Mom checks the baby monitor—and sees something she'll never forget
In a viral TikTok shared by @lu.brouns, one mom caught her child mid-nap (read: not sleeping at all), lying perfectly still, eyes locked on the lens… and then, slowly, silently, waves. It's hilarious. It's eerie. And if you've ever tried to parent a toddler, it's a little too real.
Because in that tiny gesture—barely a blip on the screen—is something so many of us feel but rarely say out loud: our kids are always watching. Always absorbing. Even when we think they're out cold and we're finally alone with a snack and a scroll.
The wave seen 'round the world
The TikTok has racked up over 5.3 million views in less than a week. There's no background music, no flashy editing. Just a toddler staring into the void (or the Nest cam) with the quiet intensity of someone delivering a sermon. And then comes the wave.
'Aterrador y adorable al mismo tiempo,' @Angel Palacios joked—'Terrifying and adorable at the same time.' Another, @Maii Meléndez chimed in,
'Fue parto normal o ritual? Pregunta seria '—'Was it a regular birth or a ritual one? Serious question .'
It's giving toddler monk. It's giving The Truman Show: Nap Time Edition. It's giving every parent that creeping feeling that the monitor works both ways.
Related: Mom checks baby monitor—and sees a crib moment she'll never forget
Why this moment feels bigger than it looks
Nap time is sacred for parents. The brief window when we can scroll in peace, eat something not cut into triangles, or remember what silence sounds like.
So when we peek at the monitor expecting a sleeping child—and instead see a toddler giving a direct-to-camera TED Talk—it messes with our heads a bit.
This kind of interaction reflects real developmental progress. By age 2, toddlers begin showing clear signs of self-awareness and social development. According to the CDC, they're learning how to:
Take turns
Imitate adult behavior
Express a wide range of emotions
Understand when someone is watching
These behaviors reflect growing awareness of themselves in relation to the people around them, and many will begin to actively respond when they know they're being observed.
So when a toddler makes eye contact with the baby cam and responds with a wave, they're demonstrating early awareness that someone might be watching—and they're ready to connect.
When baby monitors show us more than we expect
Parenting through a baby cam is a modern rite of passage. It gives us comfort, sure—but also a front-row seat to the weird, wonderful, totally unscripted world of toddlerhood.
You might catch them whispering to a stuffed giraffe, narrating a dream sequence, or recreating an entire grocery run with two Goldfish crackers and a board book. Or, as in this case, silently acknowledging your presence like a 2-year-old Obi-Wan.
These little glimpses matter. They remind us that even in quiet moments, our kids are actively learning, imagining, and reaching for connection.
Related: Baby says 'I love you' for the first time—mom's reaction on the baby monitor is everything
3 surprising things toddlers do on camera—and what they mean
Waving or staring directly into the lensA sign of growing self-awareness and a budding understanding of 'being watched.'
2. Talking to themselves or their toysNarrating stories or pretend play is an early literacy and emotional development skill.
3. Mimicking adults (like pretend phone calls or 'typing' on a keyboard)Monkey-see is monkey-do—this is how they practice and process what they observe.
The bottom line
There's something strangely profound about a toddler waving into a baby monitor. It's a reminder that even our tiniest humans are full of intention, mystery, and personality.
And honestly? We needed that.
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Yahoo
8 minutes ago
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'The Home': Pete Davidson goes dark in retirement home horror movie from 'Purge' filmmaker James DeMonaco
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"And then there were various things that played into that, I think, over the years, [but] that was probably the seed. And my writing partner, [Adam Cantor], ... something happened with his grandparents that mirrored my experience when I was a very young man. ... And then for me, there was a movie that had a great influence on me, it was Robert Altman's 3 Women, which is set at an elderly spa in the desert. ... I think it's one of the great films ever made, and it has incredible creep factor." While The Home leans into its "creep factor," the majority of people still associate Davidson with comedy, but DeMonaco knew that he had the ability to take on a different genre of storytelling. "He literally lived down the street from me here in Staten Island, ... his mom still lives down the street," DeMonaco said. "People know him as a comic, but I knew him as something else. ... He surprised me at how good an actor he was outside of the comedy." 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"The Purge, I always say, is like a punch in the face. I thought here ... we were building something with various layers and twists and turns that The Purge really doesn't have," DeMonaco said. "I wanted to get to this point where the audience would need a cathartic release, ... as Max did. ... I also wanted them to be so angry at certain characters in the film, without giving anything away, that I felt that they would be looking forward to this last 20 minutes." "Sometimes I think filmmakers were forced, when we work in certain parameters, we have to pull punches. We can't show everything we want to show. And I was like, no, no, if I'm going to do this, we're going to go, we're going to turn it up to 11. ... It's a matter of always giving [the audience] enough, but not too much, especially when you're dealing with somewhat of a mystery." DeMonaco added that having the audience engaged in Max's journey was critical to the build up of tension in the film "I think, hopefully, Pete's engaged in the mystery of what's happening in The Home, and the audience will stay with him and want to follow him," DeMonaco said. "I know that there are some horror films that kind of work just as visceral rides, but I think for me, I need to be invested in the character's plight. So we took a lot of time, I think, trying to build what Max went through, the trauma of his past." "And I think when you get to the editing room, that's where everything changes. And you could throw out all your ideas and say, alright this is going too slow, we need to move this faster. Let's move this scene up here, because we need a little jolt for the audience to give them a little more. ... My producer says it's almost like a a Swiss clock. It's got a lot of moving parts and you've got to make sure they're all fitting, and we're just giving enough to the audience, and not letting them sit there in the dark for too long." Big budget vs. more control But when it comes to filmmakers having to "pull punches," DeMonaco highlighted that there's a trade off between working on a big budget film, with more "parameters," or having more freedom, but working with a smaller budget. Taking advice from famed producer Jason Blum, DeMonaco was told, "the smaller your movie, the more control you have." An example of that for DeMonaco was working on the 1996 film Jack, which DeMonaco wrote with Gary Nadeau, and the film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring the late Robin Williams. "I was always writing to direct, that was my path to directing. 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Forbes
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