(insert happy gesticulation here)

In addition to the usual, this week we focused on conveying thoughts and emotions without words. George is acutely aware of facial expressions but frequently misreads them as being about him.

For example if he sees me tense up my face because I'm trying to suss out how to rearrange my day to accommodate some wrench that's been thrown into it, he immediately gets anxious and starts to react defensively, as if my face in some way reflects my feelings about him.

Because of this, I do a very good job of poker facing everything, but in fairness I cannot expect the rest of the world to do so. Accordingly we are working on interpreting unspoken communications more accurately.

To that end we have begun playing with "silent time", wherein we do an activity without speaking. We gesture, we motion, we wiggle our faces a lot. It's a lot harder than it seems! Maybe I talk too much.

Last night George and I popped down to Charlotte to see the ultimate non-verbal troupe, The Blue Man Group, at the Blumenthal. (George remarked it would have been awesome if they had temporarily renamed the venue the Bluemanthal.)

We took today off (Good Friday), but Monday we'll start gesturing anew. Have a great weekend!

Two random phonophotos from our week below.