Development - 9th Month

Memories

This month, baby Zoey have a very strong memory power. She started to remember more specific information, such as where her toys are in her house, where mummy keep her boat and etc....When mummy hide her ball, she know exactly where mummy put it. She'll also be able to imitate actions she's seen as long as a week before. These skills indicate that she has recall memory — the ability to remember some details of a specific experience for a short time — though she still doesn't remember most of her experiences.

Playing & Learning

Zoey likes toys with moving parts. Rubber ball that can roll around on the floor are fun playthings, too. She will grab it firmly, when mummy ask for it, she will answer by shaking her head "No No". Mummy also tested her behavior by giving her a cherry, and asking back from her, she shake her head twice. Then, daddy tried, Zoey gave the same answer by shaking her head too. When she is full, she will also respond by shaking her head when mummy ask her to drink milk. Mummy and daddy puzzled where she learned it.


If we take a toy away from her, baby Zoey will scream for help. Now, we need to give her something new before taking the other object away. It is a nice time to play with Zoey at this age, as she will responded immediately. During free time, mummy will play the rolling the ball game with her and she will roll back the ball to mummy instantly. Or when daddy hide her toy, under his hand (grab it) she will open up daddy hand to see if the toy is beneath it. We also play the boucing ball game, and show her the action, Zoey able to do the same. It is all about fun and be her best playmate ......

Clapping hand

By 9th months, baby Zoey have the fine motor skills, muscle control, and hand-eye coordination necessary to bring her palms together. She start clapping to show she is happy or excited. Sometimes, she will clap her hand when she watch Barney and Disney channel. She also clap her hand when we ask her to clap. This is one of her way to communicate with us.

Water sport

At the first week of 9th month, it is a best time to let Zoey explore and play with water.

Kung kung bought a water pool for her, then we filled up the pool with water and placed 2 of her favourite toys - the plastic ball and her rubber duck. We let Zoey sit on the pool. She get excited and splashed the water all over the pool. She also grab the duck and bang it into the water. It is fun to see her play and getting active........

Mummy also bought a "Hello Kitty" floating boat for her. Whenever mummy show her the new boat, she will respond by smile back to mummy. At the first week of July, this is the first time, Zoey experienced the new enviroment - swimming pool. Firstly, daddy get into the baby pool and then we let Zoey to sit into her floating boat. She like it as she uses her hand to touch the water and also uses her leg to kicked the water. Daddy also cruised her around the pool. She enjoyed it very much.

This month is about playing and getting active !

Time to start setting limits

Baby Zoey now understands simple instructions, though she may purposely choose to ignore daddy when daddy say "no." (Sometimes, to help the word carry a little more weight, daddy use it sparingly, for setting important limits.) But even though Zoey may not always remember tomorrow what daddy have said today, but daddy feel it's not too soon to set certain boundaries and start teaching her some important distinctions, like right from wrong and safe from unsafe. Daddy're not being mean, but sometimes is for her healthy purposes, daddy do not like to see her bitting her finger, so if she bite or put the rubber ball into her mouth, we will move her hand, and look her in the eye, and say, "No, bite bite, its dirty." She will stop but after awhile her desire to explore is stronger than her desire to listen to our warnings, so we will repeat again. What seems to be defiance isn't; it's just her natural curiosity to see how the world works.

My baby is jealous....

PoPo told me that baby Zoey have developed jealousy in her character but mummy feel that it is too early for a nine month old baby too have this behavior.

In my experience, when I brought baby Zoey and PoPo for breakfast, and PoPo trying to carry her friend granddaughter. Zoey innocently looked at PoPo with her big eyes and pointed to the little girl and shouted and screamed at PoPo, as that time PoPo is trying to carry her friend granddaughter. She do not allowed PoPo to carry the little girl. However, PoPo trying to tease her by carrying the girl, eventually baby Zoey cry out. Mummy got a good laugh out of this as baby Zoey prentending to cry with no tear. Later, we tested with other baby and true enough Zoey is jealous and do not want her PoPo to carry other baby.

Kissing...mmmuuaaahhh

Baby Zoey can follow simple instructions now, when we say "kiss kiss", she able to understand what we're saying and immediately she will lay her head forward for us to kiss her.

Talking up a storm

Words and word-like sounds are now spilling out of baby Zoey, and she's able to use them meaningfully. As the frontal lobes of his brain continue to develop, so does her ability to reason and speak. Encourage her interest in language and her understanding of two-way communication by being an avid listener and responding to her sounds.

At this age, Zoey can imitate word sounds and inflections, as well as actions. She able to follow simple one-step directions, such as "Ta Ta to mummy" - she will lift up her hand and wave or "Pick up the pacifier." - she will pick it up from her coat. This to help her to learn by separating multi-step commands into easy-to-follow steps.

In addition to "Mama" and "Dada," Zoey is able to babble short, fully inflected sentences that sound like a foreign language. When we ask her to call out "Daddy", sometimes she say "DaDi". Kung Kung and PoPo, keep talking to Zoey everyday, naming and labeling objects and people — mummy noticed that Zoey's vocabulary is growing pretty fast. Now, she able to respond to simple questions — for example, "Where is the papaya?" or "Where is your book"— by pointing to the named object.