The Allens' Grand Adventure

The boys have grown a ton since I have been gone. Not so much in height, but in personality and maturity. When they ran up to me in the airport, my first feeling was, "who are these little people?" After months with nearly a complete absence of children around, they just seemed incredibly little. Basically the opposite feeling of when Bruin came to the hospital and stood next to newborn Logan.

Bruin is now working as hard as he can on becoming a little man. He's very confident of himself, attends pre-school, has four stripes on his Tae Kwon Do belt and is almost ready to move up to the next belt. He has an insane memory for details, such as reminding us of exactly where we sat the last time we were in Friendlies in January, and even told me, "I remember lots of stuff, but mommy doesn't always remember stuff." Little bugger's already getting to be a know it all.

Logan is a complete goof ball. Sometimes he tries to be angry or upset, but you can see the giggle twinkling in the corner of his eye and one little knee squeeze is enough to get him laughing. He spends a lot of time trying to grow up as fast as Bruin and even tries to out eat him, which probably explains his big belly. He still hasn't learned how to balance his huge gourd of a head and still smacks it on all sorts of unsuspecting things, like walls, stairs and Dylan, whom he loves.

Dylan is blossoming out of his little shell. Having the extra parent around to give him extra attention seems to be awakening a whole new side of him. Kathy says that he is way more excited and active since I got back. He's even started grunting and making more noises. He was probably just waiting to talk to someone else that speaks grunt. He has most of the skills he needs to walk and climb stairs, but Kathy has been purposely delaying his abilities in order to try to keep things a little more under control. I'm still bouncing over to Portsmouth, NH during the week, so even though I'm here, I'm not really at home. The first couple of times I came back Dylan would look at me all confused, like "why is this guy here again," but now he seems to have figured out the whole daddy concept and chases me around, climbing on me and wanting to be picked up and held. He fell asleep on my chest for over an hour today, that's probably the thing that I regret missing the most. There is just something very peaceful and fulfilling about having your little babies sleep on your chest.

And of course, Kathy is doing fantastic. There are times when I want to yell, "can you grab one of these kids so I can make lunch," or get something to eat or whatever, and it really hits me just how completely insane it must have been watching them the whole time. I really am so lucky to have such a wonderful wife and baby-mama.