This, folks, is still a silent smile.

How can that be?! I can't wait till laughter accompanies that amazing smile of hers! Some of the photos are fuzzy because when she is this happy, her whole body shakes with glee...there's just no sound coming out of that cute mouth.

How could you not nibble away at this face?!

KG captured this on Monday with his phone...hence the quality....but dang is she cute! I can hardly wait for that huge smile to turn into a laugh!

We finally captured her smile on camera!

She smiled at me for the very first time at 4 weeks old. It's taken two more weeks to get it caught on camera. I just love it! You can always tell that she's about to smile because it always starts in her eyes. It's very sweet.
She is now 6 weeks old.

Smiling evidently makes her tired.


And then she was done.
Our little gal is getting darker too. Such pretty, pretty skin.
I needed this today. I am feelin' the blues big time over some stuff. Baby smiles make me feel better for a moment at least. Flower's giggles did me some good tonight as well. Tonight she was reading a book with KG and happened to look over at the tv. There was a Wendy's add on and she proclaimed, "Look, on the tv. Hamburgers! *licks her lips* mmmm...licious!" We just busted up. Weirdo.

I wanted to document some fun similarities between River and Flower.
~They are both slightly tongue tied which gives them the cutest crack or dent in the middle of their tongues when they stick it out. You can kind of see it in the photo of her sticking out her tongue.
~They both had 'moms' named Amanda.
~River has a birth mark on the back of her neck in the same place and similar shape to Flower's scar from her spina bifida surgery.
~They both have Mongolian marks on their back above their butt cracks. (Mongolian spots are common among Asian, East Indian and African races. The blue spot is a benign flat congenital birthmark with wavy borders and irregular shape.) It looks very much like a bad bruise so it's quick to be documented on doctors charts so that you aren't accused of abuse. Nice.
~I think it's fitting that they both ended up with a connection to my mom as well, very much by accident...or was it? We named Flower after my mom. Her name being Flower Opal and my mom's name is Opal. Then River just happened to be born on my mom's birthday. I have always been a bit partial to my mom. :)
It's seems like there was one more thing but it's escaping me right now. We love these two little squirts!