In the initial days that follow their birth, babies see everything in mainly black and white. It is only after they become two weeks old that they start acquiring the ability to distinguish colors. Still, their color vision is not as rich and sensitive as adult and improves over time.

Babies seem to find people's faces most interesting and tend to read and observe them for a long time. It has also been seen that familiar faces and surroundings make a baby feel secure and reassured.

Within a few months of their birth, babies start recognizing face expressions and even attribute them to certain feelings. They understand facial expressions much better than words and may try to imitate them too.

It has been observed that infants also love to see pictures of other babies. They will even be fascinated when they look at themselves, either in a mirror or in pictures.

Babies are much smarter than most people believe them to be and they tend to notice changes in the scenery as well as any changes that you make in the home décor. It might be the reason why some babies resist a change in their surroundings, such as moving the crib to another position or repainting a wall or shifting houses. In such a case, you may have to soothe them until they start feeling comfortable in the new setting.

Like adults, babies are also able to see everything around them. However, in the first few weeks after their birth, they do not have very good control of their ciliary muscles and thus, are not able to focus correctly. It is only after about 2 months of age that infants are able to see clear images.

In the initial stage of their life, babies are not able to see images as clearly as adults. The reason for this is that their retina as well as their brain area that is responsible for vision is not fully developed. It by eight months that they have a vision almost as good as adults.

In the first month, babies are able to distinguish between two shades of gray that have 5% contrast, or differ by only 5% in gray level. However, by the time they are 2 months old, they can perceive almost all the subtle shadings that make this world so rich and textured.