laughter

after you have a baby, you look forward to their milestones. and people ask you about them. for a while now people have been asking if she laughs yet. after the first few months of a mostly crying baby, i was really looking forward to some laughter!

the first little laugh came just after memorial day weekend, when she was about 3 1/2 months old. we had just come back from a trip to dallas and were unwinding. joseph and i were lying down on either side of eliana, cooing and making faces at her when she laughed! we looked at each other, surprised, and he asked me, "was that...?" finally!

i thought that the floodgates were now open and that she'd be laughing then all the time. but that didn't happen.

over the past few weeks, she has been laughing more. mostly she responds to us tickling to her tummy with kisses. i don't know if all parents hear their children's laughter the same way, but to me, when eliana laughs it sounds like pretty little bells ringing. it makes my heart feel full.

the last few days of june, about a month after we first heard her laugh, eliana and i were at the grocery store together. i had her strapped to my body in a baby carrier as we perused the aisles. i was checking out some different bread, comparing labels, when all of a sudden i heard her laugh. surprised, i looked at her and saw that she was looking at some kids in the same aisle. these kids were trailing their mom, but had stopped and were wrestling over something. apparently, eliana thought that was funny!

i can't tell you how happy it made me to hear her spontaneous laughter, not just because it represents a milestone in her development, but because it gives me a little insight into her personality. she's going to laugh, that is, she's going to have a sense of humor. that moment was just the beginning. like looking through the peephole to a room filled with light. it makes me cherish the "firsts" and look forward to everything else to come.

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