His grandpa saw his first smile on the second day after birth. I missed it, and was watching for his next smile. Not long after that, I captured another smile of his.
I would believe it was smile, although baby experts define it as “I think they’re smiles but I’m not sure” grimaces. It’s true, in the first month, Kai often smiled after a feed. The smiles were fleeting, and appeared for a few seconds. But I did see him smiling to his great-grandma, who was simply smiling and would not have triggered Kai’s “automatic reactions to an inner feeling of rightness”. So I believe in the first month Kai had a mix of reflex smiles and real smiles.
Later I learned to play smile games with Kai. We both love such games. They need to be at right time, normally after a feed, when he is very alert. I place his head on a cushion resting on my lap, and hold his body. I look at him and talk to him, with smiles. Kai smiles back, sometimes wiggles a lot with delight, from one day, he spurts out his first coos and gurgles. Now he smiles even more and makes sound of eeeh, oooh a lot. Watching him flashing his pearly gums and toothless grins when smiling, I tend to forget all the broken nights and tiredness.
