This week’s Weekly Parenting e-mail was, I felt, helpful for me, given that our baby girl, while walking around leaning on things — I’ll bet she’ll be walking without holding onto something before her first birthday — has left off the progress she had appeared to be making with speaking. Of course, she still does a fabulous job of making vowel sounds to emulate what you say, such as “eh-oh” for “hello” and “ah-ah” for “bye-bye”. I suppose we’ll look forward to her talking more once she’s really walking around!

Like most of us, babies tend to concentrate on one project at a time. A baby’s drive to take his first step may absorb all his energy for a couple of weeks. During that period, his interest in talking or using his hands may lessen. Once he can walk, however, he’ll set his sights on another goal and work toward it with comical determination. Infant development follows a winding path, rather than a straight course. And babies travel their own paths in their own ways; most, however they get there, reach their milestones in due time.