You need to understand that all babies are different...

I have a friend whose eldest is a year older than my daughter and it upset her when my daughter began talking in sentences long before her child did.
When i meet other mummies and we discuss toilet training, i try not to share that my daughter was out of undies and having no accidents by 15 months because it causes mums to raise their eye brows and question what they're doing wrong because their child isn't yet toilet trained.
My daughter had only taken a few independent steps by her 1st birthday, whereas her friend born the day before her, was walking the length of a room. Her other friend, who shares the same birthday, wasn't walking at all.

I got an email this week from a baby site, telling me facts about 7 month olds.
According to the email, some 7 month olds may be sitting unaided. Mine has been doing that for close to 3 months. He has 2 friends of similar age and one is very close to sitting unaided, the other is a fair way off.
According to the email, some 7 month olds are moving about (crawling). Mine has been doing that for close to a month now. One of his 2 friends has been moving around for roughly the same amount of time, the other is enjoying laying on their tummy and playing.
According to the email, some 7 month olds are babbling, saying words such as "baba" and "dada" and "mama". Mine isn't. He's never babbled any sort of word. One of his friends babbles all the time and has mastered "mama" and "dada". The other has babbled "mama" a couple of times but nothing regular.

My son has teeth, something which neither of his friends has. He can pull himself to standing and walk (shakily) around furniture, something neither of his friends can do yet but one of his friends can feed himself a bottle, something which my son can't do. His other friend sleeps right through the night. Something which my son has no interest in doing.

It upset me when my daughter was born and her playmates mummies were bragging about the things their child could do (and mine hadn't quite mastered), or the baby update email told me this month my daughter would achieve XYZ and she only achieved X and jumped straight to Z. But almost 3 years later, she got here by learning things in her own time and she's perfect! Just as my son is perfect, even if he hasn't said my name yet!

Second time around, i now understand that each child is different and learns in their own time. And whether they are walking at 7 months or 18 months, or talking at 5 months or 12 months, they're special and lovely and truly a gift from God that should be praised for every milestone they reach - no matter what age it occurs at.