What to Expect from Your Baby–9-12 Months
Last year around this time, you had a beautiful pregnant belly, and were awaiting your baby’s arrival. Now, you are playing with him, enjoying his first foods, maybe even his first step!
As your baby grows, so does his ability to remember. He may surprise you and remember a gesture he saw a few days ago, or even remember where certain favorite toys are in the house. This is only recall memory though. He won’t be able to access long lasting conscious memory until he is around 2 or 3 years old. Even still, this doesn’t mean you can’t begin working to teach certain limits and boundaries. Just don’t expect to see an immediate payoff, its all about repetition - lots and lots of repetition!!
Along with this growth in memory is your baby’s growing ability to understand the myriad of words he hears each day. His understanding of language is much farther developed than his ability to speak. Because of this, you may be able to save your baby a lot of tears and frustrations by teaching him some baby signs for his favorite words. Signs for words like drink, more, sleep, etc can be a great help for your baby so he can communicate successfully, while he continues to work on the process of learning to speak.
Another great way to support his work at learning to talk is reading to him. Babies may not always sit for long reading sessions, but they do love to hear your voice. Also, make sure to keep them in the conversation. When they try to engage you, talk back to them as you would anyone. Baby talk at this stage doesn’t help. He needs to watch and hear you say the proper words so that he can use them, too, eventually.
Another change around this time is mobility. Your baby is probably at least crawling if not experimenting with walking. If he is not totally on the go yet, he will be soon. Take this time to prepare your home for him–time to “baby-proof“! By their very nature babies get into everything. The more things in the home you can say yes to his exploring the better. Put the breakables away for a bit, put the cabinet locks on where you need them (access to a nice pots and pans drawer is always fun!), and don’t forget the toilet locks! Of course you’ll still need to be vigilant, but there will be more that is OK for him to do, and what isn’t OK, try to make inaccessible to him.
As far as eating, your baby is likely enjoying feeding himself now. He may even be ready for a try at using a sippy cup. Not all babies enjoy them, or some aren’t ready for them yet at this age, but you can always offer.
The first year of life is a very special time, as are all the other ages and stages to come. Relax and enjoy them with your baby.