"Goodnight, my kiddo."

Peri taking (BABY) Dev to bed. Request from @mortallysteadydeer.

These were some loose sketches from my previous comic but fleshed out the sketches with a baby Dev and Peri instead!

(That's not her Mama, it's her babysitter.)

Video description and transcript under the cut.

2 Months -- recognizes familiar faces -- tracks objects with eyes

3 Months -- brings objects to mouth -- smiles -- frowns

4 Months -- reaches out to people -- drools

5 Months -- sleeps through the night -- recognizes family members from strangers

6 Months -- teething begins -- sits upright -- speaks one-syllable words

7 Months -- afraid of strangers -- mood swings

8 Months -- responds to "no" -- can sit alone -- plays peek-a-boo

9 Months -- pulls up to stand -- places objects in mouth to explore them

10 Months -- responds to name -- crawls efficiently

11 Months -- starts to walk without help -- frustrated with restrictions

12 Months -- knows name -- walks

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I love you all but some of you do not know how to write children, specifically babies. So today I'm going to break down everything I have learned from helping raise three kids (my little siblings). Not to mention the last two are still one and almost two respectively, as well as a cousin who is almost three. I will be using them as examples.

Zero-Six months: In the first six months a baby isn't going to be doing shit besides getting off its binky in the sixth. Though it is good to note that sometimes parents won't completely take their kids off of binkies, most tend to just transition them to only using their binky at night to sleep. The main reason I've found for this is so they aren't drinking so much formula at night. However, I will say some babies will start babbling around the end of this period, as well as starting to roll over at 4-6 months, which is crucial to crawling.

Six-Twelve months: This is when we start doing things!!! Specifically walking and crawling. Most babies will start crawling at 7-12 months, and most start walking from 10 to 12 months. However, it isn't uncommon for a baby to start early or late. I started walking at nine months, but my little sister didn't start walking until she was a year and six months, and my brother is a year and two months and he hasn't started walking yet. Now, towards the 11-12 month mark, babies might start saying full words. Using my brother as an example, he turned one two months ago (in May) and now has a few words he says. He says go, more, please, bye, mama, dada, and baba. My little sister, however, is turning two in August and has a larger vocabulary. She says names and tells when she's hungry or cold, or when she needs a diaper change. Younger babies don't have a big vocabulary, and most won't start saying full sentences until they're two years old. I will say this again, it is not uncommon for children to start earlier or later, so if you really want the one-year-old in your story to be talking and walking, specify the months.

On the topic of months, you know how a lot of people get annoyed when parents say 18, 20, or 14 months? Well, that's because until they're 2 1/2 - 3 there is a difference!!! They're still developing. Once you get to about 4 or 5 you can just say, 4 or 5, but a two-year-old is a lot less developed than a two and two and a half-year-old. Every month is a month a baby learns something. Hence why I'd say my sister is twenty-two months to a parent, but say she's two and a half to someone who doesn't know.

I'd swear I reblogged a post relatively recently talking about when babies/toddlers/small children started doing various language things (like they babble at X, start saying mama/papa at Y, first words at Z, and simple sentences and answering question around 3ish), but I can't find it

Baby Brains

Like a ball of wires, bright colours pick out groups of nerve cells or neurons in this scan of a new-born baby’s brain. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging follows the flow of molecules inside these brain bundles, mapping out neuronal connections in detailed scans – this is one of hundreds made available to the public as part of The Developing Human Connectome Project. While the goal is to explore how the brain’s wiring develops and changes before and after birth, scans have their own challenges – from imaging babies in the womb as early as 24 weeks into pregnancy, to making sure fidgeting little ones are asleep long enough to complete the scans – new software allows the images to be 'corrected' for these wriggles. The valuable results will be used as a reference for developmental biologists worldwide, and combined with genetic information to explore how brains develop differently in conditions like autism.

Written by John Ankers

Image from King's College London

Research from King's College London, Imperial College London and the University of Oxford

Image copyright held by the researchers

The Developing Human Connectome Project

October 17, 2018

Micah is 15 weeks old as of yesterday! Geez where has the time gone? 😭

He has done some amazing and exciting things the past few days.

This past Friday, October 12, 2018 Micah was laying on his back in his crib while I changed his diaper and clothes. His stuffed twinkle star was lying down next to his hip. I pressed the button on it to make it play the song. He immediately stopped what he was doing(fiddling with the plastic bag his diapers come in) and reached down, grabbed the star, pulled it up to his chest, and tried to shove part of it in his mouth. That was the first time he intentionally and successfully reached for a toy and brought it to himself without our help.

He also began trying to play with the plastic bag the diapers came in (I pulled the last one out of it to put it on him and he grabbed the empty bag). He realized that it made a loud crinkling sound when he swung it around. So he grabbed a handful of the plastic and began swinging it around wildly so it would make noise. I put it down at his feet to see if he would kick at it to make it make noise and he did. He loved it! He spent 15 minutes just swinging and kicking at it so he could hear the noise it makes.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

When Mommy got home from work and was holding and playing with him he started jabbering and for the first time he started making/blowing raspberries while he "talked." That was a new sound for him. He has been doing it off and on since then.

Monday October 15, 2018

While on the couch playing with us he started to focus intently on our smallest pup Phoenix. Phoenix got close to Micah and Micah reached out and grabbed his tail. Phoenix became very playful towards him thinking Micah wanted to play. He began to do the play bow to Micah and nudged Micahs feet. Micah started to "play" with Phoenix, kicking his feet and wiggling around. Christina quickly pulled her phone out and got some of it on video. It was super exciting to see him play back with his furbuddy for the first time. He watches Phoenix alot now. Even at a distance. And sometimes focuses on our larger and older dog Evelyn too.

October 16, 2018

We have been trying to teach Micah some sign language. We chose 3 to start with. Hungry, eat, and milk. We haven't been as consistent with it as we originally planned, but the past week or so we have stepped it up. Yesterday he focused on my hand and his bottle while I signed milk to him, and I swear it looked like he was trying to mimic the sign. Whether or not he understands what it means yet that was still a HUGE step. I think we are going to pick a few more signs and try harder to be consistent in signing with him.

This kid amazes us more and more every day. He's so smart!