Allanna Stories
Overheard
October 5, 2008
Allanna: Dean, what kind of animals are potato chips from? It must be a crunchy kind.
...
A bit later:
Allanna: What kind of animal are potatos made out of? It must be a squishy kind of animal.
Cooking, Allannastyle
April 3, 2008
Allanna and I just had the following conversation:
Allanna: Here's your mac and cheese (a plateful of yellow legos). I put a
little garlic in it.
Rebecca: I thought you don't like garlic.
Allanna: Well, I wanted to make it a little spicy for you.
We've been making fondue lately but evidently I overdid the garlic
once recently because even though I've always made it with garlic, she
objected the second most recent time. (So last time I put in a little
less again.)
Allannaisms!
December 2007
Sadly, most of the mispronunciations are
gone. But she still has some amazing turns of phrase:
- She woke up from a bad dream and said "The movie in my head was scary."
- She kept asking for "snowpants with handles." It took me a little
while to figure out what she meant by that. (She meant snowpants
with suspenders.)
What a Mess!
May 28, 2007
The games kids make up are sometimes hard to comprehend. Nathaniel
Martin and his family came to play. Allanna and Nathaniel invented a
new game where they dumped toys out of containers, announced "What a
mess!" "What a mess!" then put all the toys back in the container,
then started all over agin. This went on for a couple hours
alternating between dumping out and cleaning up duplos, blocks, and
beads. All four parents are positive they'd never seen either kid
play this "game" before.
Proud Parenting Moment
May 2007
We went to a restaurant with Allanna's best friend, Annelise, and her
family. Both girls got balloons on the way out but Annelise's string
wasn't properly fastened so it flew away. Allanna told Annelise "When
I'm a bird, I'll fly into the sky and get your balloon for you
Annelise." The generosity of the sentiment was what struck me first,
and made me proud. The evidence of an active imagination also pleased
me (yeah yeah, maybe it's just evidence of a divorce from reality but
here's hoping not). Finally, that's quite a complex sentence for a
three-year-old. I try not to brag about my fabulous kid too
much but please humor me on this one.
Conversations with a Three-Year-Old
April 2007
Explaining why Aunt Juwee (Julie) can't sit on the couch:
"Because it's too difficult."
"The thing is Mommy..." (I don't remember what the thing was actually.)
After over-hearing my sister say not to put words in Allanna's mouth:
Allanna: "Mommy, don't put words in my mouth."
Rebecca: "Why not?"
Allanna: "Because I'll choke."
How Are You Feeling?
December 2006
Allanna has had a series of colds in the last few weeks. This leads
us to ask her with some regularity, "How are you feeling?"
Her usual answer is "Not great."
Coming from a 2.75-year-old, this cracks me up.
Allannaspeak
November 4, 2006
I don't go out of my way to correct Allanna's pronunciation. Instead,
I usually just find a way to repeat the word she mispronounced back to
her correctly. However there are a few words she mispronounces so
cutely that I'm somewhat loathe to teach her the proper pronunciation
too quickly. Here's a rundown of a few of my favorites.
| Allannaspeak | Actual word |
| Ban-baid | Band-aid |
| Carecrow | Scarecrow |
| Kie | Sky |
| No-man | Snowman |
| Pack-pack | Backpack |
| Pin around | Spin around |
| Tap-top | Laptop |
| Yap | Lap |
| Yittle | Little |
Allanna, Destroyer of All She Surveys
October 27, 2006
RR to ABC: Allanna, what are you doing?
Allanna: Cleaning up things.
(As she pushes everything off the table onto the floor.)
What Happened?
September 22, 2006
I ran out to run an errand and left Allanna with some friends. My
friend, Rose, who was exactly a week away from delivering her second
child at the time of this story, reported the following story when I
returned.
[Rose rearranges maternity T-shirt]
Allanna: [appearing to notice Rose's pregnancy for the first time]
What happened?
Rose: I'm pregnant. I have a baby in my belly. Soon the baby
will come out. Then you'll be able to see the baby, and Nathaniel
will be a big brother. [Nathaniel fails to notice being mentioned.]
