After being with a newborn baby girl 24/7, every day, one can’t but notice the subtle changes that occur. But I have made some overall observations I deem noteworthy. They are empirical in the sense that I have observed them, but I have no other comparisons than my own little Nina, so my observations apply to her, but possibly also apply in general.

1. SURVIVAL

Within the first month of being born my girl was a predictable pattern of eat, pee, poo sleep and then back to eat, pee, poo and sleep. Not much else happened. When she ate she usually tightened her fists and looked (though that’s only my own interpretation) as if she was super-determined to grow up.

What I saw was a little infant doing what was necessary to survive.

2. OBSERVATION

After about a month or so there was a slight change. After Nina finished feeding she would stay awake for another 30 or so minutes and just observe things around her. She would look at us; follow our movements; look at our dogs; look at the ceiling – sometimes as though there was someone there as she could stare intently on a certain spot sometimes for 10 minutes, etc.

Nina didn’t make or have much reactions – she was just looking.

3. INTERACTION

After about 2 months and a week Nina started to interact with us. When we spoke to her she would smile back while looking at us straight in the eyes. The amount of smiles increased every day. After a week of smiles she started to make sounds as she smiled. She would make a sound, we would answer her back, and she would make another sound back. This could go on for sometimes 10 -15 minutes.

Just this week she started to make sounds to communicate her state of mind instead of simply crying which was her only way before then, especially when she was hungry or felt discomfort by too much poo in the diaper. Even though she still cries if she gets too hungry, her incredibly low patience level has increased a bit whereby she tries to get your attention through sounds and gestures as if she wants to say, “I’m hungry damn it!”

So this made me think, do the fundamental steps to developing anything consist of 1) Survival, 2) Observation and 3) Interaction?