That's the name for those newborn sleep smiles. William has them a lot, and today I was treated to an accompanying chuckle. Newborns only smile in their sleep, and it seems to me, only during REM sleep. Sometimes, William falls into REM sleep without completely closing his eyes and looks like a maniac with his eyes jumping about while he grins.

What on earth are they dreaming and smiling about? Some people say that these smiles have nothing to do with smiles as we know them - that they are merely reflexive muscle twitches that result in something that looks like a smile. Certainly, it looks like that sometimes - like a fake smile, a polite smile. But sometimes the smiles look real. And who could deny that they dream? Certainly most of their time in the womb is spent in a watery, dreamy sleep. Now that my milk has come in, most of Will's time on the outside is spent sleeping too. It's only interrupted by those new bothersome responsibilities to eat and eliminate.

There's something so magical and otherworldly about newborns. They seem like little ancient creatures as much as they seem brand new. They are still firmly planted in their previous world, dreaming about it, reacting to it. It takes them a couple of months to ever find something to smile about in this world.