40 Baby Milestones Worth Recording Before You Forget

01Before you start: record what happened, not what was expected

This is not a developmental checklist. Every baby’s timing differs, and many babies skip steps, do them in a different order or do them on their own schedule. If you have any concerns about your child’s development, speak to your paediatrician. This list is simply a set of prompts for memories worth keeping.

The easiest way to record milestones is a running note on your phone with three things for each entry: the date, what happened and who was there. Add a photo or short video if you have one. Five minutes a week is enough.

Do not worry about filling in all forty. Some will not apply to your family, some will happen in a different order, and some you will simply miss. A record with twenty well-remembered moments is worth more than a complete list of dates with nothing attached. Where you can, add one detail that only your family would know: the nickname, the joke, the relative who claimed the credit.

020 to 3 months: the early weeks

1. The first time you held your baby, and who held them next.
2. Coming home: the date, the drive, who was waiting.
3. The naming ceremony or the day the name became official.
4. The first real smile (not the sleepy kind).
5. The first time they followed your face or a toy with their eyes.
6. The first proper bath, and how it went.
7. The first visit from grandparents or a much-awaited relative.
8. The sound or song that reliably calmed them.

Tip: these weeks are a haze. Ask your partner, parents or whoever helped at home what they remember, and write it down together.

033 to 6 months: getting to know them

1. The first laugh, and what caused it.
2. Holding their head up steadily during tummy time.
3. The first time they rolled over (and possibly surprised everyone).
4. Grabbing something on purpose: your hair, a rattle, a spectacle frame.
5. Discovering their own hands or feet.
6. Their first outing to a beach, park, temple, church, mosque or a relative’s home.
7. The first night they slept a longer stretch, and how you felt the next morning.
8. The first time someone other than you made them giggle.

Tip: laughs and coos are best captured as short videos. Keep a clip of ten to twenty seconds; long videos rarely get watched again.

046 to 9 months: big changes

1. Sitting up without support.
2. The first taste of solid food, or the annaprashan or first rice feeding ceremony if your family marks one.
3. The food they loved instantly, and the one they refused.
4. The first tooth.
5. Babbling sounds that started to feel like conversation.
6. Starting to crawl, shuffle or scoot in their own way.
7. Recognising their name and turning when called.
8. The first time they showed a clear favourite person or toy.

Tip: for food, write down the exact face they made. A sentence like “you looked betrayed by the carrot” will be funnier in ten years than any photo.

059 to 12 months: towards the first birthday

1. Pulling up to stand using furniture or a grandparent’s knee.
2. Waving bye-bye or clapping.
3. The first word, or the first sound that clearly meant something.
4. Ear-piercing, a first haircut or a mundan, if these are part of your family’s traditions.
5. Playing peekaboo and finding it hilarious.
6. The first steps, holding hands or on their own.
7. The first trip by train, bus or plane.
8. The first birthday: who came, what was cooked, how they reacted to the cake.

Tip: first words are often disputed. Every relative will claim the baby said their name first. Write down all the claims; the argument itself becomes part of the family story.

Tip: the first birthday is often over-photographed. Pick three photos: one of the whole family, one of the baby with the cake, and one candid moment nobody planned.

06Beyond the first year: toddler moments

1. Walking confidently, and the first time they ran away from you.
2. Their first sentence, or a phrase only your family understands.
3. Their name for grandparents, siblings or the family pet.
4. The first drawing or scribble you kept.
5. A favourite book, song or rhyme they asked for again and again.
6. The first day at playschool or daycare.
7. The first festival they actually understood and enjoyed.
8. The first time they said “I love you” or gave a hug without being asked.

Tip: toddlers say wonderful things. Keep a “funny things they said” note and add to it the same day, because you will not remember the exact words later.

07Turning a list of milestones into a story

A list is a good start, but a story is what your child will read. When you sit down to make a book, pick the milestones that come with a memory attached: who was in the room, what was said, what happened next. Those are the pages that carry feeling. A milestone without a memory (“rolled over: 4 months”) can sit in a small timeline; a milestone with a memory (“you rolled off the mat and into Paati’s lap, and she refused to put you down for an hour”) deserves its own page. Our guide on what to include in a first-year memory book shows how to arrange them, and organising your baby photos helps you find the matching pictures.

If your notes stretch past the first year, the Thulir edition is made for the 0 to 3 years stretch, with 40 pages and up to 100 photos. A guided memory questionnaire (voice notes welcome) helps you recall moments like these, and our team writes the story and designs each page by hand. You can see how milestones look on the page in the sample book.