Smiles and Six Weeks

Your mom was telling me how precious your smiles were the other day.  I have seen a few of them and I thought they were nice.  She had been especially looking forward to the day you would smile at her.  She made it seem like it would be the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Then one day, it happened!  You smiled at her and you meant it.  It wasn't just one of those "yeah-I-am-here-and-I-do-what-I-want-even-if-you-aren't-here" kind of smiles.  You do those often enough when you are waking up.  But this smile, this one where your mom spoke to you and you smiled at her, that made her day, possibly even her week.

So what was the big deal?  It's just a smile.  I figured I had seen plenty of those and it couldn't possibly mean all that much.  Boy was I wrong.

How could you not just LOVE that face?  It was Sunday the day before you turned six weeks old and we were getting ready for church.  You seemed to be pretty happy.  So I thought I would try out this whole make-the-baby-smile routine.  It wasn't too hard since you were so happy that morning.  I just talked in the baby-talk voice (every parent knows what it is) and made some gasping noises like I was breathing high and long, and there it was.  A smile.  Your mom was smart enough to get it on camera.  I gotta tell you, there really is nothing quite like having you smile at us.  It makes all the frustration and doubt and fear and negativity just go away.  It is so precious and awesome.  It is what makes it worth it at this point.  Hugs and saying "I love you" should be what comes next.

Also of note, your mom has started tickling you.  You don't laugh.  And you don't react when I try to tickle you.  But what you do do is grunt and squirm.  The squirming is very reminiscent of being tickled.  If you just imagine the grunting as laughing then it is so obvious that you are laughing.

And now you are six weeks old!  So here is the photo of that.