A friend of mine just had a baby last week. I haven’t spent much time around infants.
What age did you your baby begin to crawl? How about walk? Talk?
The Littlest Briston started crawling…mmmm, I want to say it was late in her seventh month/early in her eighth? Somewhere in there. She crawled for three days, and then decided she’d had just about enough of that. Up on her feet she went, and she’s been zipping all over the place ever since.
As for talking, well, that’s in discussion over here. Little brat.
Crawling is usual around seven to ten months, but there’s a wide range.
If you’re interested in such things, or looking for a great gift, I really recommend Touchpoints, by Dr. T. Berry Brazelton. It’s about 10 years out of fashion, but still a very accurate, very thorough and very gently thoughtful book. The linked version was updated in 2006, and is just as good as ever. He’s nice because he knows what he’s talking about as both a doctor and a father, but he’s got a real trust in the parent-child bond. Nine times out of ten, his advice is to simply be calm and trust your own instincts.
“Touchpoints” are what he calls developmental milestones. But he stresses that there are spans of time when these things show up, not specific points in time. So if your baby isn’t crawling by eight months, don’t freak out. Or if your baby crawls once at six months and then not again for another two, that’s totally fine. Or if she crawls at five months, that’s nice, but it’s not time to get early admission forms to Yale yet!
He’s a great writer, and he helped me raise my son in the early nineties when he was the superstar baby doc of the day. I still go back to his books now with my daughter today.
(The superstar baby doc of today is Dr. Sears, but frankly their website is becoming overrun with ads and endorsed products, and that makes me go urk.)
I have an almost crawler. She just turned 7 months and can move herself all the way across the room already through sheer force of will and determination. I give her a few more weeks before good technique is mastered.
Eight or nine months.
I think both of mine started crawling around 6 or 7 months. The crawling didn’t last that long. They were both on their feet and tottering around within a couple of months of crawling.
Mine will be 8 months next week and has been whizzing around on her tummy army-style for a bit over a month now. Every now and then she gets right up onto her hands and knees and we get excited thinking she’s about to actually crawl, but then she grins at us all “just kiddin!” and slides back down to her tummy and zips away.
Our youngest never did crawl, he figured out this way of scooting on his butt that was at least as fast as crawling and kept him upright, the better to wreck havoc.
I don’t remember what age, tho. Sorry.
Ours is at six months and is just starting to realize that he can move himself around. Hasn’t actually crawled yet, but looks ready to.
The Nephew was placed on the floor by the first time at age 9mo (by his Aunt Who Doesn’t Think It’s Good For Teenagers To Still Be Carried). He got on all fours but his left leg was sort of trapped under the right, so he wasn’t able to go forward (although he tried). He did manage one step back, though, which made his parents stop berating me and bow down to pick their jaws from the floor.
He was placed on the floor by the second time at age 11mo (by his Grandmother Who Also Believes That People Should Learn To Walk Before They Learn To Drive) and shot across the floor like an arrow… GO MARCOS GO!
His parents rapidly stuck him into a walker, as a Safety Measure. At age 14mo, his father remarked that he still wasn’t walking without the walker and the aforementioned Aunt said “how’s he going to? You either keep him in the chair, the walker, the cradle or your arms.” An Uncle and two Non-Bio-Uncles (these last two, owner of other, elder children) agreed with the Aunt.
That afternoon, taking advantage of a moment when his Wife and Mother-in-Law were elsewhere busy, The Nephew’s Proud Father placed him on the floor and knelt down in front of him. The Nephew used his Proud Father as a climbing aid and proceeded to take his first Tentative Steps. He’s now 16mo and running.
Moral of the story: don’t do too much “for” your kid 
Congratulations to your friend!
I thought it was pretty amazing how long it takes babies and toddlers to become, well, interesting. Probably because most of the “babies” you see on TV are actually 3-yr-olds.
I have twins, who recently turned 3 (and are now QUITE interesting, my son said “Jesus criminy!” the other day). Watching simultaneous milestone development has been fascinating - he rolled over right at 4 months old, she did it about three weeks later. He crawled, I’m thinking it was months 7-9, then walked at 10. She crawled for maybe one day, tops. Went right to walking at 11 months. Well, it was more like a drunk ballerina staggering around, but she was on two feet. She was trying to get away from her brother and that was the best she could do.
Funny thing is, she’s much more coordinated than he is - last summer she was running and kicking a soccer ball all over the yard. He, on the other hand, is Mr. Orderly, always organizing things and trying to make sense of them.
They both babbled a lot (NO idea where they got THAT), and watching old home movies I can make out words here and there that I actually missed at the time. But in terms of having a brief “conversation” – age 2 or 2.5 (sometimes 3). In terms of them following really simple directions - 15-18 months or so. They pick up non-verbal cues long before they can talk.
My son started crawling when he was around 10 months and started walking at around 14 months. Now, he doesn’t walk at all unless he’s with another person; he runs everywhere he can and doesn’t stop. He’s also pretty fast and hard to keep up with. We’re considering signing him up for soccer this summer so he’s got something constructive to do.
