Your Baby's First Year: A Milestone Guide

Your baby's first year is a whirlwind of firsts. First smile. First giggle. First solid food. First steps. It can feel impossible to keep track — which is exactly why we built Tiny Years.

Here's a gentle guide to the key milestones you might look out for, month by month.

Remember: Every baby develops at their own pace. These are general guidelines, not rules. If you have concerns about your baby's development, always speak with your health visitor or GP.

0–3 months

• First social smile — usually around 6–8 weeks, and absolutely unmistakable
• Follows movement — babies start tracking faces and objects with their eyes
• Lifts head during tummy time — building those crucial neck muscles
• Responds to your voice — turns toward familiar sounds

3–6 months

• Laughing out loud — the best sound in the world
• Grasping objects — tiny fingers start reaching for toys
• Rolling — first one way, then both
• Babbling — the very beginning of conversation

6–9 months

• Sitting without support — a big one, usually around 6–8 months
• Starting solids — exciting, messy, and unforgettable
• Object permanence — baby realises things exist even when out of sight
• Stranger awareness — clinginess with unfamiliar people is completely normal

9–12 months

• Crawling — some babies skip straight to walking, and that's fine too
• First words — "mama", "dada", "baba"
• Pulling to stand — using furniture as support to get upright
• First steps — the milestone everyone waits for

How to capture these moments

Log it immediately. Memory is unreliable, especially when you're sleep deprived. Tiny Years lets you log a milestone in seconds — with a photo, voice note, or short video.

Add a little detail. Not just "first steps" but where it happened, who was there, what your reaction was. Your future self will thank you.

Turn it into a storybook. Tiny Years can transform your milestone logs into a beautiful AI-generated keepsake — a book your child will treasure one day.

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Start logging milestones today with the free Tiny Years app. Download here →