Is This Goth?

Over the past few months, Gabe has somewhat gotten out of the habit of joining Libby in the bathroom for "makeover" in the morning. Once upon a time, he would stand at the gate into my office and call out to Libby, about every minute, if she was ready for him to come in and join her. Every morning. For the hour that it takes Libby to get ready.

Maybe he got bored with the waiting or maybe he's just got better things to do now, but he has decided that makeovers are just a sometimes obsession now. Today was one of those days.

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this about Gabe, but he lacks a certain . . . subtlety. Everything he does, he does full bore, all or nothing, balls to the wall, or any of the other dozen or so cliches that I could throw out here.

What does "balls to the wall" mean, anyway? In what circumstance would one's balls be against a wall and how would that in any way encourage overt action? I guess, if I found myself in that awkward position, I might work as quickly and efficiently as possible to NOT have my balls against the wall, but, really, that would only require one step away from the wall-hardly something I would consider an overly active option. Our language is weird.

Anyway, when Gabe puts makeup on, he makes sure its noticeable. Here's his application from this morning.

Our first picture. He wasn't looking at the camera, so we tried another one.

But then I took this picture, which is hardly better. He looks like a bare knuckle boxer. I went with the "goth" angle in the title, even though I haven't said anything else about it (because I don't in any way, shape, or form relate to goth, so I'm really not interested in discussing it in any depth), because I didn't think it was appropriate to relate his makeup application to a pair of black eyes, which is what it really looks like. Maybe he's got a future in special effects (or cosmetology).

I had also hoped to get an adorable video of Norah doing her new thing. I'm sure she picked it up from me because I have a nasty habit of doing it myself. Sometimes now, when I ask her a question, she'll cock her cute little head to one side and say "Huh?" Then she'll walk around for a bit with her head tilted and keep saying it. Really, it's one of the cutest things ever, and I'd really love to get it on video. Sadly, that didn't work out. Instead, you get a video of Norah sitting at the table doing moderately cute things.