Sarah is in complete denial that she exists. It's laughable I know. But really, I believe it is a conscious decision to not acknowledge herself. Okay, we have already covered that she loves books. So we read books over and over and over again. Well I believe in teaching Sarah whenever the opportunity presents itself through out our play time or in life. So with some books we go through a million times, I start going over colors, or animal sounds, or identifying objects or body parts (believe me it helps break up the monotony of reading the same book over and over again). So if I point at the toes in the book, then to her toes, she shakes her head "no" and pull her foot away. But if I point at toes in the book then point to my toes, she laughs and thinks it's funny and makes the connection that the illustrations are of real things. Same thing with eyes, nose, hair, hands, etc.. But, she absolutely refuses to acknowledge that she has a body. She is more than happy to point out things on my body or her daddy's. But not herself. With any other object she'll just run and get it, picture of a cup, will send her on a mission to get her cup. You get it.
But it's the same thing when it comes to pictures of herself. Now, I know that pictures are a harder concept to grasp than say acknowledging her toes. But she is really into looking at pictures on our wall, or in her photo album. But if the picture is of her and me, and I point to her in the picture then point to her saying her name. She'll shakes her head "no". Like her thought bubble reads "No mom, that is not me". But if I point to me in the picture and then to myself and say "Mommy", she gets it and will smile. I can even ask "where is mommy?" and she'll look at me and smile. If I point to a picture of daddy and ask "where is daddy?", she'll look around for him, and then point or smile at him. If I point to her picture and ask "Where's Sarah?", she looks at me like I am crazy. If I then point to her and say, "There's Sarah!" I get the same shaking of her head. It's so funny! If I persist, that the picture is of her and point to both the picture and herself, she looks at me like I'm crazy, gets frustrated and walks away, shaking her head again. Her thought bubble in this case is "You just don't get it mom. You had me going with the picture of you and daddy, but you must think I'm a fool if you think I'm going to believe that baby is me".
But this isn't always the case with the mirror. Now, most of the time she still denies that the baby in the mirror is her. But she will smile and kiss the baby every time. The ONLY exception is if I put something on her head, like a bow. If I put a bow on her and she starts to take it off, I'll walk her over to the mirror show her her reflection and say "how pretty" or "how beautiful". When she sees herself in the mirror with the bow or hat, she will immediately leave it alone and start flirting with herself. So I know that sometimes she gets it.
What's even funnier, is that we have taught Sarah baby sign. We did this because we wanted to cut down on the frustration of figuring out what she wants or needs. But as of right now, she feels the need to do the signs on me rather than herself. If she wants a bath, she'll run up to me and start rubbing my chest. If she wants to eat, she'll come up to me and pat my mouth. I think it's part of the self denial of her existance. This part of her non existance is cute and I definately know what she is trying to tell me when she comes running up to do a sign.
I know that developmentally, she just may not be at the age where self awareness happens, but she's so quick when it comes to pointing out things around her that I think it's funny she won't acknowledge her toes. She'll acknowledge her shoes and socks, but point to her naked foot and it's like they disappear. I have a feeling that she is about to outgrow this phase of her life, so I wanted to be sure I got her quirkiness down on virtual paper. I hope you enjoy!
P.S. - This whole thing goes out the window when we are playing peek-a-boo! There is nothing that thrills her more that to reveal herself from under her blanket, or from behind our sheer curtains (which is her favorite place to play). You should hear the giggles that come when she thinks she is invisible for real. She's still too young for Hide and Seek, but that will be a fun game to teach her. I'm pretty sure she'll be that kid with a bowl over her head thinking that it's covering her whole self from view. Ah, I love playing with her and am looking forward to new games we'll get to play down the road...
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