For many parents, interacting with their child becomes easier starting from the second month, when significant changes take place. The baby becomes more active in observing the face of whoever approaches them, and in seeking out and holding eye contact, even for extended periods.
The baby loses the neutral expression that had characterized the first weeks of life and begins to interact, responding to the parents' expressions with vocalizations and movements of the mouth, tongue, and hands.
These first exchanges are marked by the fact that parents, often unconsciously, respond to these behaviors: they «mirror» them, that is, they precisely imitate and reproduce the prelinguistic signals given off by the baby (vocalizations, smiles, mouth movements), creating a kind of conversation. But not only that: they emphasize them, highlight them as important and special, and «mark» them with facial expressions and/or remarks that convey approval and encouragement.
This communicative aspect is of fundamental importance in building the bond: being imitated in particular seems to delight babies, who sustain the interaction for longer and, thanks to the parent's «mirroring response», are given the chance to develop and expand their own behavior.
It's telling that if the parent stops interacting and responding to the baby's signals and adopts a still, detached expression while still looking at them, the baby begins to protest and show distress. This doesn't happen, however, if contact is interrupted more naturally, for example if the parent's attention is drawn elsewhere to talk to someone or to look at something.
Between 3 and 5 months, the baby's eyesight improves: while before they could only focus on things 20 to 30 centimeters away, they can now see roughly as well as an adult. This leads them to look around, to try to grab distant objects by reaching out their arms, and to «study» whatever they're holding.
Interaction with the parent changes too, moving from simple eye contact, whose meaning had been that of being together, toward playful activities that amuse the baby. These include actions involving objects, which are brought closer or moved away, made to disappear and reappear; physical games (such as moving the baby's limbs or tickling them); and sounds that engage them, reproducing the characteristic noises of animals or objects.
All these changes, noticeable from the end of the second month onward, show that the baby is beginning to move out of the phase of fusion with the mother, the phase in which they felt her as part of themselves rather than as a separate person, distinct from them. If the umbilical cord was cut at birth, separation from the mother at the psychological level happens slowly, through various stages that involve the child both emotionally and cognitively.
cf. L. Murray, Le prime relazioni del bambino, Cortina