Baby Smiles

I swear that baby smiles are like sunshine. There is something so pure and absolute about the smile a baby gives. They do not smile to be polite or just to make mommy and daddy happy. They do it only because THEY are happy. When Sophie started smiling for real, it was the most amazing experience. For the first time in my life, I felt absolute joy for another person. I have experienced profound happiness and have had some really amazing experiences but never have I felt this as a reaction to someone else.

Her smiles give me a warm fuzzy feeling that can only be compared to the feeling you get when you sit outside on a warm day and just soak in the sun. It reminds me of a trip that Aparna and I took to San Francisco for her 3oth birthday. It was June, but unbeknownst to us, SF is quite cold in June, so we were there in our Baltimore summer clothes while all the natives were in pants and cardigans. Silly us. However, one day we went out to eat on Fisherman's Wharf and the sun was shining that pure clean way it only seems to on Spring and early Summer days. We sat outside and just enjoyed the cool air coming in off of the bay. It was glorious. That singular feeling is the one I get every single time Sophie smiles at me. This is why people have children.

Sophie loves to play on her activity mat. And doesn't she look chic in the outfit her Auntie Aparna gave her. The butterfly in the middle plays a little tune and the wings light up when you squeeze its head. Sophie just stares up at it transfixed and then when it stops kicks her legs and waves her arms like she's just been given a jolt of electricity. Its pretty entertaining to watch. I think it must be entertaining for her too, because she keeps doing it.

Tummy time has been an interesting process. She has been rolling over from her back to her stomach since she was just a couple of months old and does it now pretty much everyday, but once there, she's not quite sure what to do. She grunts and groans and gets herself onto her stomach and then she bows her legs and head up so her body is in a wide U shape. She rocks around like this for a little bit and then starts making unhappy noises because she hasn't quite figured out the rolling back over thing. She has done it, but not consistently and she doesn't seem to remember how. When I have seen her do it, it was quick, no fussing, and then she just lays there like she's thinking, "how did that happen?"