All of us have multiple awkward stages in our lives.

(At least I think we do – if you’ve been the perfect Barbie-Cheerleader all your life, well, I hate you lucky you.)

But the rest of us … have had at least a couple.

I certainly had a few myself…

Some brought on by my fur-like Greek Eyebrows and not-nearly-as-dark-as-it-should-be-to-go-with-the-eyebrows Mediterranean skin..

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Some brought on by horrific early-90’s fashion…

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And some brought on by my Mother’s more…creative side.

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Ali had her first awkward stage at around 5 weeks old.

The poor girl had Junior High Acne problems and Old Man hair problems all in her infantile stage:

And now, at four weeks old, Noah has officially hit his first Awkward Stage.

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(Not to say that he isn’t completely adorable despite his awkwardity by any means.)

But.

His baby acne is outta control, and since baby acne heals and regrows faster than kudzu, it’s constellation pattern changes daily…

His hairline is beginning to recede, certainly foretelling an impending loss of baby hair in awkward patchyness…

And his eyebrows – well, they’re still completely nonexistent.

Poor kid.

He’s tried out several coping mechanisms to deal with his awkward appearance and resulting self-consciousness…

Aggression..

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Melancholy Meanderings…

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Addictive Behaviors…

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Feigned Indifference…

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Fit Pitching…

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And Cross-eyed Confusion.

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(Not to be confused with Cross-eyed Pooing.)

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But despite all of his reactions, I’m just happy that he’s handling it with a little more politeness than his sister did.

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43 thoughts on “Awkward Starts Early.

  1. Hilarious! I love the top picture where you can see a little milk coming out of his mouth. And the hissy fit picture! I can laugh at it cause I’m not there :)

    You are brave to post pics of your younger years. There is no way anyone is going to see a pic of my from 5th to 9th grade. Not pretty.

    1. Same here on the 5th to 9th grades. Those photos are buried deep in a vault somewhere (I hope) never to show their ugly faces (pun intended) again.

      I love all the faces of Noah, such a handsome little man, acne and all. Hailie had it bad between 5 weeks and 2 months. Poor babes. It took all my willpower not to squeeze the pimples, I know, it’s a sick obsession.

    2. Oh come now – not even for the sake of a great blog post? You could make it less painful by posting pics of Jill, too :) She’d love you for that!!

  2. LOL!!! That cross-eyed pooing picture almost made me spew my coffee!! Love it! And the one of Ali giving you the middle finger is just priceless!!

  3. I am totally laughing out loud here. This is adorable! This put a smile on my face today….BTW I know many a girl who would die for those plush eyebrows:0) – the ones who have to pencil them in…..

    1. Thanks!
      Yes, thick eyebrows aren’t so bad – AFTER someone introduces you to tweezers!!! :D
      I remember going to a get-together the day after my Mom taught me how to pluck my eyebrows. All of my friends were stunned and trying to figure out why I looked so different!

  4. awesome pictures!
    poor thing though. :/
    my babies never dealt with baby acne but lots of cradle cap.
    Some extra virgin olive oil will soothe the redness for sure.
    i know, it doesn’t sound like the greatest oil to put on a baby but EVOO is great for lots of things.

  5. Oh my goodness, these pictures had me laughing out loud, so of course K came running and is now asking questions about all of them. SO funny! The last picture of Ali really got me laughing. Hilarious! Noah is so expressive! It cracks me up! You are good at catching all those little faces on camera!

    Oh, and your “awkward” pictures really aren’t that bad. I have seen MUCH worse! :)

  6. It took me a second to get the last picture (haven’t finished my coffee yet!) but what a cutie! Both of them. And oh, so true! Only, the baby awkward stages are sooo much cuter than the 5-9th grade stages we all went through.

  7. *giggle* I love Ali.
    I should post a picture of my 6th grade bangs… for some reason, we all thought it looked awesome to have this giant side-swept thing up front, like Rick Astley or the 90210 guys, with little wispy bangs hanging down into our eyes. Totally ridiculous.

    1. Oh you should definitely post it! I thought about making this post a linky and getting everyone to post their awkward pics, but figured no one would!! :)

  8. OH my goodness! This one cracked me up. I nearly had a diet coke-out-the-nose moment!

    By the way, we have a connection. One of my dearest friends just happens to be Leslie Hunt, Ashlie Brook’s Mom. She emailed me a link to one of your posts the other day and I emailed her back to ask if she knew you in real life. That’s when she told me that Noah’s middle name was to honor James. What a sweet tribute to him and I know it means so much to their family. Anyway, I figured we would eventually have some sort of in-real-life connection. It’s a small world.

    1. Leslie told me she knew you on Facebook the other day! That’s really cool. Yes, Noah is named after James – James was one of my husband’s best friends, and worked with him also. I haven’t seen Ashlie in a while – I miss her!

  9. Hilarious. I remember thinking with my 3rd that the poor baby acne was so bad maybe people should wait to come and see him when he was a bit older. :)

    1. LOL! I feel very self-conscious on his behalf, too!! Although his acne is better today, his hairline is getting dramatically worse! It’s amazing how quickly their hair can fall out! :)

  10. it looks like a food allergy to me. My oldest had it that’s how I know. I nursed him but he developed a milk allergy. I had to cut out all milk products.

  11. Good thing that the baby awkward stage usually doesn’t last that long; however, the middle school awkward stage is a different story, think mine lasted all three years :)
    That picture of Ali is hilarious, I remember you telling me about her infant balding stage, but I’d never seen a picture of it!
    The cross eyed pooing picture of Noah is too funny!

  12. Oh how adorable! I agree, 5th – 9th grades should be erased from our memories automatically just for surviving! Your “awkwardness” wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been – picture a bowl cut hairdo, missing front teeth, Coke-bottle glasses that are so big they nearly touch your upper lip AND eyebrows :) And later on, the braces and perms :) That Noah is just too adorable – acne and all! Landon has just started to have a big problem with it too – I put some A & D ointment on it, and it seemed to help a little. Good luck!

  13. Thanks for making my night!! Laughing so hard right now…loving Ali’s last pic and Noah’s pooing face is priceless!

  14. I remember my awkward stage well… the squirrel teeth, the drugged-out expression (I needed glasses, but none of us had realized it yet), the hair that wouldn’t stay flat (I have super straight hair but it is extremely fine, so for all the winter months it hovered around my head in a constant static halo).

    My kids had identical hair loss and baby acne issues to yours, as well as some SERIOUS cradle cap, poor things. I remember trimming Ian’s hair when it started to grow over his ears… and he still had nothing on top! He also shared something else with Noah… huge paws! Look at those hands! I love ’em! He is going to be a big boy, if you use the puppy paws-to-size ration. :) Adorable!

  15. I love all the pictures of you and Noah. Noah’s facial expressions bring to mind a hundred thoughts he might be thinking.

  16. So I know it’s been over a year past this post, but I just found your blog. I’m so glad I did!! This post made me laugh till I cried. I’m glad my husband was already out of the house, because snorting may have been involved!

  17. I may be a little late to this party, but OHMYGOSH. I seriously just had a spaz-attack laughing. My husband was concerned for my sanity!

    And your babies are adorable. :-)

  18. funny baby noah photos. poor evie had it bad right from the start and it didn’t go away til a couple months when we visited terry’s folks. somehow their soft water might have helped. and by the way, i do not think your eyebrows are bad at all. i never thought i had bad teeth until some middle school “friends” made fun of me for it (amongst a lot of other things). i still hate my teeth!

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