Elementary parenting stuff made cool.

            After three kids, I know I don't have to have those pee-pee teepee covers to avert diaper changing geysers (a tissue or napkin will do just fine), nor do I need the $1,600 Louis Vuitton diaper bag. (My sister bought me a cute Petunia Pickle Bottom one at 75 percent off from a store that was closing. Otherwise, my old one still works.) And no, my little one will not be wearing a $190 checked Burberry dress.

            But every year, there are new products and baby items out there that make parenting easier and/or just more fun.

            The byword of all things baby these days is eco-friendly, so items boast about being green and free of chemicals, solvents, and other yucky stuff. Think hypoallergenic, all-natural, organic, and sustainable. Another byword (at least for me) is affordable. But if it works, I will pay more for it (Wonder Boy had sensitive skin as a newborn and the Mustela line of baby products was the only one that worked for him.)

            What are some of the newest products making waves these days?

            Not at me, but she smiled, a quick, sweet upturn of her mouth, bow-shaped little lips slightly open, lifting her chubby cheeks every so slightly, streaked with milky drool.

            Baby No. 3 is only six weeks old, but I swear she smiled at her Papa 21 days after her birth day. She had just been fed (by me) and changed (by me), when I handed her over to Hubby so I could wash my hands. Hubby had just launched into his patented up-down-bouncy-dance-of-sleep when I looked over and saw it.

            She was looking up at him adoringly with her wide, almond-shaped eyes as he spoke in singsong to her. Then she smiled, the look filling her face, her two hands clasped under her chin.

            Hubby and I saw it. And though I didn't run to get the baby book so I could document the milestone like I did with Firstborn Son, we remember. (Hubby reminds me both boys smiled at him first, too.)

            Now Baby smiles with increasing regularity (but never slow enough so I can catch it with the camera.) She does it most after a feeding, when she's just drifting off to sleep. She'll turn her head to one side, eyes drooping, eyes fluttering open, then closing again, then opening one more time before she sinks slowly into sleep, usually with one hand curled ladylike beside her cheek.

            The smile comes soon after that, like a door's been opened in her sleep and she's happy to enter it. Who's greeting her at the threshold? I always wonder. Sometimes, the smile is followed by a golden giggle, a sound so sweet I want to play it over and over should I ever get the chance to record it. What's so funny? Could I get in on the secret?

            You can read all about baby smiles during these earliest days being nothing more than an inborn behavior, just a reflex, or (you've heard this one before), "just gas." We're told babies don't really smile at you until they're at least two months old, if then.

            Never mind all that.

Both sides of the family would then go into Baby Mode, one aunt taking time off from work to stay with boys while Hubby and I were in the hospital, another taking over while everyone else took turns visiting us at the hospital where I would make them sign a proclamation that our baby was the cutest baby in the whole world.

            By the time my due date came and went, and I was still pregnant, I had a feeling this pregnancy was going to throw me for a loop. And how.

            At our house, aside from the usual repertoire of unmentionable swear words, we forbid saying "stupid," "shut up," "hate" and OMG, substituting "silly," "be quiet" "don't like" and "oh my gosh" instead.