To shoe or not to shoe. Babies learn to walk easier without shoes on their feet. If you floors are cold, it's a good idea to put shoes on baby. Otherwise, let him run around barefoot.

Motor skills are not exactly the same as eye and hand coordination but they are pretty close. The development of eye-hand coordination often parallels and/or compliments the development of gross and fine motor skills. There are some activities your baby can do to increase her coordination and develop her motor skills.

Here are a few examples:

• Puzzles. Get your baby started on jigsaw puzzles. There are baby-style puzzles which only have 4 or 5 pieces. As baby accomplishes these easy puzzles, get progressively harder puzzles. Don't move too fast, you don't want to frustrate the new learning mind.

• Duplo Blocks. These are baby sized lego type blocks.

• Plastic building blocks.

• Peg and hole toys. These teach baby to recognize different shapes.

• Plastic donut toy. Teaches eye-hand coordination.

Encourage baby to play and develop his skills. Don't stress correctness right away. Stress fun. Baby will learn to do it right is it is fun to try. Avoid doing it for baby. It is hard to resist the temptation to just do it. Baby can't learn by watching, he has to figure it out for himself. You watch and encourage.