It really began some weeks ago — the first smile, K says, was when L was six weeks old. I didn’t see it for some time, because L would smile once one day, give it a couple day’s rest, then smile again — usually when I wasn’t home.

And then she began smiling often enough that I saw L with her eyes sparkling above a toothless grin.

But it took some time to be able to capture that on film memory card.

Now, we can cause her to smile — if she’s in the right mood. All we have to do is flash (and hold) an exaggerated smile and within seconds, she joins in.

The best time to get a smile out of her is after a bath. L absolutely loves being bathed, so much so that it is actually an effective calming mechanism.

And when she’s calm and smiling, we’re calm and smiling.