Learning to Stand, The Unconventional Way

At nine months old parents can generally expect their little boys and girls to start attempting means of transportion other then crawling.

At this time you might help your 9 month old walk by holding onto his or her hands. You may also stand them up in front of furniture so they can develop leg muscles and the balance and coordination walking and standing requires. All of which Hubbs and I are practicing with our Monster on a regular basis.

However at this point I'm not at all sure Monster even wants our help. His crawling has evolved into a knee-hop if you will. Don't get me wrong, he can still crawl and TURBO crawl perfectly fine but it's almost as if he's trying to get up and run. Monsters new favorite thing is to get up on his knees or one knee, one foot and then to jump. He jumps and tries to get to his feet.

Of course it probably would be much easier for him to get to his feet if he were in front of a piece of furniture and pulling himself up with his hands as well. But who wants to do things the easier way when you can be an hopping individual like my Monster.


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How to Play with your Baby!

Finding new things to do with an almost seven month old can be tricky, which is why I'm glad I have a monthly subscription the Today's Parent magazine!

This months magazine had a great article called "How to Play with your Baby". The article finds fun in simplicity. Really, babies don't need hundreds of toys surrounding them, because a large wooden spoon from your kitchen drawer will be much more entertaining to them anyways.

A baby will learn just as much from play and parental interaction as they will from an expensive "learning" toy. A couple suggestions from the article are:

Splish Splash! Supervised messy play time with water! The article suggests spreading a plastic table cloth out on your floor and letting your baby play with various sponges, spoons, cups and water safe toys. It suggests a shallow pan that isn't easily tipped. Maybe not the best suggestion for clean freaks or the busy parent who don't have time to supervise.

Shake, Rattle and Roll! Fill empty clear plastic eater bottles with fun unusual items! Rice, buttons, jello, or soapy water! Just make sure the lids are tightly secured with packing tape to prevent crafty chewers!

Finally, the most fun especially before bath time! High (chair) Art! My suggestion would be to strip your little one down to their diap, feed them their supper and then let them play! Homemade finger paint, play dough, thick pudding or jello -- things that are safe to ingest if they put their fingers in their mouth.

Those are my favorite ideas, which Monster and I shall be trying soon! Click HERE for the whole Today's Parent article!


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