Ummm, Smile?

An interesting thing about little kids who are learning to talk (well, at least Brady P; he's the only one I've thoroughly observed.) is that they don't always know what shape their mouth makes while they are trying to produce a sound.

For instance, when I ask him to say "ooooo," he spreads the sides of his mouth out instead of pushing them together like an O.  We've tried a mirror and diligent repetition,  but I think it will just take some time.  I've seen him make an O shape with his mouth more lately, even if he doesn't match it with his sound quite yet.

Here's another goofy thing kids do when they can't see their mouth.

Smile terribly when you ask them to smile.

They can be jovial and laughing, but the moment you ask them to smile, it's like they suddenly use their brain and concoct an abnormal facial expression that somehow feels like a smile.

But it's not.

"Smile, Braeden!" the photographer told him on school picture day this week.

I've seen his smile face before, and it's really not becoming.  But somehow, that mouth posture transformed to something slightly hideous, yet comical.

Here's a photo from picture day that the photographer  recommended we do over.  I agree!

Not a framer!

And his morning aid thought it was funny, so she sent me a couple other pictures to show me that he still does it!

Smile!

Smile!

What a goon!

I'll have to show him that face in the mirror, and see how he reacts.  It's definitely not a smile.  It's upside down!

Well, I hope you at least got a real smile out of this.  He never ceases to crack us up!