Dance, monkey, dance!

Pre-dance face-off.

I think I may have mentioned once or twice what a thrice-damned pain in the ass it is to get a smile out of Young Master James. Occasionally he'll give us a smile out of the blue when some random thing strikes him as funny (coughing, for example, is apparently hilarious), but usually it takes twenty minutes of devotion before he lowers himself to display any amusement.


Jim is astounded, but not amused.

Noah usually has more success than I do. This may be related to the fact that he has a great deal more patience than I do. I tend to try for about five minutes and then give up and shove a boob in his face. Jim's, I mean, not Noah's. Noah, however, has the ability to make ridiculous noises continuously for a pretty impressive length of time (a fact which I knew before Jim ever made an appearance).


Jim turns to me for an explanation of his father's bizarre behavior.

Sometimes Jim makes his happy turtle face instead. This involves pursing his lips with his upper lip stuck out farther than the lower one and raising his eyebrows as high as they go while opening his eyes really wide, and it's a lot cuter than it sounds. Naturally, it's also impossible to get a picture of.


Jim relents, apparently due to the threat of being devoured whole if he doesn't just freaking smile already.

The only time he smiles really frequently is in his sleep. I'm pretty sure he dreams about nursing, because he makes adorable little sucking motions and then a great big smile. Repeat. Suck suck suck :D suck suck :D suck suck suck suck suck suck :D. It's incredibly cute, and it makes me feel much better about my inability to reliably get him to smile while awake. He might give his daddy all the awake smiles, but he dreams about ME.

Parts of me, anyway.