You should already know at least a little bit about babies. Someone has undoubtedly told you that it can take a little bit for babies to start to recognize other people. Most babies are able to recognize their mothers immediately after being born, but you already knew that. You probably already know that babies develop at vastly different rates. There is no set date for walking, talking, forming complete sentences, potty training, rolling over, etc. Unfortunately not many people understand child development beyond the examples already written in this introduction. Nothing is more interesting than watching a baby grow up. The number of things that happen between conception and a baby's first complete sentence would astonish you. Those little bodies might look like they can't accomplish much but the fact is that those babies are working really hard to grow up!

Light is an early sensitivity for babies-it starts happening in utero. Millions of fibers and nerve endings connect together to create your eyes. The coordination needed for the eyes to function properly is extraordinary. It only takes a few months from conception to form working eyes. Sensitivity to light is displayed as early as the end of the second trimester. Here's something else about your baby's eyes: if he is Caucasian he will be born with blue eyes but they might not stay that color! Caucasian babies do not usually keep their "original" eye color (blue). Don't get too set on the color blue you see in a newborn's eyes. They might change before you know it!

Babies are able to recognize music while they are still in the womb. Different songs can be recognized by the time an infant is thirty four weeks along. This is about six weeks before the baby is due to be born! Some mothers even report that their babies will move in time to the beat of certain songs. So a person's musical preference does show up before the child is conditioned to like one type of music over another. Aren't you excited about that?

You know about babies growing tails right? That is no lie! In addition to immediately beginning to build major organs, your baby will also start to form a tail during the first few weeks after conception.

Eventually the tail will disappear because the rest of the baby's body will grow and mature-the tail sort of gets absorbed into it. This is not that different from the way a tadpole grows to be a frog. Some people, however, have tails that do not completely disappear and they are born with them still somewhat intact. If a baby has a tail when it is born there are a couple of options: the parents can wait and hope the baby "grows out of it" or the parents can have the tail surgically removed. The only risks associated with having the tail removed are those that are present with any surgery but, for the most part, your baby should be fine because the tail does not impact your child's overall health.

Common knowledge does not include very much in the way of baby development at all. Early childhood development is amazing. Learning what is going on with your baby as he grows up will make the process even more rewarding.