Angry sushi

I'll accept waking up before 7 a.m. while I'm on vacation only because I got to spend mornings with the above three weirdos.

Our recent trip to California over Halloween marked a new stage for us: We have a toddler. A toddler. I tried to write off her extreme moodiness as teething, but as soon as I had strangers staring at me and my flailing child in the middle of a family dining establishment, I realized it was all over. Of course, Nic and I are plotting to drag Norah to various vacation destinations throughout her life and force her to enjoy herself. So maybe I'm just upset because she caught on to us so quickly.

Case in point: the beach. Don't let the forced smiles fool you. She would not be convinced that this was anything but torment.

Once we gave up on trying to get her to have fun, Nic starting pushing her buttons solely for our amusement.

She also did not appreciate her homemade Halloween costume. It could be because I keep dressing her up as types of food. Last year she was a lobster; this year she was sushi with a side of ginger and wasabi. I can't help it if I think she's delicious!

Again, we did our best to compel her to have fun, but mostly she just did this:

Norah's adorable crayon (Alice) and paper (Russell) friends got their trick-or-treat on and were a huge hit at the kindergarten Halloween parade.

Out of nowhere there were about 45 minutes when Norah decided that vacation is awesome. This involved us chasing her down the street. Runaway sushi! We put her to bed immediately afterward.

Thank you again, Alissa and family, for still pretending that my baby, uh toddler, is adorable. You are champion hosts! I purposely didn't take any pictures of your spectacular new amazing house because I didn't want to be tempted to post pictures before you do. But people, the Kings' new house is kind of the best thing ever. And it's in a forest in Southern California.

Want to know what Norah didn't get to scream during? So You Think You Can Dance tour! We left the kiddos at home and got to do some screaming of our own. You guys, this is the third time we've been and it's totally the highlight of my year.

If I had to pick a favorite from this season it would be this:

Nic didn't complain about going with us because she was there: