Baby Developmental Milestones Cruising & Standing
This post contains affiliated links. Please read my disclosure page.
I would say between 6 – 8 Months was the easiest time. Once my baby was able to sit up at 6 months, I didn’t have to hold her and walk around the house most of the day. She was happy to sit up and play with variety of toys. She would get bored of a toy easily so I just had to show her different toys she can play with. Showing her different toys sometimes was challenging because I ran out of toys that I can give to her. Her 6 month toys were no longer appealing to her at her 9 months, so I had to go shopping for 9 month toys. Then when 1 year came, she was bored of her 9 month toys. However, she also liked many non-toy objects such as keys, magazines, remote controls, paper cups, paper towels, water bottles, wallets with cards, etc. This stage was a time for exploring, touching, feeling, looking, smelling, listening, tasting and communicating.
It’s amazing to witness her moving on to the next baby developmental milestone. It’s amazing how she figures out, try a little and one day she just sat up on her own, crawled, pulled herself up and stood, stood without any support and walked! However, once she crawled, she didn’t want to stay in one spot, she moved around all the time. Also, at every milestone, her area of exploration became bigger. Once she crawled, she didn’t want to stay on the play mat, she wanted to go to the different room and explore! If you don’t have a fence around the play mat, it would be a lot of exercise for you to place baby back to the mat when she wanders off. Once she could pull herself up and stand, she fell a lot so I had to have my eyes on her at all times. Thank god I had a thick play mat to protect her head from the hardwood floor! She became so much more active as the time went by, even changing a diaper became challenging. She wouldn’t stay still, just wanted to get up and go.
Hearing her first word was the most amazing thing. Your baby will babble a lot every day but one day you will hear her say a word very clearly. When I heard it, it just melted my heart. I also taught her some baby signs. It was the cutest thing when I saw her communicating to me with baby signs. The more times went by, I felt more connected with my baby because it seemed she understood somethings I said to her and she was trying to communicate certain things to me. She pointed, requested, denied, communicated things to me. She would nod, shake her head, wave, do high fives and give things to me. How cute! Everyday, we were learning each other. It’s amazing when baby understands you and communicate with you.
Also, she became more independent between 7 to 12 months. She played with toys and explored the area on her own. As times went by, she got better in chewing food and ate chunkier food. Later, she also ate food on her own by picking up food with her fingers from the table. It got real messy sometimes while she is eating on her own but it was also fun to watch her. She really seemed to enjoy picking up food and eat it on her own. In addition, she has developed the preferences of food she likes and voiced her opinions whether she likes the food or not. She also really enjoyed drinking water out of a straw cup on her own. The more she got independent, the easier things got for me. It was nice to have her eat noodles on her own sitting in the high chair and I got to eat at the same time with some peace.
Then one day, she took a first step! That was amazing. It is so awesome to witness her progress unexpectedly. Out of no where, she just took a few steps. You look back when your baby was born and you are just amazed see how much she grew. Also you see older babies, think to yourself your baby will also do that one day and you become so excited. However, baby keeps on crawling for a while so you forget that you are waiting for her to take a first step. Then all of sudden, it happens! As your baby walk, you will realize your baby is not a baby any more but became a toddler.
