Anthony’s Friend’s New Sister
Joe Being Gentle With His New Sister as Anthony looks on -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 1/60 sec, f/1.4, ISO 320 — map & image datanearby photos
Joe Being Gentle With His New Sister
as Anthony looks on

Australian/Japanese friends of mine, Peter and Tomoko, had their third child baptized at mass today. Mariko Theresa was 12 days old at the time, although she has aged an additional 4% in the half day since. 🙂

Their oldest, Joseph, is just three months older than Anthony, so they enjoy playing together. We normally have lunch together after mass, and often go to a playground together after that. Their second child is two-year-old Kyoko.

Peter's Folks Became Godparents As Well -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320, — map & image datanearby photos
Peter's Folks Became Godparents As Well

Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — map & image datanearby photos
A Sleepy Kyoko Hugs Her Mommy
while Joe, in red, serves his first mass

12-day-old Mariko was, of course, just cute enough to eat (although she's so tiny you'd need to go back for seconds). She slept the whole time, waking up only for a few seconds to yawn at one point after mass.


Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 1/45 sec, f/4, ISO 320, — map & image datanearby photos

As anyone with kids can tell you, babies don't really develop facial expressions until three or four months old, at least not ones unrelated to bodily functions (hunger, pooping, distress, etc.). A first smile – at perhaps four or five months – is definitely a red-letter day.

So it was with considerable amazement that I saw 12-day-old Mariko break out into a smile just after receiving a soft touch from her grandma. She had the look you see in the picture above for the whole time before and after, but for a moment after Grandma's pat on the head, she had the smile you see below.


Nikon D200 + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 — 1/40 sec, f/4, ISO 320, — map & image datanearby photos
Little Smile

(Sure, it's probably true that she was just making a coincidentally-timed little baby poop, or something, but I like the smile story better.)


All 2 comments so far, oldest first...

Cute cute cute! Does it give you and Fumie ideas?
The first *real* social smile usually occurs at about 1 month old, give or take a week or so. Josh didn’t really smile until about 6 weeks old, but Anthony was right on schedule! Look at his photo on November 28th – When the eyes are smiling too, it’s not gas anymore. Or it’s gas, and he -like his father – just thought it was funny 🙂

— comment by Marcina on July 9th, 2007 at 2:03am JST (16 years, 10 months ago) comment permalink

I had to wait until my son was about 2 months and I already panicked! He has made up for it until now.

— comment by Anne on September 6th, 2012 at 6:21am JST (11 years, 8 months ago) comment permalink
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