Although Janey will often ignore things that you want her to focus on, once in a while, she is strangely attracted to certain objects. She will find them wherever they are, and will resist all attempts to keep them away from her. This year, it was one present under the tree. It was for Tony, and was wrapped in the same paper as many of the other presents, was a simple box shape, was nothing that stood out in any way. But as often as I put it back under the tree, she took it out, held it and then moved it to a new place. She didn't try to open it---she just was drawn to it in the wrapped form. Today, I realized Tony never opened that present, because by Christmas it was no longer under the tree. It's no longer anyplace that I can locate. It's very possible that it wound up in the trash, as sometimes that is a place Janey puts objects she is interested in. I got a brand new pair of sneakers a few years back that she took a fancy to. I only wore them once before one of them disappeared, and despite a housewide search, was never seen again. I think it had that same fate as the present.
Lately Janey has been drawn to my camera. I tell her "THAT'S A NO!" in a loud voice whenever she gets close to it, but usually if she grabs it, she just holds it. I had no idea she actually knew how to use it, not until a few minutes ago, when I heard a tell-tale "swoosh" sound it makes to imitate the old time sound of film being advanced. Janey was standing next to me taking a self-portrait. I took it away, spoke to her firmly, but couldn't resist seeing what she had taken. Several of the picture were of her finger firmly pressed against the lens, which is just the reason she can't use the camera, but 3 or 4 were pictures of herself. That impressed me a little---she knew how to turn on the camera, knew she needed to turn it around to take a picture of herself, and even kind of how to frame the picture. I might get her her own heavy duty kids camera. In the meantime, here's a few of the self-portraits...
