I Really Need to Be Better About Updating

So, on a whim, I put the card in the reader to see if I had anything on there for a random update. Turns out I've got a mess of things on there rather worth sharing. So . . . yeah, you're going to be here for awhile.

I can't believe it's already been three weeks since school started back up. And I'm just now getting around to posting pictures. Sheesh. But here's the traditional first-day-of-school-on-the-front-porch picture.

And here's a traditional first-day-of-school-on-the-little-bench-in-front-of-the-school picture.

And here's the traditional me-carrying-a-screaming-Norah-away-from-something-that-she-insists-she-should-be-doing-instead-of-what-needs-to-be-done picture. I'm getting quite a collection of these. Norah has not been pleased about not getting to go to school with Gabe. Last year, we always went in with Gabe and she got to play around for a few minutes before we left. This year, we've had to stick to just dropping Gabe off at the front door while Norah waits in the car because, if I let her out, she throws a fit when we have to go in a few minutes. All the same, she's been screaming and crying the entire way home every day after we drop Gabe off. Once we're home, she kind of likes it, though. I've explained to her that, while Gabe is at school, she can watch whatever show she wants--instead of having to take turns with Gabe--and play with all of Gabe's toys without having to ask or share. She likes not asking and not sharing. Then we've made a habit of going to school fifteen or twenty minutes before it ends so she can play in the playground there. This is a habit I'm going to quickly start regretting when it gets too cold to be outside, but that's a problem to deal with another week.

Norah's first camp-out. The last two weekends, Libby and Gabe have been spending at least one night out in the tent. The first night, they tried it with Norah, too. They went out around 8:00, but after two hours of them screwing around and not sleeping, Libby had to give up and bring them inside. The other nights they've spent out there, Gabe has to go up to bed with Norah (because she doesn't like it when he's not in the room at night) and stay in there until she falls asleep. Then he comes back down and goes outside with Libby. Probably that's a little sneaky and underhanded, but what can you do? That's kind of the place we're at with Norah right now--we have to figure out sneaky ways to convince her that what she's doing is the funnest thing possible.

Gabe with a bubble beard. Nothing particularly special about this picture, but I figured I would share anyway.

Norah making faces. It's fun to have her go through her repertoire of emotion faces--sad, happy, scared, surprised, mad, whatever. But I fear that what I'm really doing is teaching her to create emotions. And, as manipulative as she already is, I can't imagine that she won't use her ability to create emotions to her advantage. I mean, she's already doing that, but right now all she's mastered is Screaming and Crying and Say No. When she masters the subtler emotions, we're going to be in trouble.

No idea what this emotion is. I'm going to call it Nixon.

I think she's trying to wink and smile at the same time. Not sure. Actually, the other night, Libby took five or ten minutes to teach her to tilt her head to one side, say "Please," and bat her big brown eyes at us. I REALLY dread the day she masters that one because I don't think there will be many people who will be able to say no to her when she does it.

Grammy and Grandpa sent a couple new outfits for them a week ago or so, too. But more than sharing the pictures of the outfits, I wanted to comment on Gabe's faces for these pictures.

He wasn't in a bad mood or anything. He just thought this look was what he wanted to do for these pictures. And when I look at these pictures, I can't help but have a haunting premonition of all of the pictures he'll be in from adolescence until he's probably out of college where he's too indifferent or too cool or too fed up or too angsty or too whatever to smile and admit that he's having a good time. But, then, as much as he likes to see himself in pictures and on video, maybe he'll just save that attitude for special occasions, because looking at pictures of yourself being a tool isn't nearly as much fun as looking at pictures of yourself being silly.

Last night, Libby decided to get Gabe his Halloween costume. The Red Power Ranger. Ugh. He's left Transformers and G.I. Joe in the past now and focused his entire being on the Power Rangers. I couldn't be more disappointed and can only hope that this phase just lasts as long as all those before it have. Because Power Rangers have actually managed to get worse in the past twenty years. And, considering they started off as terrible and unwatchable, where they are now is beyond painful. He kept the costume on all last night (even while he was at the store for the reception that we had for the artist we'll be displaying for the next month or two) and had to put it back on first thing this morning.

Norah with her popcorn. She has a thing for popcorn. Well, let's not fool ourselves, she has a thing for food in general. But she is VERY protective of her popcorn and she can eat a lot of it. She ate this entire bowl, which was the better part of a bag. That's perfectly normal for a two year old, though, right?

Norah playing catch. It really is weird how much better she is at it than Gabe was at that age. Actually, she's about as good at it as Gabe is now. He just doesn't have the patience to throw and catch a ball. He's good with throwing it if it's going to hit something and make it explode or fall down, otherwise, meh. I can sympathize, somewhat. I have never been much for ball throwing either. Just never came up with any practical application for the skill. I mean, if I lived in a ninja infested region and I could hone a skill for catching and returning throwing stars, sure, that's useful. Or if I was being divebombed by bats all the time and I wanted to be able to catch them and throw them in someone else's hair, that makes sense. As it is, I don't often need to catch and throw things. Just not something that I need to do.

And I saved the best for last. Take a moment to soak this picture in.

McDonalds Happy Meals have Power Ranger toys this month. One of them is a little plastic gun thing that shoots these paper disks out. For reasons that could only be clear to Gabe, he poked one of them between his but cheeks and started running around like this before his bath the other night. Libby tried to get a video, but he wasn't really cooperating by that point and it has full front nudity on it, so I'll be saving that one for the special movie viewings with his high school girlfriend. This picture will be popping up at inopportune times in his future, too, I'm sure.