someone has little brother syndrome

this was filmed about a year ago, on the first day that the unicorn had ever worn heelys. not much has changed in the kids' dynamic since then. actually, have they even changed their clothes since then?

Yippee! Yippee! Noodle is 3!

how quickly time flies when you have a little buddy this entertaining by your side.

A Year Ago This Week.

looking back is bitterweet.

photo of the week

photo of the week

on comedic merit alone, this won the honor of being my favorite of the week.

christmas 2008 made me laugh...a lot.

The Lackluster 2008 Santa Photo

2008 Santa Photo, originally uploaded by Hollis Queen.

Our boys really know how to show their excitement about the upcoming holiday, don't they? You'd never know that the boy on the right has been talking incessantly about Santa since July. Or that the baby on the left screams "Tanta! Tanta! Tanta!" every time he sees an image of the Big Guy's likeness. Looking alive, guys. Way to be. (Doesn't Angus look like a marionette puppet without a puppeteer to bring him to life?) Oh well. I think next year may be our year to shine.

imagination vacation

Recently, it has been becoming more and more obvious just how heavily Noodle has been blessed with a wildly creative imagination. I have been meaning to write about this for a few weeks now--- the way this child plays. Tony's mom said it is just like Tony played as a kid. He basically has two modes of play: Quiet Mode and Full Throttle. Here's a basic sketch of each.

When he is in Quiet Mode, he will sit and act out fantastical scenarios, mostly fight sequences, between the oddest pairings of toys. The other day Shrek was being mauled by one of the Lion King hyenas, but then Shrek made a comeback and fought the hyena off and somehow mightily tamed the beast through a thorough scolding, and then Shrek was able to ride the hyena like a pony. And yesterday I watched as be played out a battle royale between Spiderman & the Green Goblin (for the 208th time) with ghetto action figures.....the part of Spidey was played by the Spiderman Band-Aid box while the Goblin was played by the Spiderman movie's DVD insert. This one was a rerun. He's been carrying on with this non-stop since the boys watched Spiderman two Fridays back. The kid is so into Willem Defoe's Green Goblin, which is a truly great performance....but why do my children always root for the villains? Darth Vader, Green Goblin, Gaston from Beauty & the Beast. WTF? Anyway, don't worry, Santa has been notified of the need for some real action figures so the kid can put the tattered pieces of paper down.



And then there is Full Throttle Mode. This is when people end up hurt or in tears, something is broken, someone is in a timeout or occasionally all of the above. In Full Throttle Mode, Noah generally has two games he plays with himself. One is Hot Pursuit and the other is Narrow Escape. Hot Pursuit is when he is running at full speed from an imaginary villain (or more likely it's a good guy chasing Noah the Villain...hmmmm) while periodically dodging obstacles and shooting glances over his shoulder. Sometimes he thinks he has to sucker punch you while he runs past you as he acts out this scenario. He thinks you're stupid for scolding him, since you didn't get out of his way. And because his game is temporarily halted while he serves his time in the penalty box.

Hot Pursuit usually then melds into Narrow Escape, wherein he barely, just barely, escapes capture by either jumping from something he shouldn't be jumping from, sliding on his stomach under something not meant to have a child pinned beneath it, or by using another human as a crash-landing pad. And the sound effects! Oh they rule. Lots and lots of gasping and dramatic ugh! and oh! sounds. It's really quite cinematic. My favorite is Narrow Escape on Bike. This version always ends with a very noisy and spectacular bike crash that leaves him sprawled out under his bike and needing to pry himself free before crawling safely out of danger. Once during a heated Hot Pursuit/ Narrow Escape combo, Noah jumped off the kitchen chair and onto his bike seat like a cowboy jumps from the window of a saloon onto his horse's back. It looked so painful, but that little sucker just scooted away, gasping and panting and throwing glances over his shoulder at me.

And all I could think was, "Noodle, you are just naturally cool."

two

kid, you light up our lives. thanks for being the baby of our family. we always needed and wanted someone just like you to make us complete.
love, momma, daddy & angus

photo of the week