In this paper I examine the importance of the smile as an emotional nexus between infant and mother. A series of observations seems to suggest that the infant is almost immediately able to appreciate when the mother, as a special and separate person, is ready to receive such communication. I consider how a mother's physical and mental embrace may have been altered by the presence of an observer in such a way that the necessary conditions were created for her baby to feel that it was then the right time to use the ability to smile, and so become an active initiator of meaningful interaction.