[Jenise walks in]
Rose: But Jenise will still have a baby in her belly. And much later
that baby will come out, and Annelise will be a big sister. [Annelise
fails to notice being mentioned.]
Allanna: [lifting shirt] I can't find a baby in my belly.
Jenise: That's because you're too young to have one. You have to
be a mommy to have a baby in your belly.
Rose: And you have to be much, much older to be a mommy.
[Apparently satisfied or no longer interested, Allanna's attention moves on.]
Teeth-Brushing
Summer 2006
Years ago, our dentist recommended that Dean use a Sonicare
toothbrush. I use it too since, why not, it's in the house already.
The Sonicare makes a humming sound while you use it. We usually brush
Allanna's teeth then let her "brush her teeth" while one of us brushes
ours. Lately, Allanna has taken to humming with a toothbrush in her
mouth while following after us while we pace around the house with the
Sonicare. After all, we make a humming sound when we brush our teeth,
so naturally, she should too!
Allanna's Bunny
July 23, 2006
You've heard of Jennifer's Rabbit? Well this is the story of
Allanna's Bunny.
Allanna and I were gardening today. I've always enjoyed the fruits of
a garden but not the actual gardening part. But it's a lot more fun
to pull weeds with a two-year-old. She also helped me pull the
flowers off the basil and dill and mostly didn't pull off bits that
should stay on. Occasionally she pulled some non-flowery dill and
popped it straight in her mouth--that's ok by me.
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We've been pretty bad about weeding outside the garden so there's
quite a bit of "undergrowth" around the garden. (The garden plot
itself is covered with black gardening plastic with holes for the
plants which makes weeding easier and we've actually been pretty good
about weeding--especially our friend, Jenise, without whom this garden
never would have happened.) I was walking in the undergrowth to get
to a new area that needed weeding when I narrowly missed stepping on a
small rabbit (not much larger than a squirrel) than I only noticed
when it hopped away from where my foot was about to go. This was one
brazen bunny; it spent the next several minutes eating our dill while
I was no more than two feet away trying to shoo it away. Eventually I
gave up trying to get it to leave and Allanna and I enjoyed seeing the
bunny so close. When I realized it wasn't leaving any time soon, I
asked Dean to bring out the camera and we got several not very good pictures. All told, it
probably spent 10+ minutes within 2-5 feet of three humans. It didn't
leave until it was good and full.
|
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Bibs Redux
July 20, 2006
 |
I asked the friend who made the earlier bibs
to make three more. When they arrived, I told Allanna they were a
present from me to her and so she had a ball playing with them. She
put them all on and off a bunch of times, played peekaboo covering
herself and us, put them on Oscar, etc. Then I turned one around so
Oscar has a cape and could be super-Oscar so she then turned them
around to be super-Allanna. So cute! We've even used them a few
times for their intended purpose (i.e. while she was eating).
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Allanna Changes a Diaper
July 14, 2006
I was checking email and could see that Allanna was changing a diaper
but not whose diaper. (She often gives Grover or one of her stuffed
bears a diaper.) She was more thorough than usual this time. She got
out a wipe, wiped whoever she was changing, proclaimed it to be a
"yucky yucky diaper," put the wipe in a plastic bag (we put dirty (as
opposed to wet) diapers in a bad along with the dirty wipes), and then
put the diaper on whoever she was changing. When she was done and
brought it over to me to admire, I discovered she had been changing a
book!
Allanna's Sings the Alphabet Song
May ?, 2006
Allanna sings the Alphabet song as follows:
A-B-C-D
H-I-J
H-I-J-K
L-M-N-O-P
Q-R-S
T-U-V
W-S-Y-and-Z
Allanna's Nicknames
February - March 2006
Sometime in February, Allanna decided that her name is "Cat." When
one asked her, "Allanna, what's your name?" she would respond "Cat!"
and giggle. She knew it was a joke. We have no idea what prompted
this. She's a dog person as far as we know.