As for talking, he said his first word, “baby”, at around 12 months. He’s got a pretty amazing vocabulary for a four-year-old. The other day, he used the word “cumbersome” to describe a heavy bag of dog treats. I asked him what it means, and he said “it means heavy and hard to handle.”
He also lines his cars up and arranges them in various symmetrical patterns. This is an example. I know he probably used the pattern on the sheet as a template, but it’s so bloody orderly. Now his cars are lined up in sort of parade-fashion. He’s got some good spatial ability.
Robin
Concur with most in the thread. Crawling about eight months and walking around a year.
Talking comes later. Though they could understand a lot of language very early mine didn’t get serious about talking until sometime in the 18-24 month range. Then it was a matter of learning to form words and sentences. Our eldest, now almost seven, RAN through that part and hasn’t stopped talking to this day. The youngest, 2.5, is forming good sentences and such but isn’t as much interested in talking. She’s a active one and would rather be doing than discussing.
So, eh, it varies.
Our son came home from Korea at six and a half months doing the “GI Scoot” - give him a little M16 and he would have looked great crawling under barbed wire. (We were expecting mobility that young and had to install all the baby gates the next day). He was on his hands and knees crawling shortly thereafter, and walking right before his first birthday.
My daughter did everything almost exactly a month later.
My cousins daughter didn’t crawl, and barely butt scooted. She didn’t walk until fifteen months.
Talking - talking is much stranger. Maybe mom and dad start recognizing some words around ten months or so (I think my daughter was pretty early) - like baba for bottle. Real words - maybe fourteen months or so. Understood sentenances - more like around two. Wish they never learned - shortly thereafter. (Remember all those stupid songs from childhood - yeah, you now understand why your parents were always yelling at you to be quiet.
My 11 month old started army crawling at about 7 months, regular crawling at about 9 months, cruising at about 9.5 months, and took two steps yesterday!! He hasn’t said anything yet, but his older brother didn’t say his first word until about 14-16 months (I think?). My older son’s first word was “ball” followed by “crockpot.” He crawled/walked at about the same times as my baby, but he didn’t do much cruising at all…he pretty much went right from crawling to walking.
(By the way, “cruising” is the term for walking along holding onto stuff…the couch, the coffee table, etc.)
My second started walking at 7 months. No crawling for her.
Good, good times.
My little girl did the army crawl thing at around 9 months, but she didn’t use her legs at all. It always looked to me like she had two broken legs and was using her arms to crawl to safety.
She started crawling on all fours a couple of weeks later and now at 11 months (today, in fact), she has just started moving her feet while standing at her learning table! It took her a while, but last night she went 3/4 of the way around her table before she lost her balance! I cried, of course.
Her first word was “dada” at about 8 months. I’ve been trying to get her to say “mama”, but every time I say it, she says “dada”. She doesn’t say that to every word I teach her, just “mama”. Her “dada” gets a huge kick out of it. :rolleyes:
Sometimes she shocks me though. She’ll try to repeat a word we’ve said, using syllables she’s never used before, so we know it’s not a coincidence. While playing with my husband’s Sugar Bear bobblehead, we kept saying “Sugar Bear” and she actually said “Shu Buh”. I’m not sure if that’s normal at 11 months, but I’ll just pretend that she’s a genius! 
She was a little small at birth (5 lbs. 6 oz.), so we didn’t expect her to develop physically at a normal pace. She doesn’t seem to be stable enough to start walking on her own, but she’s done so much over the last 3 weeks that I’ve got to be prepared for anything.
It’s too late to edit, but since we’re talking about what’s “normal”, did any of your babies “yell” at you at 10 months?
She crawled over to the entertainment center, which has a glass door (we’ve since blocked it) and I said, “No! Don’t touch!” in a firm, but not intimidating way. She did it two more times and on the third “No”, she turned around, sat straight up and said, “Ha da ba da ba!” or something like that. The look on her face was one of defiance! I started laughing and said to my husband, “Did she just yell at me?!?” It was the cutest thing she’s ever done.
She also yelled at the babysitter too. She said she was squirming on the changing table and said a firm “No” to her while trying to get her to stay still. Well my little angel took her binky out of her mouth, yelled at the babysitter and stuck the binky back in her mouth.
My husband is right–we’re in trouble.
Crawl - seven months. Walk, thirteen months.
First word was at 12 or 13 months (“teddy”), and he had a pretty good vocabulary by 18 months, but actual talking as in phrases and sentences came much later, at around 2 years.
My son does the same thing. We have lots of car parades aroung here. It used to freak people out a bit when he’d crawl around Barnes and Noble lining up the stuffed animals.
My first started crawling at 6 months and started walking the day before his first birthday. He was slow to talk, though - only a few words before 20 months. (The rotten child waited until he was 21 months before he said “Mama.”)
My daughter is now almost 8 months. She’s not crawling yet, but does sort of scoot around on her butt. I suspect that she’ll talk sooner than her brother.