If it don't fit, force it

... and even if it do fit, force it.

When Owen tries hard to open, close or otherwise move something, he makes a tremendous, open-mouth grimace. It exposes his four bottom teeth, and it looks like the sheer effort of whatever he's doing is pulling his face down his neck. If I have any pumpkin artistry at all, my jack o' lantern this year will be that expression.

Owen tries hard almost all the time. And for over a month, it's sort of made sense, as the name of the game was putting things in other things. Whether toys in a bag or shapes in a shape sorter, sometimes pushing a bit harder does the trick. But now we're trying stacking things, and in that case, using all your might generally doesn't help and often has the opposite effect. So the Young Gentleman will put one block precisely on top of two others, then push down almost until his arms shake, at which point - surprise - the tower falls.

I'm not worried, but this is curious. Do all kids do this?

O update

Aside from the new laugh (see below), here’s what Owen is up to.
1. Climbing – on the furniture, up the stairs. He’d like nothing better than to stand on the back of the couch and beat on the front windows.
2. Shoes – He loves shoes, and trying to put on shoes. Especially mine. He says ‘shuss’ pretty reliably now when confronted with footwear.
3. Hiding things. He finds places to hide his toys – in the coffee table bumper, under the ottoman. He also his our nanny’s book in the pantry and deposited her car keys under a table. Hmm… note to self: Don’t let O play with keys in the morning before work.
4. Dancing and humming. He loves music, particularly the tinny music that comes out of all his toys. His current favorite musical toy is a cow teether/rattle that plays ‘Old McDonald’ when the button is pressed. He stands, rocks, smiles, and waves his arms like he’s directing an orchestra.
5. Belly button – Thanks to 2 books, Sandra Boynton’s ‘Belly Button Book’ and ‘Where is Baby’s Belly Button’, Owen can now find his own belly button, which he calls ‘buh buh’. He can also find other people’s belly buttons and loves to ram his tiny pointy finger into them.

Mr. Sinister

O has developed a new laugh, which I refer to as his ‘Mr. Sinister’ laugh. This laugh only appears at certain times:
1. While trying to smash the cat in the door
2. While trying to grab the cat’s heart and pull it out a la ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’
3. Trying to poke mommy in the eye
4. Trying to bite mommy/daddy/nanny.
The laugh is easily distinguishable from his normal cackly, cute giggly laugh. Is this the first taste of 2? I guess only time will tell. Fortunately, he responds somewhat to ‘no’ and is still redirectable. Even when he's doing his mad scientist laugh, he's still pretty dang cute.

A tiny boy, brandishing a bottle of Wasabiyaki, chases a cat through my kitchen

Nope, not a dream, just another evening in the Holler.

The killer web browser feature

Just look at the headline and top image from this Lifehacker article on all new and evolving web browsers. It's clear what single feature could cause a web browser to break from the pack and set the new standard: a non-round logo.