The "tale" end of a smile...

Parenting can be a tough job.  This week alone Calvin has peed on Jon at least 3 times, usually during a middle of the night change, spit partially digested breast milk down the front of Cortney's newly donned shirts at least twice, and shot poop across the room once while just moments away from being covered with a new diaper.  It's a good thing that parenting also has its irreplaceable rewards.  In this, Calvin's fourth week of life, he rewarded us in many ways.  Early in the week he started cooing, a welcome addition to his previous language which consisted mainly of pipping, grunting, and snorting.  And the amount of time that he spends being happily alert in each day has increased incredibly.  But perhaps the most rewarding of all is his new smile.  Last Sunday he smiled an actual smile for the first time and has repeated the feat several more times throughout the week, sometimes even accompanying it with a good hearty chortle.  His favorite person to smile at is his dad, which may have something to do with Jon's use of funny faces and funny voices, or with the fact that he currently sees his mother as purely a milk machine and it's hard to smile while you're mouth is gaping open like a baby bird's.  Of course one never has their camera at the ready when such a wonderful thing happens, but we were able to catch the tail end of one smile during a particularly lively Richard Scarry tale.  In any case, we mark smiling as one of our favorite milestones ever.