Primal

My daughter doesn't know (or remember) what faces look like.   She understands things happen on our face such as smiling, furrowing your brow, blinking, frowning, and probably many more if you were to ask her about she could explain what it means.   But she doesn't have actual experience with facial expressions other than what her face does automatically.  She also knows nothing about non-verbal queues, or perhaps "silent queues" would be a better phrase since she apparently heard Claire laughing at her a while back when she thought she was being teased. 

Getting my daughter to do a natural smile for pictures is something we're still working on.   She'd like to smile normally, she just hasn't gotten it yet.  Other than that though, we don't talk about facial expressions in much detail.  She hears lots of descriptions in books, movies, socially that describe things our faces do, but she doesn't have experience seeing what it looks like from a third-person perspective.  

Because my daughter has very little understanding of when and how facial expressions are used to express information as a way to communicate with people.  She makes all the standard expressions that come naturally, such as her laughing face is one to delight, even if her eyes are partially rolled back into her head and to someone not accustomed to her might look odd.  

Sometimes though, pure emotion comes out in her face in a way that is wholly unlike something a sighted person would do.   A few weeks ago she started rolling her bottom lip down when we would say something she didn't like but realized she had little choice about.   The first few times she did this it was strange, even to me, her mother.   Now I recognize it for what it is: a tell into her inner thoughts. 

Rolling down her lower lip has evolved into a new expression, one that looks like a primal expression of disgust comingled with rage.  The times at which she does this new expression fit fairly well with that description.   She is angry about something and doesn't want to express it in words.   She's mad about it and absolutely is not happy but she knows there isn't an option otherwise.   It's not an expression I would ever expect to see on a child, but to her, it's her type of non-verbal communication. 

The Big Boy Update:  We did the Escape Room my son created for us after dinner tonight.   It merits its own blog post it was so interesting, creative and well thought out so I'll hold on it for tomorrow or the next day, especially since he has additional, "DLC" or Downloadable Content as the saying goes in the world of video games.   The additional content will be in our bedroom.  He left us teasers in the bathroom for the adventures to come.  We successfully completed part one tonight.  My daughter helped us find clues and solve puzzles and was definitely an asset to the team.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter decided to skip dinner tonight.  She was so excited about the Easter Bunny arriving tomorrow she didn't think she could eat.   She and I had a conversation about 'eager' versus 'anxious' and she said she was definitely eager about the impending arrival of the Easter Bunny.   She did me a solid this morning also, saying, "Mom, I get the Alexa seat tomorrow, do you know why?"  I asked if she and her brother had decided so but she said, "because the Easter Bunny always leaves my Easter Basket at that seat."   "Ah...good thing you remembered," I told her.