The Feeling Factory

So I'm putting the kids down tonight, and Nolie is being particularly whiny and petulant, as she is wont to be these days. So we two end up in our "thinking chair"--the rocking chair in the dark playroom where we go when one or both of us is having some difficulty expressing ourselves with kindness and respect. It gives us a chance to cool off and reconnect physically and to make things right again.

We're sitting in the thinking chair and I ask Nolie, "My goodness. Where is all this behavior coming from?" It's intended as a rhetorical question, an expression of my frustration, but after a pause she answers.

"From the factory."

"The factory?"

"The factory in my body."

"The factory in your body?"

"Yeah there's a factory in my body and when it makes sad I feel sad and when it makes nervous I feel nervous and when it makes happy I feel happy."

"Oh my."

Silence, while I digest what the hell I just heard.

"What feeling is it making right now?"

"Sad."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

Tummy rub. And, later, a back rub once she's back in bed.

"Mommy?"

"Yeah."

"It's making happy now!"