A "softer" face?

“Hi, yeah, less googely eyed”, Sherryll said as she passed me on the way into the daycare this morning. That was the sum of our interaction, amidst the tugging arms of kids and the swinging of the big blue doors of the daycare entrance.
It made me wonder what other parents and their little ones may think we are discussing, when over hearing snippets of some of our passing conversations?
I’ve been battling my own drawing style for weeks trying to come up with a character that we can be happy with forever. We decided yesterday that the main character of the story needed to be a little “softer” whatever that means is unclear but somehow it does accurately describe the challenge.