SMILE!

Grandma & Grandpa Parker are visiting at the midpoint of a cross-country road trip, undertaken entirely in their 1957 190SL. They've been regaling us with stories of rest stop mechanical overhauls and stressful mountain climbs, which concerns me greatly, since they're only halfway through the trip. And because that's my future car they're driving.

Since they're old and used to sitting around without anything to do, they offered to watch their grandson this week. In addition to performing their own interpretations of the Finnglish language, my mother has discovered that Finn can smile on command. We had no idea that he could do this, but he was happy to show Grandma when she offered milk in exchange for a smile.

The pic above was taken a few weeks back, when we luckily captured an accidental smile. This is not the smile he's giving his Grandma, but I've included it for illustrative purposes, since I haven't yet been able to capture an on-demand smile. The new smile is mostly just him baring his teeth and squinting his eyes like he's in terrible pain.

Still, it's a much better look than the one I typically get:


This is the "keep your hands off my Kitty and Hootie, old man" look.

In his defense, I typically am trying to steal Kitty and Hootie. It gets so cold in our bed and the Mommy is all boney & pointy.