In early March, Allanna developed a new variant of the joke. First a
little background. We have friends, Alex and Jenise Aminoff, whose
daughter is named Annelise. Allanna calls Annelise "Lise" and
recently started calling Jenise "Nise" (pronounced the same as
"niece"). One day, in response to the question, "Allanna, what's your
name?" Allanna answered "Catty-lise" and chortled.
A joke on a joke, both from an under-two-year-old. I'm impressed.
Allanna Gets the Munchies
March 6, 2006
At 2am, Allanna demanded an omelet. (She is on an omelet kick lately.
That was the fifth in three days! She prounces "omelet" to sound more
like "almond" or maybe "omlend.")
Awwwwww
February 6, 2006
Allanna's daycare is closed this week so my mom offered to come watch
Allanna. Allanna was pissed when Dean left for work. (I left before
she woke up.) I called to check in after a while. Mom reported that
Allanna had cried for about ninety seconds after Dean left. Later,
while eating a breakfast of spaghetti, Allanna remarked (apropos of
nothing) that "Daddy is at work but Grandma is here" and then she
leaned over and kissed my mother.
Two More Snowgirls
January 25, 2006
 |
They made two more snowgirls today, one (left) in the front yard
and one (right, in progress) in the back yard. (Click either picture
to enlarge.) |
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Allanna's First Snowgirl
January 11, 2006
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My aunt, Lynn, and Allanna made a snowgirl. (I had to take a
picture in the dark because the snow turned to rain and I (rightly)
expected it to be mostly melted by morning.)
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Daycare Stories
January 2006
There's a new baby in Allanna's daycare. Allanna finds her
fascinating. She helps Nancy (our daycare provider) feed and burp the
baby and will often go up to the baby and give her a hug. Nancy says
that Allanna is actually a slight net positive when she "helps" with
the baby.
Whenever I pick Allanna up from daycare she "tells me about her day"
which consists of her saying things like "Nancy", "baby", etc. This
is actually pretty exciting and I'm able to turn this into a full
conversation about Allanna's day. "Did you have fun at Nancy's?"
"Yeah." "Do you like Nancy's?" "Yeah. Baby." "You like playing with
the baby at Nancy's?" "Yeah." "Do you like the other kids at
Nancy's?" "Yeah." I can then name the other kids and ask if she
played with them, likes them, etc. One amusing bit is that she
doesn't like all the kids equally. Some get much more enthusiastic
responses and one even doesn't always get a "yeah" response when I ask
if Allanna likes him.
Pancake Sauce
January 5, 2006
Dean reports that Allanna calls syrup "pancake sauce."
Peer Pressure Leads to Drinking!
December 16, 2005
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Allanna, Annelise, and Meredith were playing on the stairs at Casa
Aminoff when one of the girls decided she was thirsty. Soon, they all
wanted drinks.
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Halloween
October 31, 2005
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Dean decided we should go trick-or-treating to a few neighborhood
houses as an excuse to meet the neighbors. It turned out to be a
fantastic idea as we live on a busy street so get very few
trick-or-treaters. As a result, people were thrilled to see us.
Allanna thought it was great fun to go for a walk at night (she's
usually restricted to the stroller after dark) and thoroughly enjoyed
taking candy out of baskets. The under-served population we visited
almost all insisted that she take several pieces. Our acquisitive
daughter was happy to oblige. She enjoyed dropping the candy into the
small brown bag we had brought for that purpose but occasionally held
on to a piece until we got to the next house. At one point, we
noticed that she was chewing on a Nestle Crunch bar but it was safely
wrapped so we left her alone; evidently she managed to chew through
the wrapper since next time we looked, she had eaten the whole bar!
