First Smile

On March 11, Jack smiled for the first time. Oh, there have been smiles before: when he farts, when he's sleeping, after he burps, when you stroke his cheek, if you kiss him on the corner of his mouth. But this one was different. It was a full blown, legitimate smile in response to something. I was holding him and talking to him. I don't even remember what I was saying but he broke out into this goofy, huge, wonderful, toothless grin. It took up his whole face and melted my heart! Shortly thereafter, I changed his diaper and saw that he had gone #2 so I thought that the smile was a fluke, or a response to what he had accomplished in his diaper. But 20 minutes later, there it was again, so the first one must have been meant for me too.

It has been irregular since, sometimes he smiles just as a reflex but there have been a few other genuine ones. This morning, he was having nose problems. Unfortunately, Jack has inherited the obnoxious stuffy nose and post nasal drip that plague my side of the family whenever they lay down. Go figure, he gets Paul's nose but my sinuses. How unfair. This, of course, makes things annoying for the poor little guy when he sleeps. I have tried nose drops, suctioning the nose, humidifiers and a sleep positioner that inclines his body. All have had limited success. After his morning feeding and diaper change, I set him in his bassinette. He was fussing around because he was uncomfortabe. So I picked him up and put him into bed with me early. After Daddy goes to work, we always lay in bed together and snuggle. It is one of the cutest things in the entire world because he always turns to face me and then gradually scoots closer and closer to me until his head is resting against mine before he falls asleep. Today, I set him down and he just looked at me with his big beautiful eyes and grinned at me. And he kept doing it! My mom keeps asking me when I am going to put him in his own room. If he keeps doing adorable stuff like that, the answer is NEVER!