Well, it’s been almost 4 weeks since Abdullah showed up in our lives, and shockingly, I can identify his needs pretty quickly.
He really only has 4 basic needs: to pooh, to fart, to sleep, to eat. When he’s pooing, he turns red in the face, stretches out, and sounds frustrated, but isn’t crying. When he’s gassy, he’s crying and won’t eat anything. When he’s hungry he’ll start to turn his head to the side with his mouth wide open, or he’ll start to suck on his entire fist. And when he’s tired, it’s usually right after he did one of the other activities 
I can imagine that as more weeks go by, and he has more feelings, needs, frustrations, I’ll be able to figure those out based on his habits and faces. Now I know why my parents can tell how I’m feeling just from the look on my face… they’ve been identifying it for years! Silly me to think that they didn’t know how I was feeling, when it was clearly written all over my face… at least for them to see.
So note to self, and to other kids: Parents really do know their kids so well. You can’t hide much from them. So just embrace it and let them help you. Because if there’s one thing I’ve also learned–no matter what face Abdullah is making, every bone inside of me wants to help him get past what’s bothering him. Even if that means cranking up his leg, and letting him fart all over me
