AlleNews

Arm Picture #10

2011-02-13T15:12:00.002-05:00

Arm Picture #9

2011-01-17T05:53:00.002-05:00

Arm Picture #8

2011-01-17T05:50:00.002-05:00

Christmas trip to Tennessee and Mississippi

2011-01-11T20:26:00.015-05:00

Arm Picture # 8

2011-01-02T07:32:00.001-05:00

Arm Picture # 7

2011-01-02T07:27:00.003-05:00

Arm Picture # 6

2011-01-02T07:20:00.002-05:00

Catching up on these now...

Arm Picture # 5

2010-09-26T14:41:00.001-04:00

Arm Picture #4

2010-08-15T21:01:00.002-04:00

Arm Picture #3

2010-07-18T15:52:00.001-04:00

The past couple of months

2010-06-21T20:23:00.014-04:00

After Nathaniel was born, I would put a few new picture on the blog every couple of days, and did so for several months at least. That hasn't quite happened in these first weeks after Bennett's birth. I'm not sure why, but somehow things seem a little busier this time around. Anyway, in roughly chronological order, here's some of what's been going on in our house over the last 6 weeks or so...

Home from the hospital:

Nathaniel: "I want to put on the counting hat and do some counting"

Making a cake for Kelli's second annual 39th birthday:

2 weeks old:

Learning to be a big brother:

Water fun:

Celebrating birthday number 3 for Nathaniel, complete with dinosaur cake and balloons, and putting birthday presents into immediate use.

Some proud grandfathers with their grandsons:

I'm not sure this requires or is susceptible to explanation:

Brothers:

Arm Picture #2

2010-06-16T06:23:00.002-04:00

Arm Picture #1

2010-05-18T06:11:00.001-04:00

More family

2010-05-16T14:11:00.006-04:00

Bennett's adoring fans

Big brother

Cousin Levi

Aunt Lourene

Headed home

2010-05-16T13:45:00.004-04:00

On Friday, Baby # 5332 and his parents turned in their matching armbands (after one last check by the nurse to make sure Bennett was taking the correct parents home with him), and ventured into the world outside Duke hospital. So far, so good.

Happy Allen grandparents

2010-05-15T13:24:00.002-04:00

Open eyes

2010-05-13T20:10:00.003-04:00

Ahhhh, sleeping baby

2010-05-13T08:07:00.003-04:00

Sleeping baby equals sleeping parents, which was a nice luxury after not much sleep the first night.

A few more pictures from Bennett's (Ben's?) first day

2010-05-12T14:41:00.005-04:00

Here's some proud Dominick grandparents. Stay tuned for pictures of equally proud Allen grandparents.

New Allen

2010-05-11T19:44:00.002-04:00

May I introduce Bennett Michael Allen? He came into the world at 9:49 am, weighing 7 lbs, 6 oz, and 20 inches long. More pictures to come....

Heading home

2009-07-04T11:41:00.007-04:00

It's been great to have so much time with family this week. Here's a few last pictures of them before we get on the road southward:

Pittsburgh fun

2009-07-03T14:37:00.011-04:00

Although planting grass seed was plenty of fun, Nathaniel had an even better time over the past 24 hours as we went to a a children's museum (where he met one of his favorite celebrities)...

AND went to an amusment park (a.k.a "big, big, big, big playground). There were only 4 rides he could go on, but from his excitement about them, they probably ranked about even with flying the space shuttle:

Busy

2009-07-02T13:19:00.004-04:00

Nathaniel continues to have a lot of fun on our trip, though I'm not sure he understands the meaning of vacation. As you can see in the pictures, he's occupied himself today with earthmoving, garage-cleaning and landscaping, and all of that before lunch.

Great friends

2009-07-01T13:39:00.005-04:00

Here's a few pictures of our gracious hosts from our time in State College: the Horners. These friends housed, fed, and entertained us, in addition to giving up a lot of their time to just hang out with us. We were sad to leave them on Tuesday.

State College

2009-06-29T14:25:00.005-04:00

We visited Kelli's alma mater today. Of course the highlight for Nathaniel was the construction activity that happened to be going on, more so than the stately buildings and old college hangouts.

