When L was first born, she didn’t open her eyes in the light for many days. When it was dark, slits would appear in her never-used eyes sometimes, and occasionally, she would open her eyes almost fully. (You can see a little of this in “Pink Thing.”)
When she finally did open her eyes in lighted spaces, it was only for very short periods of time. And since the muscles in her eyes had not developed at all, she didn’t really look at much of anything. Nor would she have really seen much then except blurs.
Now she opens her eyes and looks at things. When K or I is burping her, she often is looking here and there, fascinated by who knows what. Probably everything, since it’s all literally new to her.
K or I can get down and put our face about six inches from hers, and when she’s not already captivated by something in her field of vision, she’ll look directly at us as we talk to her. We move my head a few inches to the left — her eyes follow. We smile — she does nothing. Yet.
Step by step. Stimulus by stimulus.