Just In Time

They say that babies learn how to smile "just in time," right at the point when you might be starting to feel like "slave" would be a better descriptor than "parent," when you're so desperate for some positive feedback from your little parasite that if you don't get any, you just might decide to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Or something like that. And I think we did feel that way, at least a little bit, when Luke and Jaz were newborns. And getting those first smiles--just in time--made it all feel worthwhile and we remembered why we'd decided to start this crazy adventure in the first place.

Leo
one month old

Leo is smiling now, with good regularity, and while I can't say that it feels as important as it did when our firstborn children started smiling, it's no less lovely. In some ways, it has even more of an impact on us than Luke and Jaz's drunk-baby smiles did, since Leo's smiles are quite contagious and there are more of us around now to "catch" them. This morning, Zeben was being his usual grumpy-at-daybreak 2-year-old self (he often has a small fit when I decide that our three-hour morning nurse-a-thon is over), throwing a bit of a tantrum beside me on the bed, when suddenly, Leo smiled in my lap. And even Zeben--grouchy and despondent as he was--couldn't keep a smile from spreading across his own face in response.

Leo
one month old

Lena and I didn't need Leo to start smiling just yet. His babyhood is flying by at such an astonishing speed that I could have gone a few more months without getting some positive feedback from our fourth baby. But witnessing the big brothers' excitement about Leo's smiles is possibly one of the highest joys of my mothering career thus far. Seeing how they can be so easily transformed by this tiny person who brings out everything in them that is sweet and loving is exactly what I need to keep me going some days. So for that reason alone, Leo did, indeed, start smiling just in time.

Jaz with Leo
3 weeks old

Luke with Leo
3 weeks old

Zeb with Leo
1 week old

I can only imagine what the impact--on all five of us--will be once this adorable "baby brother" starts laughing. The level of joy in our house will surely be outrageous then. You know, as if it weren't already.

Leo
one month old