Eva's First Smile

OK, so this might not be the FIRST smile but you get the point. We've all heard that your child's first smile melts your heart. I even read that the endorphines released when your child smiles at you rival that of chocolate! When Eva first smiled at me I swooned, beamed, and then yelled for Jeff to come hither and witness this milestone first hand. At first her smiles were infrequent and always prompted by one of us. To be honest, she smiled at her Food Source more often though now Jeff is enjoying these moments as well. Now, we catch Eva smiling with abandon at the most random objects including the rim of the mirror or even at her burp cloth. It's as if these moments are dress rehearsals before the real thing comes along. The other day she even smiled unprompted when I got her out of the bassinette. I was so happy even though it meant the end of her afternoon nap.

We're seeing the beginning stages of her squeals too. She gets so excited when we talk to her that she'll let out a yelp in between smiles. Her legs get going at the same time, her eyes get wider. You can tell that she is working SO HARD to get a coo out but isn't quite there yet. We give her some quiet, alone time in the midst of these intense exercises in fear of overstimulating her.

To those of you who are helping us through the Colic Chronicles, these intermittent breaks of joy make up for the long hours of inconsolable crying that we are enduring day after day, and night after night....