I can see both your photos, two people touching tongues and the other picture is of a monkey, so they do work. Maybe you need to refresh the page when you view your profile or something.
As for your avatar, check out the Newbie forum and browse around, you'll find your answer soon enough. Basically you need to have been around for a while and made some good posts. It's totally at the discretion of the powers that be so keep posting responsibly and it'll happen
