The Face Tells Everything

I'm one of those individuals who "wear their emotions on their sleeve." Actually, my emotions are always pretty easy to assess. However, I will admit that sometimes my physical expressions or demeanor have confused others.

For example, when I was in high school, I was often singled out by my teachers, in front of the other students, for my "look of pain." In reality, I was trying to concentrate so that I wouldn't miss a thing that might appear on an upcoming exam. My concentrated look is apparently one of great pain (since I heard the same thing from various teachers).

My poor MS! He is afflicted with this same trait. He has always been very expressive, but it is a whole package. He gesticulates when he talks. " Are you EVER going to come, Mom? You said you'd come look at my picture hours ago, but you just keep staring at the computer!" (with great arm thrusts) Of course, he is also given to statements with radical descriptors, like "hours", "always," "never," "forever," etc.

ES has recently been teaching MS several computer and Playstation games. He revels in watching MS play. He doesn't watch the computer terminal or television screen. No, he is fixated on MS's facial expressions during play. The other night, he insisted on producing video documentation of his brother's "unique game face" and has been begging me to share this on my blog.

Perhaps a minute and a half is too long to endure, but if you pay attention at the 1:13 point, MS even mouths the words spoken on the game. Too funny! No matter what game he plays, this is what he looks like.

I have to say, I won't be playing any games in front of my ES any time soon. Then, again, at the moment he can't find my camera. This weekend, I forced him to sit down and let me attempt to french braid his hair. I had come across an old photo of me, which a friend shared on Facebook. In the photo, my hair is french-braided, and I swore, looking at it, that my pre-teen son looks a lot like that, if we could get his hair out of his eyes. He fought tenaciously (without fighting so fiercely as to arouse my hubby's wrath), but I managed to snag two photos of him with his hair partially french-braided.

Perhaps, I should bargain with ES and tell him "I'll post the video of your brother, when you let me post the photos of your hair in a french-braid." Nah, I was humiliated by a photo when I was a teen. I don't think I could bring myself to inflict that kind of "great pain" on my son. The video of MS is merely amusing, not humiliating. If at any point in the future, he should ask me to remove it, I will certainly do so. Then, I'll wave my arms wildly and say, "But, you ALWAYS made such HILARIOUS faces when you played ANY video/computer games!"