The first smile

Newborn babies, although they look cute and smell nice (or very bad, depending on what's going on down below), are actually fairly boring. Sorry if this shatters anyone's illusions of the marvellousness of early motherhood. But think about it - newborns sleep a lot (especially ours, she's closely related to the Dormouse in Alice in Wonderland), and when they're awake they're either feeding, having their nappy changed, staring aimlessly about, or failing to recognise anyone. This might be a bit harsh - there's always fun to be had watching different expressions pass across their faces while they're dreaming (what about I wonder? Must be bosoms, in Emily's case, since she knows little else...!). But trying to engage with a tiny creature who doesn't even recognise you can be rather tiring - even a new puppy knows who you are pretty quickly, and generally reacts with excitement. But it takes us humans a long time to do anything. How did we ever survive I wonder? After all, baby giraffes are up and walking within minutes of birth, while it takes humans a whole year to get this far.

However, from six weeks on everything gets a bit more interesting. Emily's vision must be quite different now from when she was born, and she clearly now recognises us. I think. At least, we have all now been blessed with the very occasional big smile. It's a rather piratical smile, looks a bit like she's saying "Aarrggh Jim Lad", but it is very cute. And I even managed to catch one on camera, yay!

Next step: potty training. I wish....!