Vacation

2009-06-27T14:14:00.008-04:00

We're on vacation this week. traveling to see the Dominicks in Pennsylvania, with stops in Lexington, VA and State College PA along the way. Since we're not at work, there should be time to update the blog, right? We'll see how it goes. Anyway, here a few pictures from this morning's short hike off of the Blue ridge Parkway near Lexington, VA:

2009-06-06T20:55:00.031-04:00

It's been a long time since an update, so here's some highlights of pictures from the last 8 months or so.

2009-01-21T06:58:00.004-05:00

Apologies for the long hiatus. Life seems to have gotten more and more busy as Nathaniel has gotten more and more mobile. No time now to cathc up on everyhting since October, but here's just a Nathaniel's first experience with snow yesterday:

Pop's backyard

2008-10-11T13:40:00.005-04:00

A little bit of exploration is a great way to spend a Saturday morning:

Play-doh and playground

2008-10-02T21:25:00.010-04:00

Just a few recent pictures of toddler fun...

Mountain weekend

2008-09-20T19:59:00.014-04:00

As a last hurrah before me (Mike) starting my new job, we went to the mountains a couple of weekends ago, conveniently driving out of the path of Tropical Storm Hannah in the process.

Here's the "petting zoo" at the KOA campground where we stayed, which consisted of several chickens and a few very-well-fed goats. Another picture in the campground in the morning...

Nathaniel contemplating his mule and saddle:

Hiking is tiring work:

Here's our guide pointing out exactly where we took a wrong turn on the trail. No harm - we found our way back to the car quickly, but missed out on the most scenic part of that particular trail.

But fortunately, we had no trouble finding a nice park on the Blue Ridge Parkway for some afternoon naptime under a tree.

Although he generally does enjoy riding in the backpack, once we let him out of it near the beginning of one trail, Nathaniel was pretty enthusiastic about trying out some hiking on his own.

2008-09-20T19:50:00.002-04:00

Here's just a couple of more (one before haircut and one after, you may notice).

This is how a 1-year old enjoys a good blueberry pancake for breakfast... And here's what happens if lunchtime runs a little later than normal.

After-nap bedhead

2008-08-24T15:07:00.002-04:00

Maybe time for another haircut?

A new skill

2008-08-23T09:23:00.003-04:00

The learning never stops - here he is testing out his his new baby-friendly utensil. There's only been about two successful transfer of food from plate to mouth, but we're making progress.

2008-08-17T20:52:00.010-04:00

Just a few more recent pictures. The first few are Nathaniel and his grandparents with the new water table they got him - I'm not sure who enjoyed it most, but everyone had a good time.

Summer fun

2008-08-10T14:33:00.016-04:00

It's been a long time since the last update - we've been busy! Nathaniel is growing quickly in walking proficiency and in vocabulary, and seems to be in almost constant motion while he's awake, focussed primarily on exploring and making as much noise as possible. Here's a few highlight of how we're enjoying our summer:

Creek-Stomping
About three weeks ago we had a reunion with old housemates and their families. We had lots of room to roam and a great creek to explore, which of course was greatly enjoyed by the numerous kids and dogs (and the grownups, too.)

Camping
"Camp Allen" has happened every summer since Sid and Blake (now 17) were about 8 months old. They, their sister Rebecca, and mom Lourene (Mike's cousin) come for a few days to stay with Mike's parents, and we Durhamallens go hang out as much time as we can. Over the years the activities have changed slightly (for example, the Star Wars movie-watching marathon hasn't happened in a couple of years) but it is still a highlight of the summer.

Splashing

Nathaniel's love of water is still strong. A neighbor with a backyard pool graciously invited us for a swim, and Nathaniel didn't have to be asked twice. He had some serious prune-wrinkled feet by the time he got out, and would have been happy to have stayed in the water twice as long.

Toddle

2008-07-16T16:24:00.004-04:00

Much to the dismay of our cat (who is a frequent object of pursuit), Nathaniel is on the verge of full mobility. It's been a gradual process - the first stumbling, unintentional step without support probably happened a month or so ago, and crawling is still his preferred method of travel. But even over the past couple of weeks, walking has become more frequent and has covered greater distances. And now, since I've taken a picture of it, I'm calling it official and sharing it with you. And of course this means lessons in dribbling a basketball (from me) and swinging a golf club (from GrandTeddy) should begin very soon.

