There's A Storm Brewing

Connor came here with a short fuse and an easily-tripped emotion lever. He would be sunny as a summer day, ramp up without warning, lose it and then be irretrievable. I had to anticipate meal times, because if he came up to hungry and did not immediately have something in his mouth traveling to his belly, he could choke to death gargling something delicious and filling five seconds later and never calm down enough to swallow. Sometimes he would be so strongly in the grip of an inner emotion storm that he couldn’t express himself clearly or logically. Keilana once infuriated him to the point of sputtering fury and all he managed to blurt out was, “Cowboy head! Flomp!” Hilarious, right? But, poor baby! Even with the understanding that boys tend to lag far behind girls in emotional skills, it became increasingly obvious as he grew that Connor needed intensive training for recognizing and navigating his feelings in a healthy and productive way. And it worked pretty well. When he was still a little guy, he could pick up on subtleties of emotion in facial expressions he saw in magazines or on television better than many adults, and certainly better than most boys his age. He developed a real compassionate side that connected him to others in a sweet way. In Constance Allen’s Happy and Sad, Grouchy and Glad, the Sesame Street gang run the gamut of emotions through the book. Pshaw! Connor could do that in a commercial break.

http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Grouchy-Glad-Sesame-Street/dp/1403736081

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Constance_Allen