9 Month Old - Orwigsburg,PA

Around when my son was 9mos, he was sitting well by himself (he no longer toppled over) and we added a new theme to each day. For example, Thursdays were pots & pans day, so we got out all the pots/pans/spoons/spatulas and did various things (banging, bubbles, pretending to stir & eat, putting toys under one and trying to find it, etc). Its definitely all about playing/singing/interacting, as the others have said.

For food, I loved the Baby Blender book - at the time, it got much better reviews than other homemade baby food books, and I loooooved the recipes/ideas in it (she had a quinoa casserole type thing that was a big hit and something that I wouldn't have thought of at the time).

Good luck!

Read a lot of books to him. Talk about the pictures and count everything. Just the interaction and the closeness will be good for you both. I have an 8 1/2 month old and I'm just giving him cereal for now because he's mostly breastfed, but my oldest was 9 months old when he weaned himself and he was allergic to milk so I just pureed up regular food for him to eat. I'm not sure if that was the best thing but he's 17 now and as healthy as a horse. He was a healthy kid too so it must not have been too early. =) Good luck!!

Well I have an 11 month old and I sing to him a lot and play with him. His older brother does most of the entertaining :D My baby is very happy and playful and I think that is all that counts at a young age. Something fun you can do is to put an object in front of him and then tuck it under a blanket or pillow or something and see if he tries to get it. That is a fun and challenging game at that age. You can also sit him in your lap and read to him from a picture book and point to things. I have this big book of words and my baby likes it. I read a ton to my first and he is smart as a whip. With two, I find it harder to find time to sit down with a book! Mainly I think singing and talking to and enjoying your baby is your best mode of teaching at his age :D

The only 'teaching' type things I work on with my 8 month old DD are pretty much just basic games... I work on her 'language' by singing songs to her, but instead of singing the words I will sing in sounds... so the whole song is just 'la la la' , 'so so so', 'boo boo boo' or something like that, and I make sure she can see inside my mouth to see how I am making the sounds. Other than that, she gets read to at bedtime... For the most part I figure that right now she is just trying to figure out her body, and as long as I encourage her 'natural' behavior she will learn all she needs. As far as food goes, I have been introducing my DD to small finger foods. You can give her puffs or other store-bought stuff, but cut up fruits and veggies are good too. :)

We read to my 10 month old every night, and we do baby sign language with him - just the basics: milk, more, all done. We started doing the signs a few months ago, and he's just starting to catch on, so 9 months would be a great time to start. I just do it as part of the daily routine. Otherwise, getting down on the floor and playing with him - stacking blocks for him to knock down for example - is the best way for him to learn about the world.

As for foods, if he likes to eat solids, you can start finger foods. Our son eats a little bit of whatever we are having for dinner. He likes small pieces of green beans, chicken, bread, noodles, rice, etc. I've almost skipped baby food with him entirely. He gets 1 jar at daycare, but at home he gets what we're eating.

9 month old's don't need a lot of learning to occur. They really just need interaction. Read books to him, sing to him, sit on the floor and do a stacking type of toy. Until kids reach preschool or kindergarten age, play is the way they learn. Of course you can work in letters and numbers in there in a fun way, but he's still very young. Just give him a lot of loving and attention and he will be just fine.

As for food, my kids started doing soft finger foods around 9 or 10 months. Gerber puffs are good to start with while they learn to manipulate small objects. Then you can move onto other small foods. I'm pretty sure my son was completely off baby food before he turned one and was eating everything we did, just on a smaller scale. Good luck!