Allen

Well, I tried again to upload videos of my boy singing, but the computer is just not cooperating. Sorry. I'll try again another time.

I do have some good Allen stories, though.

I'll go back to the Sunday that I was there. Allegra and I had just gotten home with groceries and Dad (aka Papa) was in the garage "tinkering" with his car (he has an Austin Healy). Brian was watching football and Allen was bouncing between Papa, Daddy, Mommy and Aunt Kristen. When Papa was done with his car, Allen declared that he needed to go for a ride with Papa and Aunt Kristen to look at houses. (Papa loved that Allen wanted to "spook" houses with him.)

Now, I love my monkey. But I was getting ready to make roasted veggie soup for my mom. This just wasn't part of my plan. As his face was getting screwed into the beginning of a minor fit, Papa asked why I had to go with them. "Because," he said, "I love her and I like her and I love her." That was it. I went. Allegra peeled all the veggies. The soup was really good.

Going back to the evening before, I babysat so Brian and Allegra could go out to dinner just the two of them. I had just purchased Beauty and the Beast (Josh said I had to have the movie because Belle is my animated Disney alter-ego. Who's yours?) Allen agreed to watch it with me. I talked to him all through the movie. I wanted him to see that Beast wasn't all mean.

So there are, in my opinion, two funny things about this evening that stand out to me. 1)I knew all the words to the songs (except for the new one! yes, there's a new song!) and sang every one of them. Loudly. When I asked Allen if he thought I'd seen the movie before, he said No. And B) When a child thinks a movie or something on tv is going to be scary, what do they do? In my experience, they cover their eyes or bury their face. Not Allen. He sticks his fingers in his ears. You gotta love him.

So my last Allen story is as much mine as his. He knows all the continents. He sings a song about them. It ends..."Don't forget Antarctica." I asked him about Uncle Arctica. He knows that Uncle Josh goes with Aunt Kristen, so what about Uncle Arctica. He thought about his seriously for a bit and then began to end the song with "Don't forget Uncle Arctica." Oops! Maybe I'd taken my joke too far. I explained to him that he could sing it that way to his teacher, but not with his whole class. I think he got it.

Allegra just told me that when she picked him up yesterday afternoon, he was standing beside his teacher. He told her, "When my aunt Kristen was here, she sang Uncle Arctica." Thankfully, Allegra was right there to declare Aunt Kristen as silly.

All agreed.