bitter beer face

When Luke was a baby (about 9-12 months) he would pull this ridiculously awesome face. I don't have any great pictures of it (and it was before we had a digital camera... I only have a few classic videos.) Basically, he would scrunch up his face as tight as he could and breath deeply in and out of his nose (which made a lot of sound because his lips were blocking his nostrils.) Anyway, this is the best photo we have. Sad.. because it really doesn't do it justice.


We nicknamed it the BITTER BEER FACE and we could get him to do it on command. After the whole room was laughing, he would laugh too... but only because he knew HE was being hilarious. (He would never smile or laugh at anyone else trying to make him laugh. Such an odd baby he was... but definitely cute.)


When he turned one year, he would no longer do the bitter beer face-- not for anyone. And we've mourned it ever since. He has grown up into such a handsome little boy. He can work a camera like no other, by far my most photogenic child. His face is chiseled, his dimples come out only when he wants them to and his eyelashes are to die for. (Click on the collage and check out the blue man picture to see his long, dark eyelashes.)


With that said, recently Luke is going through this awkward (ugly) little boy stage. He pulls odd faces and makes sounds that just make me want to scream, "WHY are you doing that?" It's not anything inappropriate or bad, it's just WEIRD and I don't get it. To make matters worse, he doesn't have any front teeth.. Of course, I still love him and think he's handsome. But what happened to my adorable little boy?

The past week or so, Luke brought back the bitter beer face. He's been using the new space in his mouth to suck in his top lip. Sometimes I will look at him in the rear view mirror and just cringe. He does it out in public all the time and when I ask him a question, he will will look at me with an expression like so:

Sorry about the terrible lighting. obviously I'm not a profesh at taking pictures, but we all knew that.

I'm sure his bedhead isn't helping the situation, but how are you supposed to respond with a child looking like THIS all day? Laugh or slap him out of it? Why are boys so ODD? Am I a terrible mom or do your kids go through UGLY stages too? You can comment as anonymous if you want :)

ps. Luke, if you ever read this know that Ben has been going through an ugly stage for a couple of years now and I've loved him all the while. It will be okay. Somehow, we will get through this.