moody rachel

Rachel has been learning about feelings and emotions a lot lately. Last week, she learned to play "sad." In this picture, she has just lifted her sad, "crying" face from her hands and is asking for a comforting hug. Notice the grin. I guess it's good that she's a bad actress so far. Yesterday, she figured out a new feeling: scared. She has a book called, "Night Night, Bunny," in which a little bunny goes to bed, but is afraid. She wanted to read the book yesterday afternoon, as she was playing in the laundry basket, so I opened it, held it up, and began to read. "It's dark in here. I'm scared." Rachel looked at me with big eyes and held out her arms. Confused, I gave her a little hug and turned the page. "What's that noise? I'm scared." Rachel held her arms out again, so I took her our of the basket and set her on my lap. "Oh, no--a spider! I'm scared." She buried her face in my lap, and I realized that she was understanding the word "scared." We read the book several times, and she buried her face every time I said, "I'm scared." Her scared face looks quite genuine...and cute.

non-toy toy of the day

After I put all her clean clothes away, Rachel played a long time in the laundry basket, hanging washcloths over the edge and cheering when she got them all just right. She has also enjoyed playing with one of her little shoe boxes lately. She hides little toys and trinkets and then cheers when she "finds" them.