Smile Like You Mean It

On July 4th, I was holding Coop and I started making vowel sounds (Aahh, Oh, Eee, Ewww - vocal im style for those who know my work jargon) and amazingly, Coop smiled. It was the first time he smiled, with me anyway, in response to environmental stimuli... and not just any environmental stimulus: ME! It was magical and, since then, my vocabulary at home has been reduced to those four sounds the majority of the time. Sometimes it will even stop a crying episode. (And of course, sometimes Coop could not care less...) Since July 4th, he has been smiling more and more. His biggest smiles seem to come in response to his Mom; on the changing table or holding him after a feeding, all Mel has to do is give him a big smile and he will usually give her a big smile back. And frequently, he even makes cute cooing noises at the same time. Yet it's been a huge challenge trying to capture his gorgeous smile on "film" to share with all of you. But on Grandma Ruth's last morning with us, minutes before leaving for the airport, the stars aligned and she snapped the picture posted here.

Coop was 2 months old yesterday. He is an incredible little being, smiling or otherwise. I never imagined that life could be this rich.