Physical Development

Is your child a rightie or a leftie? It may be too early to tell. Although some babies start to prefer one side of their body to the other as early as 3 months, most use both hands equally throughout the first year. To determine if your baby has a preference, try to observe whether she's consistently using one hand to carry objects and the other to manipulate them. The hand doing the manipulating is generally the dominant one, so if she holds a box with her left hand and tries to remove the top with her right, she may be a rightie. (Statistically speaking, this is also more likely: Nearly 70 percent of the population is right-handed, 20 percent are ambidextrous, and 10 percent favor the left.)

Social Development

As she explores the world, one of the things your baby will discover is her own genitalia. At diaper-changing time, you may notice that your baby boy likes to pull on his penis, or your little girl pokes her vagina. These body parts are sensitive, and touching them generates pleasure, so your baby may develop a preference for them. This is perfectly normal. Pulling her hand away, scolding her, or otherwise attempting to make her feel bad for engaging in such play can be harmful and have a negative effect on her self-esteem. Placing taboos on self-stimulation can also make it more inviting.

When your child gets old enough, you should explain that this part of her body is private and that, although it is okay and pleasurable for her to touch it, she shouldn't do so in public. Even more important, she needs to know that it's not acceptable for anyone else to touch it, and that she should tell you immediately if someone does.

Intellectual Development

Around now, your little one is beginning to make associations with things outside of herself. For example, she may grunt in anticipation of being fed when she hears the lid pop off the baby food jar. She may squeal with joy, or begin babbling wildly, when the door slams to signal her older brother's return from school. Her babbling may even contain some semblance of his name, such as "sana" for Sanah or "bebe" for Baby.

When someone imitates her by babbling or making smacking sounds, she laughs because she associates their behavior with her own. She will also laugh or crow at pictures of babies in books, associating them with herself and her own sounds.

Note: The information above offers general guidelines, but all babies develop differently, and few hit their milestones precisely when the conventional wisdom says they should. If your child was born prematurely, you may want to use your due date as a baseline for following baby's development.