Saturday 27 October 2012

She's No One's Show Pony

Frostina is a beautiful little girl with a smile that can melt your heart. She coos and babbles and has even laughed a few times. I love those moments with her. Those magical moments when we smile back and forth and "talk" about our day. Just the two of us gazing into each others eyes, feeling the love that flows between the two of us.

She's even cuter with The Hubby. She loves her Daddy!! In fact, the first time she laughed properly was with him. I love watching them interact. The way her eyes light up when he talks to her. The way she smiles at him and the way he smiles back. It's amazing to watch.

I wish everyone else could see just how cute she looks when she's sporting her toothless little grin. Unfortunately the second I whip out a camera she stops smiling.

Here's how it goes in our house.
  • Put the camera away, smile. 
  • Take the camera back out, no smile. 
  • Put the camera away, smile. 
  • Take the camera back out, no smile.
  • Lather, rinse, repeat.
In addition to her "no smiling for cameras" rule, Frostina seems to save her smiles for only a chosen few. You know how you see those babies who smile at everyone who even remotely glance in their direction?? Well Frostina is definitely not one of those babies. At the moment she will only smile for me, The Hubby, and the woman who comes once a week to clean our house.

Anyone else is out of luck. It's not like we never go anywhere. We're out and about all the time. Especially since we live in a city where people walk everywhere and we don't have a car. Everywhere we go there are people to interact with. So it's not like being around new people is something strange to her.

No matter how hard people try, and boy do people try... she just won't budge.

  • The nice old lady in the grocery store- no smile.
  • The other Mothers in our baby group- no smile.
  • My friends who we meet up with for lunch or coffee- no smile.
  • The nurse who does her immunizations- no smile.... although I with her on that one.
There have been a few exceptions to this but generally she only smiles at people on her terms,,, when she feels like it. So as a result I find myself bearing witness to grown adults trying their best tricks to get a smile out of this baby. You wouldn't believe how far people will go,,,, it's pretty comical.

When I warn them that she's not a huge smiler (is that a word?) they seem to take the information as a challenge. This information seems to spur them on even further. They now want to be one of the "chosen few" who get a smile. Mostly they fail.

I was expressing my frustration about this to a friend of mine this week. I want everyone who meets her to see just how amazing and happy she is. I want her to smile at them the way she smiles at us. So they can see just how cute she can be.

My friend just smiled and said, "Well she's no one's show pony... good for her."

I've always said to The Hubby that I can't wait for her to start showing us her personality. And she is... she's showing us that she's no one's show pony. She has a mind of her own and does what she wants, when she wants.

I suppose that in life, that trait will serve her well but for now I just wish she would smile for people..... or at least for the camera so I can prove to people that she actually can do it.

6 comments:

  1. Don't kids know they are our trained monkeys. To show off for us and do our bidding at a mere request? Haha. The no smile baby. Too funny

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  2. Having found out about your blog via the West London Sands website I've just spent the last two hours reading through it all!
    We lost our first baby 5 weeks ago when I went into early labour - she lived for two hours. I'm back at work now and everything baby related makes me cry. ( I work for a family title so this is pretty much everything I come across!)
    Anyway jus wanted to say thanks for sharing your story through to your daughter. It makes me feel like there's hope.

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  3. Good for her for having a strong little personality! (although im sorry you cant get the pics you want) i'm really glad you and the hubby are the chosen ones :). Ginny's first few smiles were not at all for me and I was kind of offended since I have this idea that I've put in the hardest work, you know?

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  4. Certainly sounds like you have a very clever girl :0)

    I think, we do tend to feel a bit sensitive if we don't get that smile from the baby. You being to wonder what is it why doesn't he/she like me but the fact its little ones are truly little people and like adults they have likes, dislikes and sometimes just don't feel like doing something for no particular reason at all

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  5. Shame. We get lots of smiles. But the other day I took him to a photographer. No go. No smiles.

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  6. I bet she's beautiful even when she isn't smiling. Have a good trip - maybe she'll smile for family!

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