Children grow up really fast. In one moment there is nothing more than a few cells and almost immediately vital organs are being built. That tiny ball of cells only needs forty weeks to grow and form a human being capable of living on its own. Even after birth the changes happen quickly—personalities and decision making seem to happen almost at once. You probably already know a few facts about babies, like that they cannot change their own diapers and that they don’t yet know how to speak and that it takes them a while to figure out how to move on their own. This article contains a few facts about early childhood and babies that should be new to you.

Even while a baby is in the womb he or she is sensitive to light. Millions of fibers and nerve endings connect together to create your eyes. In order to work the right way your eye muscles need to have extremely precise coordination. Babies’ eyes are already useful by a few months after conception takes place. Your baby will be sensitive to light changes by the time your pregnancy is six months along. A great piece of eye trivia: your baby’s eyes might change color a few months after she is born-Caucasian babies are born with blue eyes and it takes a few months for the eyes to change to their permanent color. Most Caucasian babies are born with eyes that are blue and that change later on. So do what you can not to let your heart get set on having a blue eyed child. They might not stay that way!

Most babies have the ability to recognize different types of music before they are born. Different songs can be recognized by the time an infant is thirty four weeks along. This means that over a month before the baby is due, they develop an ear for music! It has been reported that some babies will even start moving in time to a song’s rhythm. So a person’s musical preference does show up before the child is conditioned to like one type of music over another. Isn’t that great?

Everybody knows that babies use crying to communicate their need for service or attention but did you know that the baby does not cry real tears until he or she is almost a month old? Tears are made up of water and hormones that are excreted when a person is under stress. This is one of the reasons people cry when they are stressed—the tears release the hormones which calms the body down. Babies do not produce these hormones before birth. Sometimes real tears take a few weeks to show up because it takes the baby a while to begin producing the stress hormone. Still other babies can take up to a few months to show signs of actual tears (remember, every baby is different). Many people are fascinated by babies. We have yet to figure out just how quickly babies learn and by what process they retain those things. The one thing everyone can agree on is just how quickly babies change and how amazing it is to watch them grow up.