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Expensive Taste
October 10, 2005
After Allanna's second walk "owside" this morning, it was time for
breakfast. She usually loves oatmeal but has been refusing more than
a few bites for the past several days so I decided to get fancy since
I have Columbus Day off. I made a salmon scramble (scrambled eggs
with a little lox, scallions, and cream cheese). She likes all the
raw ingredients so I was fairly confident she would like the finished
product. Boy was I right. I made a three egg scramble since it was
just the two of us. When it was gone, she was horribly upset so I
made two more eggs worth while she complained that she wanted "more
this" for several minutes. After a while, she started pulling stuff
out of a cupboard (which I allowed so I could finish the second
scramble). I guess I had my back turned too long because she managed
to pull out a bunch of safe packages and one box of matzoh meal inside
a bag. She took the box out of the bag and spread the matzoh meal all
over the kitchen floor. She eventually got her second scramble after
I cleaned up the matzoh meal. And she probably ate 3/4 of the second
scramble (after eating probably half of the first one)!
Imelda's Apprentice
October 10, 2005
Allanna has been given a LOT of handmedown shoes--like 10-15 pairs. I
put them all in a box the other day and Allanna had a great time this
morning trying on half a dozen pairs then prancing around the house;
it was like we were in a shoe store and she was trying them on for
comfort. So cute!
Barrettes
August 4, 2005
Allanna's hair is getting long and falling into her eyes but we don't
want to cut it so I bought some barrettes. I put a couple in her
hair. She then had a great time pulling the rest off the cardboard
one by one; each time she pulled a new one off, she insisted that I
put the old one in her hair. She eventually ended up with eight
barrettes in various places on her head.
P.S. I'm terrible at placing barrettes usefully. Presumably I'll get
better with practice.
Fifteen months check up
July 20, 2005
We took Allanna in for her 15 month check up. The doctor asked a
bunch of questions (as usual) then asked if she could bring in a
medical student to observe. The doctor then asked us to repeat for
the medical student the complete list of words Allanna knows.
Evidently Allanna is way ahead of the curve on number of words known.
:) And she added a word while at the doc's office. ("Bubbles." Dean
was blowing soap bubbles to try to distract her from the immensely
upsettting (to Allanna) and eventually failed effort to get her to sit
on the scale long enough to weigh her. Eventually, we put Dean on a
scale, weighed him, then had him hold Allanna and weighed both of
them.)
For the record, the complete list is:
Mama, Dada, no way (not just no), no dice, no, yes, thank you, block,
ball (block and ball sound suspiciously similar), dog, nana (it means
she's hungry), mmm (as in "yum"), bye bye, duck, and bubbles.
Adventures with laundry
June 27, 2005
We were folding laundry today and only staying slightly ahead of
Allanna unfolding it until she decided a pair of my underpants were a
great toy. They went on her head, were used to play peek-a-boo, and
eventually settled around her neck looking for all the world like a
poncho. She refused to let us take them off and ended up sleeping in
them all night (though partly through the night they ended up around
her waist). It was SO CUTE. She also learned a new word that day.
It started as "sah" when she made us put socks on her. But within a
few minutes had progressed to a full-blown "sock." (July update: One
of Allanna's current favorite games is to play with my socks. This
includes taking them off my feet, having me put them on her hands or
feet (which is pretty ludicrous because they cover the whole limb in
question), and then pulling them off again. She can play this game
for 5-10 minutes at a time.)
Sorting Shapes
June 5, 2005
We were visiting a friend who had a shape sorter toy. Allanna quickly
realized it was much easier to put the blocks in the bucket if the top
was off. (i.e. The thing that makes is so the circles have to go in
the circular hole, squares through the square hole, etc.)
Bibs!
Early May 2005
A friend of mine dyed six bibs for Allanna in various lovely colors
and patterns. When I took them out of the box, Allanna made me put
them all on her--at the same time! Then I'd take them off one by one.
Then she'd come back for me to put them back on. Three of them were
turtleneck-like bibs (Dean calls them tunics) that are excellent for
peek-a-boo.
That's some attention span
February? 2005
I don't remember exactly when this happened but Allanna was less than
a year old when we took her to a reception at the opening of a new
branch of our brokerage firm quite near us. (Hey, there was free food
and some pretty good schwag.) There was a live string duet playing
Classical music and Allanna was tranfixed. She sat listening
attentively for over ten minutes then adorably ate her first
strawberries then sat and listened for a few more minutes.
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