Some babies might start crawling around this time; others will follow soon, likely in the next 2 months. For this reason, if you haven’t done it yet, this is a good time to baby proof your home. Be particularly careful with trash cans and toilets, as many babies love to play with them.

Around this age babies begin to understand the concept of time in a basic way. For example, they will realize that there is a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ and that some activities precede or follow other activities. They might learn to anticipate someone’s arrival when they hear the doorbell, for instance.

Their understanding of object permanence (i.e., that objects and persons continue to exist even if they can’t be directly observed) continues to improve, which makes games of hide and seek (playing with people or objects) interesting. They also start to develop their first problem-solving skills (using tools or kicking hanging toys to be able to reach them), which will become one of the elements for learning.