Theme Park fun

2008-07-09T19:22:00.022-04:00

As promised, here's the second installment of our PA trip. One fun outing was to a local theme park (which Kelli frequented growing up) which includes, among other things, and area called "Storybook Forest". As you'll see in the pictures, it's basically large nursery rhyme scenes. Nathaniel may not have his nursey rhymes memorized yet, but he could tell this was a less much more interesting place to walk around than most grown-up places.

As we carried Nathaniel through this area, he frequently "asked" to be transferred from person to person, by leaning and reaaching in the direction of his newly-preferred carrier. When we got to Little Red Riding Hood, Nathaniel decided he'd like to go see her, and we obliged. Below you see him realizing that the person holding him is definitely NOT someone he knows. At least she wasn't the Big Bad Wolf.

Time for a short lunch break (the boy LOVES bananas).

Then we were able to work in a ride on a merry-go-round and a train before Nathaniel's need for sleep outweighed his enjoyment of the entertainment. On the way out of the park we also discovered that Nathaniel is a BIG fan of a slushee, flavored blue #6. He only got a few spoonfuls, but probably would have been glad to finish off the whole thing.

Summer fun doesn't necessarily mean leaving home, though. Witness Frog-Pool. Again, Nathaniel enjoyed it, and the adults enjoyed watching him even more.

The sprinkler feature was a little startling at first...

But once he got the hang of it (and we turned down the water pressure a little), he thought it was a lot of fun.

So as you can see, we had a lot of fun and quality family time in a short period. We're already looking forward to next year's trip.

4th of July

2008-07-08T19:37:00.014-04:00

We took advantage of the long weekend (and made it a little longer) by taking a trip to Pennsylvania to visit with the Dominick side of the family. The New River Gorge in West Virginia is on the way, and thanks to a borrowed baby backpack, we got to stop for a short hike. Nathaniel seemed to be satisfied with the performance of his mule, and Kelli and I really enjoyed a good walk in the woods, plus a spectacular view of the gorge.

On the 4th of July itself, we had lots of family time, food from the grill, and of course some ice cream. In one of the pictures you'll see Nathaniel negotiating for a bite or two of Uncle Dale's large serving of ice cream and cake.

Stay tuned for an entry from days 3 and 4 - Nathaniel's Dominick grandparents are great hosts, so this entry can't contain a sufficient record of all the fun.

2008-07-04T10:15:00.004-04:00

This past weekend, Nathaniel got to hang out with friend Anja while Anja's parents had a garage sale. The idea was for Kelli to supervise the children during the garage sale, but apparently Anja (who can walk and not satisfied to stay in one spot) was more interested in supervising the garage sale than being supervised.

Nathaniel will certainly follow Anja's example of getting into even more stuff than he does now once he can walk. For now, he continues to progress towards full bipedal locomotion, but still relies on crawling to get from point A to point B. He has taken as many as 3 steps unsupported, but those were really more of a stumble than a walk. He does well working his way along walls and the edges of furniture, and now occasionally stands up unsupported for a few seconds at a time. We'll post some pictures of walking once it happens.

Another developing skill: talking. Nathaniel has had some favorite syllables for some time. Sometimes we think he associates them with a particular concept, sometimes not. "Uh-oh" used to have no meaning whatsoever, but now seems to be connected to throwing things onto the floor, at least sometimes. "Ma-ma" is another one he's used for a while, and the rough translation at this point seems to be "Mother, please hand me that piece of food".

The last arm picture

2008-06-20T09:51:00.006-04:00

Here it is - the 13th and last. All of the others are on the old blog, so I've also included here the ones from 6 months ago and a year ago.

Shots, a haircut, and a visit with friends

2008-06-14T13:04:00.019-04:00

It's been an eventful first week of Nathaniel's second year. It started with a well-baby checkup which was all a lot of fun until it came time for the doctor to administer three shots AND draw blood. Nathaniel made it clear that he would rather NOT experience that again any time soon.
We did get the latest reading on height and weight: 23 lbs (50th percentile) and 31 inches (90th percentile).

