The First Laugh

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies." Peter Pan

The first six to ten weeks of a baby's life are arguably the most difficult for the parents as all the infant does is eat, sleep and scream, without any concept of day and night. I loved the fact that I was a father and I loved my child for what I knew she would become, but I had no real connection with her. For her the feeling was clearly mutual. I was just the one who did not feed her.

That changed one afternoon after work when, armed with a suggestion I'd read in a book, I experienced my first interactive moment with Cate. I got her attention and then stuck my tongue out at her. She gave a pensive expression and then stuck her tongue out at me. The start of a beautiful frienship.