Now, aside from the awesome relief it provides me for Annabelle to have a new (old) toy from Grama's house that she remembers (and can now do a pretty good job talking about those memories), getting a package in the mail is like a two fold gift: the gift of it arriving and having it to open and also the gift that is actually inside. I stretch out the experience of these mailed packages as much as possible. She takes me to the refrigerator and points at the picture of Grama and then points to her HAPPY! and then says, "ME!" It's really fun.
But the funny part is this peculiar thing she does when she gets really excited about something. When the gift that she opens has particular meaning for her, or is something that she is feeling extraordinarily enthusiastic about, then she turns her head to the side, almost pointing her ear to the gift. (I think this comes from me looking at her with an excited expression when there was a surprise to find near by and then looking at the surprise out of the corner of my eyes... As if she interpreted this to mean that I couldn't face the surprise, not that I was "pointing" to it with my eyes.)
It was tricky to catch this on camera. It took some practice because I was usually at her side and the package was directly in front of her, so in the first picture it looks like she's facing me when she turns her head. But I think you'll get it. And hopefully you'll find it as peculiar and funny as I do! I love how she copies my "surprise" expression perfectly!
PS Please ignore all the computer wires hanging down behind the "desk" in that last picture. We're still unpacking the office and getting things arranged... and I didn't want to crop this photos because I thought they might lose meaning for this post.
