smiling and cooing

The two mothers had a short leisure time a few days back on a monsoon evening. Yes, the baby was surprisingly cosily asleep and the weather made both of us quite relaxed and mellow. It has been a bit of hectic times when we were running around like headless chickens, so this time out was a welcome change. My daughter was leafing through a book her friend had given her, a much thumbed book I could see! There, she chanced upon some milestones for a month old baby. It went something like this... the baby will start recognising the mother's face and start cooing contentedly. D felt very sad that the baby has crossed the one month mark, but she was nowhere near being gazed at, smiled at and cooed to boot!

She did take heart from the fact that he was doing so many activities which are not mentioned in the book. Like driving a truck; well lying on his back and using all of his hands and feet in a simulated environment as though driving a truck, if you want to be too fussy about it. He will kick his feet slowly at first and he will then speed up and with the increase in speed his right hand will start rhythmic motion of steering the wheel and the left hand will start changing the gear. The scene will be so realistic that we used to look forward to this action and watch him performing. Of course this is no free entertainment, it is a prelude to frustration and loud wails for his food!

Then there are the great grunts that he is famous for. Not to mention low growls and angry scowls. Of the navarasas he could not do smilies, and  sringara, but to make up for it he had many different abhinaya for anger, frustration, despair, what have you. He is exploring a whole new range in natyashastra!

So, coming back to the point, she was frustrated that he was not showing any signs of smiling or cooing.

It was as though he heard her and wanted to show he is such a good boy. The next day morning  we  were both sitting down with the baby and out of the blue he opened his mouth wide and let out a huuuuge grin! We just could not believe it and kept staring at each other and at the baby. D was waiting for it to turn into a shouting match or a crying soprano, but no, it remained a grin and then a wide smile and then stopped with contented cooing...D asked is this what they call cooing in that book. I said yes, this is cooing no doubt about that. He kept cooing and cooing and coming out with lots of variations of the same. Each time D would ask, is this cooing. I would say, see, he is so contented also. After a while he stopped the entertainment and went back to his usual grunts. D was very eager if even this can be classified as cooing. I said I draw a line here, grunt can never be classified as cooing, so there you are. But it was a masterful performance alright and we felt a rainbow had entered our hearts. A baby smiling melts you, but our baby, with a stern and serious face in his first month brought all the more cheer.
God bless!