbelievable the things she gets into now, and the explorations that she ventures out on. I'd forgotten how into it these little ones get, and she's sure curious!

TRIPLE THREAT

I've been terribly behind on writing about all the kids, so even though this and several following stories are all on the same date, they are realistically spread over the past couple of months.

Like any parents, we jump into action to change a dirty diaper (ok, maybe that makes it sound exciting...it's not) to lessen the awful diaper rash that every baby suffers with. Generally this process begins after specific noises are heard - in Allegra's case it's most likened to the report of a rifle. Loud. Forceful. Deadly.

So we would begin changing the diaper, only to find out that she wasn't done, and in the middle of the chore (usually after already putting the new/clean diaper in place), we get more than we bargained for. We would quickly regroup, and get another diaper on her and be done. Or so we thought.

No sooner is she back in action with a clean diaper, then the 3rd salvo is launched - or dropped? It didn't take us long to realize a trend. We've gotten used to waiting through the 1st blast, the second, and usually a third before we react. They all come in quick succession, so it's not like we're letting her sit around like that for long or anything.

Once we got a handle on that little quirk, it was smooth sailing.