Facial Expressions

My daughter can't see facial expressions.   She doesn't remember what faces look like and she'll never see a face again.  She knows we have expressions we show on our faces and naturally, she does some things.    She has a lovely smile when she's laughing or when she's happy about something.   She has some angry faces she makes naturally when she's upset and crying or angry.   But some things she just makes up.

She has a face she does when she's smiling about something you've said where she wants to convey "yes" without saying it.   It's an odd-looking smile with her lips pulled back in a flat sort of smile.  Once I figured out it was a good face, I just went with it.   In a way, I'm like a child trying to understand people's feelings and meanings by how they shape their faces.   She's got her own facial language and I'm figuring it out as she uses the various expressions and sounds with more regularity.

When she's angry about something she has a very similar thing she does with her mouth, only in this case it's turned down and her teeth are barred.   She's not happy at all when she flashes that expression.

She has a sound she does that is fine when she wants to express valid displeasure, only she was using it at inappropriate times, not unlike someone telling you, "go away!" when you tell them, "Here's your water bottle you asked me to bring you."  The sound is a very clear extended-length, "grrrrrrr."

She did this to me the other day when I'd done something to help her.  I told her it wasn't okay to use that sound like that.   She told me, "it was part of a song I was singing."   "A one sound song with no tune?  I don't think so,"  I told her.   So she tried again, asking her brother, "did that sound like a positive noise?"   He told her it did not.  

So she gave in in this case.   Not right then, but after she had pushed her father and me too far one day and had some significant consequences as a result.   She went to bed mad, but the next morning she came downstairs and apologized (her apologies are the best, coming from the heart and very sincere.)  She said, "I'll work on not saying, "grr" Mom, I'm sorry."

And she has been.   It still comes up, along with the other blind facial expressions she has.   She's communicating and that's important.   It's better for any of us to express how we feel with a facial expression over saying something like, "I hate you" or "you're an idiot."  She's doing a good job creating her own way to communicate.

The Big Boy Update:  My son and daughter were talking about the animals in her terrarium, which we are going to release today.   My daughter said her earthworm had had babies.   I said it had gotten torn in half accidentally, making two earthworms instead of one.   My son had a different idea, saying, "It fell in love with its butt.   Worms do that."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   My daughter is having the best time playing Monopoly with Mrs. B.   She even admitted she didn't want the game to end today when we were all three playing, Mrs. B. on the computer screen and me as the banker.  She had the only matched set of properties and had put only two houses on Boardwalk. At this rate, the game was never going to end.   At the very end of the hour, I suggested she buy more houses.   She now has a hotel on Park Place and Boardwalk.  I predict the game will end soon now and they can get on to playing other games.