Getting the hang of it

It starts with that sort of grimace they're born with. Then it evolves into the gas grin. After a while, the gas grin happens even while they're awake. Eventually, and after much parental encouragement, they do it -- that first little smile that mom and dad just go crazy over. The crinkley eyes, that toothless mouth, maybe even a little squeak, are all part of a beginning peek into the wonderful personality your little one is slowly unwrapping and developing.

I know someone whose child is having one slight physical difficulty. This small boy is absolutely gorgeous and otherwise developmentally perfect and she obviously adores him. When she related her son's one imperfection I recalled my anxiety over Princess when I first noticed her tied tongue, and Tag with his whole menagerie of difficulties (is the opposite of "minutiae" a "gigutiae"?), then Pebbles who only manifested a couple of tiny blips. Each time I wondered if it was my fault and was almost breathless with guilt until each problem slowly became a not-problem.

Then comes Miss Frieda. She has no apparent blips at all. Not one. Well, ok, a brief bout of jaundice but that's it. So I naturally kept an eagle eye on her, waiting for the other shoe to drop. There's one thing I pass on to my children without fail and that'd be mortality with it's inherent imperfections.

The weeks passed and nothing came up. She had all of the learning curve issues of someone getting used to being in an itty, weak, immature body but nothing we couldn't handle. She even sleeps through the night!

Then one day it hit me. My 7 week old baby didn't smile. Or look at me. She was far more interested in lights or colors or a passing breeze or burping to look at me. My heart crumpled as visions of autism, therapy, and a mentally impaired adult child living with me for the rest of her life ran with scissors through my thoughts. Of course, when one is looking for trouble one must find it, hey?

Man, after I demanded his input on my concerns, said she's fine. She's just taking her time and that's ok. I doubled my efforts at socializing with her and, after Man had gone to bed and while Frieda was still bright-eyed at 2230 hours I even resorted to embarrassing things... things I always secretly made fun of other parents for doing. Things like... monkey noises, and sort of "zoop, zoop, zoop!" noises. Nothing worked to get her to smile though she'd occasionally stare at me with her mouth in a little "o", looking at me like I'd gone nuts. Which I guess I had.

A couple of weeks later she finally cracked her first real smile. And who'd she do it for? Her father who had not gone crazy, thankyouveddymuch. She'll now sort of half grin at me occasionally while staring at my face. I think she's holding out to get more stupid human tricks from her old mom.

Sneaky little thing.

So now she looks into our faces and smiles and is otherwise perfect and easy and calm.

I wonder if she's going to be a difficult teenager.

Just kidding!!! I'll let the trouble manifest itself without hunting it out.