See how a smile grows from that first gassy grin into a sense of humor.

Babies’ smiles are so powerful, we make a mental rolodex of them to shore us up on lousy days. We feed off them.  Get fat on them. And it’s simply because there is no smile on earth that is more genuine or pure.

But a baby’s smile is more than an emotionally gratifying gesture. It is the start of a developmental journey that begins from an innate, involuntary act and transforms into a complex social expression of joy and desire in the course of a baby’s first year.

Here is the amazing step-by-step look at how this sweetest of milestones unfolds.

The Reflexive Smile (0-6 weeks)

Before 1 month of age, an infant’s smile is more an internally motivated event than a response to something seen, heard or felt. During this stage, you’ll watch every twitch, notice every shiver, and often wonder – was that a smile? Probably, but, at this point, your baby is simply reacting to something physical, like gas bubbles or your nipple in his mouth. 

The Responsive Smile (6-8 weeks)

Here’s where the fun begins.  This is when your baby starts to smile in reaction to a pleasing or surprisingly delightful external event – expressive faces, soothing voices, clapping hands, a favorite toy.  This externally motivated smile is partly due to a baby’s ability to establish longer eye contact and attend to visual and auditory stimuli.  The frequency of these smiles increases as a baby becomes more attentive to the rest of the world.

There are many ways to encourage this.  Experiment with a variety of facial expressions, voices and finger songs to see which elicit a smile.  Try singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider, which is often met by brow-knitting concentration and sporadic grins. 

The Social Smile (2-3 months)

This is when your baby declares himself a powerful communicator.  This is also the stage when your baby falls in love with you and his primary caregivers.  He’ll learn that smiling at you will make you smile back, and he’ll throw in leg kicks, grunts and squeals for emphasis.  He’ll learn how else he can elicit this kind of pleasurable attention. This back-and-forth communication and early ability to self-regulate signals the advancement of a baby’s emotional development and his need to connect to the world. 

The Undiscriminating Smile (around 6 months)

Turn on the klieg lights! Baby is ready for his close-up—or, at least, that’s what he seems to be saying. Halfway into your baby’s first year, he’ll most likely be a smiling champion. He’ll smile when you reappear after an absence.  He’ll smile at a stranger passing by, and he’ll smile when he learns a new skill, like toppling a tower of blocks. Picture-taking is a breeze. Babies develop at their own pace, though, so do not worry if another baby seems more smiley than yours.

The Selective Smile (Around 9 months)

This is the smile that is reserved for a precious few—like mom and dad. Your baby will hold his smile ransom and bestow the honor only on people he likes, sounds he enjoys, or something funny. Naturally, this is the smile that is the most coveted of all. These are the months when you hear someone brag about being the first to make your baby smile. Though you may long for your once easy-to-please smiley baby to perform, this drawing of boundaries is actually an indication of healthy emotional development.

A sense of humor (Around 12 months)

With emerging language skills comes a blossoming sense of humor. Dropping a spoon and gasping in mock horror with an exaggerated “Oh no!” is a real crowd-pleaser for the 1-and-under set.  Mastering the art of adding anticipation and surprise to your comedy act will make you the biggest comedy star in your baby’s eyes.

Great laugh-getters:  Sing in a mock-opera voice.  Play peekaboo with your breastfeeding cover-up.  Dip your baby as you tango across the living room.

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