Tuesday evening, a magical thing happened. I put Cami on her changing table, like I do so many times during the day, to change her diaper. I was rambling on to her about who knows what when suddenly, she locked eyes with me, and broke into a huge, open-mouthed smile. I freaked out and started shrieking, “I saw that smile! I saw that smile!” in a voice so shrill all the neighborhood dogs started howling.
She’s been smiling since day one, but it happens most often in her sleep and usually seems unintentional. The smile is more of a grin, a gentle upward tug at the corners of her mouth. But this was different. Her eyes were smiling, her mouth was open and she was looking so intently at me I couldn’t believe it was just a coincidence.
I felt such a rush. After 5 weeks and 6 days of happily pouring out my love to her, the smile felt like the warmest thank you. The most wonderful sign of acceptance. Cami smiled at me because she likes me and thinks I’m funny.
She’s done it a few times since, and each time I responded with gleeful hysterics. Wednesday, I put her on her Gymini and when she looked in my direction, I stuck out my tongue. I was rewarded with another huge smile, and I swear she laughed. It was a tiny, “hee hee,” but it was so cute.
So, of course, I ran to get the camera. By the time I got back, her mood had changed a bit:

I put the camera away. I decided it was more important to fully enjoy these first smiles, instead of watching for them through the camera lens. I hope we’ll have plenty of opportunities to take pictures of her smiles in the coming weeks and months and years.
We experienced some other “firsts” in the last week. Cami took her first overnight trip. We stayed with Alva in Fitzgerald, then traveled to Moultrie to introduce her to Grandma Lou:

And of course, we had to get her all dressed up. So cute!

Cami didn’t sleep very well at night during our trip, but I think that may be my fault. She usually sleeps in her room, but we had her with us in her pack-n-play. During the night, she started cyring so we brought her into bed with us. Every 30 minutes of so, she’d start fussing again, and I’d stick the pacifier in her mouth. Over and over again.
When the sun came up and lit the room, she started fussing again and I opened my bleary eyes to put the pacifier in her mouth one more time. That’s when I realized something: she was asleep. The poor thing. All night long, she’d probably been fussing in her sleep until I jammed the pacifier in her mouth and woke her up. It was dark! I couldn’t see!
Another first – Cami had her first bottle yesterday.

Lee enjoyed feeding her, and it went very well. I almost felt jealous for a brief second, seeing someone else feed her, hearing her make those yummy eating noises – but it faded quickly. Instead I felt love for my husband and my child, watching them share a special moment together. They both make me feel like a lucky girl, and give me lots of reasons for smiles of my own.