Triste, Feliz

We were reading a book this morning that we just checked out from the library. The last 2 pages has 8 photos on it - 4 happy faces on one side and 4 sad faces on the other side.

We've been talking about "triste" a lot, because especially as a boy, we want him to be really emotionally literate (thats what the books call it, i know, im a dork). You know, boys are taught to tune out emotions, to get over them, to suck it up. So, we're really intentional about trying to help him tune into his emotions and other people's emotions.
When there's a kid crying at the park, we try to ask him, "What do you think he's feeling? He seems like he's sad, huh?" You get the picture.

We have a book called "Abrazo" that Cedric and Ray gave Amado for his first birthday about a mono named Bobo who sees all these animals huggng and his face gets more and more sad and then he starts to cry, and just then, the mama of Bobo appears and hugs him and little Bobo is so happy. And with the love of his mama he then starts to hug the other animals. Its a really sweet book, and really helpful to talk about "triste" and "feliz". At first, when he saw the page of Bobo crying, Amado would say "Shhhhh" and hold his finger to his lips because it looked like Bobo was sleeping (his eyes are shut). But now we get to that page and Amado says, with this knowing voice, "triste".

So the book this morning. We were reading the book right before he was gonna have a nap (early nap today because he is sick). We are looking at it and I'm trying to talk him through the thing - these are happy faces, these are sad faces, etc. He seems to get it so I start to point to the photos randomly, asking him if they are triste or feliz. It becomes clear pretty quickly that either he doesn't completely get it or else he likes saying "triste" more than "feliz" because pretty much everyone was triste. No big deal.

So I ask him, "Y tu, Amado? Estas triste or feliz?"
"Triste" he says.
He didn't seem at all sad, but I didn't want to negate him saying that, so I told him that I am sorry he is sad and that him feeling sad makes me feel sad.
He didn't really comment on that one, so we just moved on.

A few minutes later I laid him down on the bed for his nap, and he says "teche" (leche) because he wants to nurse. I tell him, okay, no problem, he can nurse. And as soon as I lay down next to him, he started laughing, looked up at me, and said, "Mami, feliz".