Snow, Costumes, and Eating

Figured I would put up a multi-purpose post with some catch-up pictures and a video of Gabe playing in the snow.

I'll start with Button's eating (because it's the last thing I mentioned in the title, and I like to be a "maverick" in the sense that people tend to use that word these days, in that I'm just kind of annoying).

Eating a saltine, her favorite kind of cracker (which is great since 1000 saltines cost as much as ten zwieback toasts).

Here's an interesting "behind the scenes" snipit that I'll be sure to include on the DVD commentary of my life: this is USUALLY how Butts looks in her pictures. She hates the flash and I usually have to take a half dozen pictures of her before I get one that she doesn't look like a stoner in.

Not surprisingly, she's really taken to food. I mean, she EATS. If we let her, she would do it all day. She's getting quite good about feeding herself, too. Actually, she prefers it, which is weird to us. Gabe took to feeding himself slowly--I tend to think he just liked other people to do the work for him. Actually, from time to time, he'll still refuse to eat until we feed it to him, probably just to keep us in our place. But Butts will often refuse baby food when we're trying to feed it to her but will shovel whatever food she can handle herself into her mouth. She's currently digging on cheerios, but she's really doing well with just about anything we hand to her that she can chew slowly or suck on until it dissolves. So, I guess our baby is still more advanced in the eating department than most other kids are. But, then, her size suggests she would be.

Here's a cute extra picture. She's still not figured out how to crawl forward, but she's working on scooting backwards. She's especially fond of scooting herself under our furniture. This was about thirty seconds before she got angry that she could no longer roll like she wanted to and demanded that I move her to the middle of the floor again.

Now for the snow stuff because that mucks my original order up the most. Last Thursday night we got a fairly substantial snow storm, and Libby took Gabe out to play in it during one of Butts' naps. He had a grand old time.

If you need proof that Butts was sleeping, listen closely at the beginning. Libby has her monitor strapped to her belt and you can hear the music box that we have attached to the side of the crib playing. That factoid also should make the DVD commentary. Probably I'll have to get Ken Burns to do my life story to accommodate the sheer volume of useless information I intend to include.

Gabe, pleased as punch to be in the snow.

I can't even imagine being covered in snow like that and finding it enjoyable anymore. It just looks cold and uncomfortable and I can clearly envision the puddles of melted snow on the floor that will be soaked up in my socks later in the day. I guess that's the difference between being a kid and being a grizzled old fart.

And, finally, the costumes. We received a package from Libby's folks that had some fun outfits for the two of them to wear. So, Libby dressed them up for some pictures.

Is this an Emperor Penguin? Dunno. I hope it fits her for awhile, though, because it will make excellent headgear for when she starts walking and plowing head first into everything in our house. Much more adorable than putting a helmet on her.

I like this picture because Gabe looks exactly like every kid who has been dressed up for the sole purpose of taking a picture, which is unusual for him. Usually he hams it up, and he's all too happy to cooperate when a camera is involved. Here he looks like he's barely tolerating the experience, and I can appreciate that.

I have no idea why this is sideways. It isn't saved that way and even when I tried rotating the original file it kept coming up sideways on here. Stupid blogger.

But wait, there's more! I've also got a video of Gabe playing with his tools. But, because Libby took the video and she has no concept of how long it takes to upload or download videos on the internets, it's super long. So, tune in later in the week for that one.