Noelle Giggles

There's nothing in the world cooler than hearing your child laugh for the first time.

On one recent afternoon, I was at my parents' home with Noelle. On her porta-crib, my mother had attached a little stuffed pink poodle on a string. When you pulled the poodle, it made a little jiggling noise as it climbed back up the string.

My mom said, "Hey, Noelle ... watch this."

She pulled the poodle and it vibrated and jiggled back up the string. And for the first time, Noelle laughed.

I caught my breath. I've heard her kind of laugh before - it's a breathy sound. It's almost like she knows what laughter is, but she's still working on it.

This was the first REAL laugh I'd heard. An outright, full laugh.

So we grabbed the pink poodle and headed into their gameroom to see if we could make Noelle laugh again. My dad brought his camera to record our game. What follows is one of the greatest things I've experienced so far as a new mom - our baby's first real laughter. Click on the link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13583247@N04/3602180292/