Hey - you just smiled at me!

The other morning I was burping Olivia and wondered when she was going to start smiling. And no, I'm not talking about the gas-smile. I'm talking about the full-fledged reactionary smile. One that is brought on by recognized emotion. After the burping session was over I decided to have a little chat with O about smiles. Olivia, I said...can you SMILE for MOMMY? S-M-I-I-I-I-L-E! I squeeled in a soft high pitched voice. Olivia SMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILE! I did this about 10 times while staring into her eyes. She was in one of her super quiet alert states where you can literally see her taking everything in around her. She gets like this about 3 times a day now. It's pretty amazing to watch her. You can just tell she is soaking it all in. She looked up at me with her big blue eyes (i wonder if they'll change?) and gave me the biggest most purest smile i have ever seen. It's permanently tattooed on my brain. Hey! You just smiled at me! I tried it again figuring it was a fluke and she just took a shit in her pants or something. Olivia, SMIIIIIIIIILE!!!!! The books say this is when they start to smile but really and truly, can she hear me in there? Does she actually understand me? I looked at her and she looked at me and she smiled again. HOLY CRAP! This is crazy! Are we really communicating? Olivia, SMIIIILE! Another one. Three in a row! She gets it! She knows what I'm saying! Or she likes the sound of my voice. The books say they start to mimic facial expressions at this stage. I remember this and create an O with my mouth and stick my tongue out at her. Slowly. Then I wait for her reaction. She is looking right at me and makes an O with her mouth and sticks her tongue out at me. OH MY GOD!!! This is incredible!! This is truly incredible. I could sit here all day and do this. In fact I would have, but she soon got bored and started to cry MORE BOOB PLEASE MOM.

Wow. And she is only 5 1/2 weeks old. I'm going to be beside myself when she starts to talk.