Norah Has the Perfect Shaped Head--For Stacking Things on

Out of a mixture of boredom and curiosity, Norah and I (mostly me, obviously) invented a new game this morning while Gabe was upstairs playing with his cars and watching his "movie" about fire trucks for the fortieth time. While she sat on the floor, I put a series of things on her head and discovered that she has the PERFECT shaped head for holding things on top of. It's round, a little flat on top, and has a nice buffer of cushy hair for the objects to nuzzle securely into for stability. I'm not sure if this means she will meet the requirements of poise and proper posture as set forth many years ago, but I figure this is a start (my goal, not surprisingly, is to make her perfect so we can start tromping her around on the baby beauty pageant circuit because, clearly, the people involved in such things are well-rounded and stable and I really want her to have those kinds of horizon broadening experiences).

We were able to balance the following items for at least three seconds (the metric that I decided qualified a particular item as a "success" because if there are no rules, then what's the point): a play cell phone (with Elmo on it), a cup (both upside down and rightside up), an ice cream cone (a piece of toy food, not a real one), her sippy cup (not upside down or on its side, though), four different stuffed animals (because three or less might just be a fluke), a kazoo shaped like a saxophone (as all kazoos should be), a medium-sized Thomas the Train (on its side because her head was sloped just enough for it to roll off otherwise), a ladle ("fun" sized--because it's small, like the candy bars with the same labeling, not because it's actually more fun at this size, probably it is less so), and a purple marker (because purple is the most stubborn color, so I figured the other colors would fall in line after that).

We were NOT able to balance the following things on her head: a Yo Gabba Gabba guitar (actually, this one didn't even really get a shot because it's so big she could see it clearly sticking out over the top so she kept grabbing it, spoiling the test environment), a wooden tractor (the wheels are so big that they helped roll it off her head even when laying on its side), a cowboy hat (I know! The thing that SHOULD stay on her head she wouldn't leave on for more than two seconds!), a pinwheel (too awkward and long to properly balance), and a little plastic step stool (though her head is flat on the top, it's not as flat as the ground, apparently--though I was balancing it by the seat, so really I think it was just a matter of her not appreciating the addition of small furniture to her headal area).

I really wanted to get pictures of at least a few of these, but she was having none of it. At her best, she only left the stuff on for about five seconds, which is less time than it takes for me to grab the camera and get it going--then add a few more seconds for the auto-focus to do its thing and she was nearly standing up and grabbing for the camera before I could even get a picture off. I did, however, get a picture of some of the stuff on the floor around where she was sitting. It will have to do.

She's holding the ladle and ice cream cone. And, oh yeah, the little claw grabber thing on the floor there (a toy Gabe got yesterday because, weirdly, he's been asking for one for several weeks now) didn't stay for three seconds either.

So, I think I'm willing to call this little exercise a success. Successful what, who knows, but success.

I've also got a video of Gabe that needs just a touch of development before I share it.

Friday night, Libby had a little clothes swapping party with some of her girlfriends. Don't worry, it wasn't anywhere near as cool as the name suggests it might be. They all brought their old clothes to see if anyone else wanted them before taking a big haul to the thrift store. But it wasn't just the ladies that were involved. The kids all came, too. I was unlucky enough to be a boy, so I had to go away for a few hours while they did various, probably unsexy things with their clothes, but the kids were still bouncing off the walls by the time I returned. No, I said that wrong. I was unlucky enough to only have enough things to kill my time for a few hours and the kids were still bouncing off the walls when I got home. Yeah, that's a little closer.

Anyway, as the evening was winding down, Gabe decided to put on a bit of a show for anyone whose attention he could grab. He went with his go-to performance: falling off the back of the couch. After making several dives, he, apparently, was unhappy with the amount of attention he was being paid, so, like the showman he is, he called out to grab his audience's attention. "Watch this, girls!" he said and then he fell backwards off the couch. Then, because it got a pretty big laugh, he kept doing it.

Over the weekend, then, I was able to get a video of him doing it again, sort of.

Personally, I think he's got everything a good performer needs here: showmanship, adventure, and he even made up his own song in the middle (though, I think he's going to need to work on his lyrics a little bit--it's not ALWAYS appropriate to sing out the names of the objects directly in your line of sight--for instance, when you are singing to a group of handicapped people). Maybe we'll start putting together a USO show and he can tour with that while Norah is doing the beauty pageant thing. Changing it to "boys and girls" made it slightly less amusing in my mind, but what can you do. Actually, while he was behind the couch after I turned the camera off, he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, children blah blah blah." He muddled through the last bit because he couldn't remember it and just mumbled something we couldn't understand (I assume he meant "children of all ages"). Now, we're not exactly frequenters of the circus, so I'm not sure where he's getting this stuff.