Am I doing enough activities with my 16mo?

[lawn]

I am a SAHM and all my friends work either part or full time, so their babies/toddlers go to nursery for at least some of the week. DD doesn't go at all, and I'm always hearing about all the stuff the other kids get up to all day long and feeling guilty that DD is missing out.

I take her to 1-2 x 1-hour groups a week, which involve mostly singing songs and dancing around. The rest of the time is totally unstructured - most days we either have someone round or visit someone (mostly but not always mums with babies) in the morning, then in the afternoon she just messes about, emptying cupboards etc and following me around and chatting while I potter. Or we go out to the shops.

Weekends are probably fairly similar to my friends': DH occasionally takes her swimming, we go to the park, visit friends etc.

BTW DD is very sociable and outgoing. She's behind her friends in walking (which she's not doing yet) and certain skills like eating with a spoon, drinking from a cup - but quite far ahead in terms of speech.

Do I need to find ways of giving DD more stimulation / regular exposure to other kids do you think?

lawn, it sounds fine to me. Kids develop at different rates, my DD's motor skills were slightly behind at that age but her speech was far advanced, and the on average babies walk at 15 months so your dd really isn't that behind, IMO

you sound like you re doing fine. I do similar with ds
mon is usually a around the house day
tues shopping and dh is off work
wed tots am then play at home
thurs see friends go shopping
fri tots am then either home or out for lunch with friends.
Sat n sut r both home days although we see pil on a sun evening.

Around the house we do things like play wiht his toys, sing songs, make cakes, do painting or drawing, read books.

My son is opposite of your daughter in he is physically very advanced, walking early etc, but he grunts a lot or talks like a teletubby. But he is extremely good at imaginitave play.

Your week sounds very similar to mine too lawn - my DD is also about 16m, and isn't walking yet either. Nemo, how old is your DS? Like lawn, I don't do much in the way of 'activities' with DD - she tends to amuse herself while I potter about. How do you make cakes with a 16mo?! Is it easier because your DS is physically advanced??

ds is 19mths but have been making cakes for a while. He loves to do the whisking and also we spoon mixture into cases together. He also loves putitng the ingredients in and if they need icing.

Eek, can't really imagine DD doing any of that stuff - she can't even keep her food on her spoon yet

it may be because hes physically strong as he is good with cutelry etc.