Much more fun was a vist from Nathaniel's future college roommate, Kenan Reichow, and his parents, Terrell and Brian. The little boys enjoyed bonding over glowing frog toys (a birthday gift from Kenan to Nathaniel) and tiny basketball, and the parents had a good time catching up, too.

At long last, Nathaniel had his first professional haircut this morning (his only prior hair cut being our attempt to shorten his bangs slightly while he was sleeping). The haircut experience went quite well - his patience held out almost as long as the haircut took.

As you can see from the before and after pictures, a good bit of hair had to go. We're not sure exactly how much this will affect the above-reported weight measurement, but we're guessing it could be significant :)

Favorite toy, favorite spot, favorite game:

If you look carefully you'll notice in many pictures that Nathaniel wields a white measuring cup. Turns out they make great toys - just the right size to hold, makes great noise when you bang it on things, and the handle is nice to chew on if teething is giving you trouble.

Nathaniel decided as soon as he could crawl that our brick hearth is the ideal spot to play. After resisting for a few weeks, we finally went along with him. He's learning to climb down feet-first instead of head-first, which at least reduces the number of falls. We have at least managed to keep him from opening the grate and entering the fireplace itself, which he would really like to do.

The hearth is a great place to play the newly-invented "uh-oh" game. Grandma Diana and GrandTeddy started this game a few days ago. The original idea was for Nathaniel to throw his hands up and say "uh-oh" every time he pushed something over the edge of the hearth onto the floor. But Nathaniel quickly trained the adults to say "uh-oh" - he just pushes something off, raises his hands and looks at you expectantly.

So with that long explanation, you can understand why he's having such a good time in the next couple of pictures:

A few last smiles...

2008-06-12T20:23:00.015-04:00

Nathaniel had his first birthday this Monday, June 9th. His actual party, where he celebrated with all 4 grandparents, was on Saturday. He seemed a little confused at times by the excitement and the unusual activities, but participated enthusiastically, especially when it was time to eat birthday cake.

Here he is with just a few of the great gifts he received from his generous grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.:

The birthday cake was the highlight of the party not only for Nathaniel but for the other party-goers. Nathaniel's all-business facial expressions as he demolished a LARGE piece of cake was highly entertaining to all present.

We figured a great way to clean off some cake stickiness, especially on a 100-degree day, would be a quick dip in the baby pool. Nathaniel, however, found the water a little chilly for his liking - not quite what he's used to with his bath.

But he got the hang of it eventually, and a good time was had by all.

Beach-in-May

2008-06-08T21:18:00.012-04:00

Dubbed "Beach-in-May" by Nathaniel's cousin Levi, the annual Allen family beach trip is on its 11th year at the Outer Banks. Grandma and Pop instigated and have graciously hosted this event, which just gets better every year. This year, 6 adults and one child took a total of about 500 pictures on 3 cameras. I've narrowed that down a bit, but there should still be enough to give you an idea of why we look forward to this week every year. First and most important of course is just a good long stretch of family time:

2008-06-08T20:44:00.013-04:00

Other than general family togetherness ( which of course, as great as it is, can just lead to everyone getting on each other's nerves without a few distractions), here's a few of the regular activities that make Beach-in-May what it is:

Catch a sunrise over the Atlantic (Pop was the only one this year to actually make it up in time for this event)...

...Relax...

...Play...

...Hang out on the deck, especially for breakfast time...

....Go to our regular favorite restaurants (and a couple of new ones)...

2008-06-08T20:08:00.010-04:00

After all that, and even in spite of some stormy weather for part of the week, we did find some time to actually get on the beach. Nathaniel liked it almost as much as a bath (i.e. a lot), and cousin Levi enjoyed it as only a four-year-old can.

Graduation

2008-06-06T21:31:00.003-04:00

No we weren't at a costume party; on May 7th, I graduated from the MAC (Masters of Accounting) program. It was a great experience, and made Nathaniel's first year even a little more interesting and memorable. But I'm glad to be done and on my way back to full employment.