Little laughs

Linds has a thing she does that always gets Nolan and Graham to smile—no matter how ornery they are or how defiant they seem to be. She says, “I can make you smiiiiile!” And poof! They smile, sometimes begrudgingly, but a smile is a smile is a smile.

Austin is too young to get that and is generally pretty pleasant when Linds is around, so it leaves me to figure out how to make him smile when she’s not. It’s like cracking a secret baby code, and I think I’ve found the answer: There’s something I call Austin (in funny voices) that never fails to make him giggle. It might take a few tries to break the stream of tears or shrieks, but ultimately he’ll smile. 

What is this magical word?

Well, Graham is still a kid of very few words, but he rattles off names like no one’s business. Everyone except his own and Nolan’s. Austin is referred to as “baby,” and that’s exactly what I call him to make him smile: Baby.

Or for you fellow “Chuggington” parents out there, I’ll also refer to him as “The Great Austini,” but when I do this Graham immediately wants me to do the same for him, so I’ve dubbed him “The Great Grahambini.” (For those not in the know, the character reference is for Frostini, the Italian ice cream train.) I kind of sound like a ghost when I say their names, but they both seem to enjoy it—so I’m not too concerned. 

So yeah, I was in Target pushing Austin in the stroller while Graham slowly walked alongside. Austin started getting restless, so I smiled and said, “Hello, baby!” a few times and he stopped the fuss. Graham then decided to repeat “baby” a dozen times before once again rattling off the names he knows. 

Kids are weird, but everyone in the store was laughing or smiling, probably at the volume and speed at which Graham was speaking. Loud and fast.

We’re headed to Austin’s 4-month checkup in a few days, so I’ll report back with the details and milestones. For now, rolling over and lifting his head up seem to be the norm. Occasionally I’ll prop him on the Boppy for tummy time, and he’ll squirm and finagle his way over the front, which leads me to believe he’ll be crawling before we know it. He’s a big kid, so we thought the rolling over thing might take a while. But it hasn’t hindered him, so the next step in the progression is crawling. Right? Then all hell breaks loose when there are three mobile kids running amok.