Mom Hack:

Life as a new mom can get a little hazy. A great way to remember the little things is to create an email account. Use this as an internet diary and send her/him love letters or notes; that way, the two of you can look back at all their achievements and milestones together.

What should your 9-month-old baby be doing?

The real answer is, it depends. It is important to remember that every baby is different. Your baby will do things at their own pace, and that is completely ok! Some babies crawl at 5-months, and others, like mine, didn’t start to crawl until last week (the 9-month mark).

Watching my little one, Adeline grow, is the most incredible experience, and now that she is 9-months, a lot is happening all at once. Yes, each month brings something new, but this past month has been a game-changer.

I am sharing some of her real-life baby milestones that you can look forward to with your baby through my love letter to her.

Dear Adeline,

This month has been amazing! You are so curious, and now you can move, touch, and act on that curiosity. You are ridiculously cute, and it’s all going too fast (eye-roll, I know that ALL moms say this, but it’s true). Each week I think to myself, wow, this is the cutest stage in your life, and then next week comes, and it just gets better and better (eye-roll again, I know that all moms say this, but it’s true).

You are so proud of yourself, and I am so proud too. You have done so much in such a short time, and this month has been huge for your development.

Now, you are aware of your body and what you can do. You connect the dots and know when you have achieved your goal, and your face just lights up. When you started to pull yourself up into a standing position, you were ecstatic, smiling away and beaming with pride each time you did. You would look around to anyone who was in the room as if to say “omg, did you see what I just did? Did you see it? Are you looking?!,” and then do it again, and again, and again.

It seems that overnight you have changed from newborn; to Infant; to a little human, and you have hit many of the developmental milestones for you age, but here are the ones that make my top-ten list:

1. You roll over! Getting you to stay still is now a challenge, especially when I am changing your diaper. I have to make sure I am distracting you or holding on tight because you are so quick and on the move, especially if something on your periphery catches your eye.

2. You bite! You have been teething for a while, but now you have your first two teeth, and they are sharp! You chew on anything you can get your hands on, and now you leave teeth marks. Some of your favorite things to gnaw on are your board books, baby blocks, and anything you are not supposed to have.

3. You are eating real-grownup food. You are eating more than just puree and loving it. We have started Baby Led Weaning and feeding you solid grown-up foods like spaghetti, peaches, sweet potato sticks, and avocado toast. Of course, we are still careful to watch you when you are eating, but you have adjusted well to gnawing away on these new foods (for more information on BLW, check out some great blog posts below).

4. You pinch!! You are so dexterous right now and can pick things up with your thumb and pincer finger and have pinched my nose, cheek, and even my nipples. You are skilled at picking up food like cheerios and small pieces of fruit. If I think it is out of your reach, you usually find a way to get it. I have found that if things seem childproof, they may not be. The other day, you grabbed an empty bottle and managed to take the lid off (this was a major scare, and another lesson learned about how careful we have to be and why we have to childproof everything).

5. You share! This is one of my absolute fave things that you do right now. You offer to feed me or share with others what you are chewing on. I even caught you the other day trying to feed your little doll a pacifier. My heart melted #sharingiscaring (although, not in the middle of a pandemic).

6. You are aware that certain things are off-limits, and you go straight for them. This includes my cellphone, keys, earphones, and my fingers. The funny thing is, you try to be sneaky about grabbing them and look up to see if I am watching before shoving them in your mouth (as if I wouldn’t notice).

7. You are hyperfocused on life’s little details. You love to run your fingers over the carpet and will examine any speck or change in texture. You explore taste and touch even more now, like how avocado feels when you smush it between your fingers.

8. You babble and chat more than before. Your noises are hilarious; one minute, you sound like an opera singer, and the next minute, you are blowing strawberry kisses and bubbles. Momma and mum-mum are more common in your vocab (and da-da has fallen by the wayside, hahaha poor daddy).

9. You love to dance! Anytime we put on music, you start grooving; you sway back and forth, or rock like you are riding a horse. You also dance to show when you are excited about someone or something. Certain noises, like clapping, make you groove and other strange beats as well (oddly enough you like the blender, which is weird, and I’m happy it doesn’t scare you).

10. You are crawling! It’s official, you are mobile, and there is no slowing you down now. It’s a major deal, and it is one of the most significant milestones in your baby-life (crawling, walking, and talking are the main trifecta, and what most family and friends always ask about). I loved that you had to mentally and physically work through how to crawl. I can tell that you are focused on the mechanics of it all. A few days ago, you could only move backward. You looked like one of those cute little chameleons slowly rocking back and forth on your hands and knees trying to propel yourself forward, but whomp-whomp, you would just end up pushing yourself backward. Since many babies crawl before the 9-month mark, I was a little nervous that it wouldn’t happen. We didn’t do a lot of tummy time, and everybody, who’s anybody in the mom world, knows that tummy time leads to babies crawling, but you hated it. You wouldn’t do more than 3-5 minutes at a time, and I worried about that. Now, it feels like everything you are doing just clicked, and I learned to stop being too concerned about when you would do something and just enjoy the moments.

Adeline, you make my heart melt and I am so curious about what the next months will bring.

Love you tons,

Mum

To learn more about developmental milestones and activities to promote learning, check out the following links.

https://www.easybabylife.com/8-month-old.html

https://www.verywellfamily.com/your-9-month-old-baby-development-and-milestones-4172786

https://bringingbackthehousewife.com/9-month-baby-milestones/

Stay tuned for the next Love Letter to my Baby and let me know some of your babies milestones that made your heart melt?