Baby Milestones in 11-Month-Olds
Hanging out with your baby is a totally legit way to spend the afternoon. So relish it! (And skip feeling guilty that you're not teaching introductory phonics.) Just trust that while you're thumbing through your Reader's Digest (OK, Life & Style), she's achieving some very important baby milestones in stacking (or eating) those blocks.
What You're Thinking: "This is kinda like a coffee date with the girls ... only we haven't talked about shoes or periods once!"
Baby Milestones
- Now's a good time to take advantage of baby's copying skills and teach her to clean up. As you tidy up, have her go around helping you put things in the box, too. It might seem fruitless at the moment, but in a few years, you'll be glad you started now.
- Make cleanup fun by singing a cleanup song: "Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share. Clean up clean up everybody, everywhere."
- Let your baby see what you're reading, even when you're hunkered down with something more grown-up than Green Eggs and Ham. Share your newspaper or latest book club pick with her, then offer her one of her own books to "read" to you. You might be shocked to hear the babbling the Cat in the Hat is up to with your baby as the narrator!
- Some babies can stand up for a few seconds by now—and if not, don't worry, it's coming soon! Before you know it, she's going to get up and go—and you're going to get up and go chase her!
Mommy Milestones
- You have your baby eating three meals a day (not just fistfuls of cereal and mashed bananas every 90 minutes).
- You visit parenting message boards and talk about your online friends to your face-to-face friends all the time.
- You are a pro at eyeballing the number of ounces in a cup.
- You figured out how to give your baby a bath without knee pain or throwing your back out.
- You don't treat every baby trip and fall like a major accident (and you realized that if you don't freak out, sometimes she doesn't even cry).
- You easily hand off your baby to your in-laws when they arrive (no more hovering over their every move).
Home Front
You've heard the phrase "me time" a million times, but have you taken it seriously yet? It's no joke that "when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy," so we're all about keeping mama happy on a regular basis. Here are some more tips for finding "me" time (and maybe finding yourself again!), while you're busy finding time for everything else. Read more ...
Everything you ever wanted to know ... and were just about to ask ...
Do It:
Cereal-isly Fun
Turn a box of cereal into a serious developmental toy.
Buy It: T.U.F.F.O. Water Resistant Blanket
Keep your bums dry!
Cook It: Good-to-Go Applesauce
The name of this recipe says it all!
Discuss It: Chat with other new mamas and papas on our Baby Board.
BACK: Baby Development: Month 10 / NEXT: Baby Development: More Month 11
All babies grow and develop at different rates. So please don't compare your kid with so-and-so's baby from across the street—you'll just drive yourself nuts. If you have any concerns, bring them up with your pediatrician at your baby's next checkup.
report abuseTurn a box of cereal into a serious developmental toy.
Buy It: T.U.F.F.O. Water Resistant Blanket
Keep your bums dry!
Cook It: Good-to-Go Applesauce
The name of this recipe says it all!
Discuss It: Chat with other new mamas and papas on our Baby Board.
BACK: Baby Development: Month 10 / NEXT: Baby Development: More Month 11
All babies grow and develop at different rates. So please don't compare your kid with so-and-so's baby from across the street—you'll just drive yourself nuts. If you have any concerns, bring them up with your pediatrician at your baby's next checkup.
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