Oh, the faces we've seen

I've been trying to put my finger on it for a while now, but something has yet again shifted in the way Elisa relates to the world. She is a natural actress which as a baby was more amusing than anything else. She made faces at us and we playfully made them back. Nowadays though, she is more likely to tell a story with an accompanying emotion and there is no denying that she often wants you to feel her pain. Literally. If she has fallen and gotten an "owie," she might want to show it to you with a sad, furrowed brow while she bumps or taps you to imitate how it happened. If she is mad or frustrated, she will clinch her teeth and open her eyes wide while she stares you down and debates what object to throw (usually at you). And if she's happy, well, the grin just isn't big enough to capture all that joy.

It's definitely a challenge to keep all these various emotions in check, never mind trying to keep my own feelings from peaking at times. We're still doing a lot of timeouts in her crib when she resorts to kicking and screaming and flailing about rather than talking. But more and more, we get to see what she's really feeling with her gestures and she uses lots of little words and phrases so we get the idea. "Hungee. Eat." "Mo milk." "Go. Bye bye. Shoes." "My pillow." It's fun to hear these again and again and to realize when new words are more than just sounds. She is playing with language the way she has always played--with intensity. Sometimes it's hard to remember that another few months will bring even more linguistic clarity, but I'm starting to see it. In the meantime, we are miming our way through the emotions and trying not to laugh when she scowls and desperately says "yeah" to an offer for help. Oh, this girl.