You asked and you shall now receive. It’s only fair for us to share all of this stored up knowledge about a baby and what happens once the baby is born until they are no longer called a baby but a toddler! We now will answer, in a very public forum, all of those burning questions about babies and those first 12 months. Each Tuesday, we will tackle a commonly-asked-question from the point of view of a new parent. Chiming in to give her feedback will be three women who have been there and done that: an expert (you know someone who does this for a living), a mom from our community (for the “best” friend advice you need) and a babybites’ team member (someone who will promise to give you the REAL deal and no fluff). Earmark, share and add your own input to today’s question; it’s good karma.
What are some great activities to do with my 6 – 9 mo old?
Expert: Dr. Gina Lamb – Amato
Your baby is starting to sit and may be getting ready to crawl and also is filed with wonderment with the world around her. Some of the many games and activities that celebrate these developmental milestones are the multiple variations on Peek-a-boo where you can hide behind a door and let your baby push the door open to see you, hide behind different hats hiding your eyes then letting your baby see that its you to name a few. Another thing you can do is creating an obstacle course with pillow, phone books, cushions, etc for your baby to navigate through either with your help or on her own. Another activity is “Climb every mountain” where you create a “mountain” of cushions and pillows for your baby to climb. Reading is important for infants of any age but at this age babies love sensory and tactile books, which they touch and feel as you read the story. Babies this age love looking in the mirror and love when you make faces that they can imitate. Babies this age should be doing Tummy Time where they play with toys on their tummy with toys appropriate for their age such as rattles and musical toys. Water play is also another wonderful activity to do with babies at this age. Finally babies love when you sing to them!
Mom: Katie Blanchet
Play dates! Through the support groups I’ve attended with babybites, I have met so many wonderful people. Play dates are a great way for your child to visit with other kids and for you to socialize with moms you can relate with.
Baby Rock and Sign at Moonsoup. My son and I have enjoyed attending a weekly music class at Moonsoup (http://moonsoup.net/ ). Baby Rock and Sign has given him the opportunity to interact with other kids, listen to music, play with instruments and become familiar with sign language. The action-packed class lasts 45 minutes and by the end of it, he is exhausted and ready for a nap!
Story time book reading at FAO Schwartz. FAO Schwartz hosts daily book readings on the second floor. The animated reader at Barefoot Books captures the kids attention and reads age appropriate stories.
babybites’ team: Elise Jones
This is absolutely my favorite baby age ever! At this age, babies are in such a dynamic time with learning how to sit up and becoming more interactive and maybe even starting to crawl. I started taking my daughters to classes right about this time: Gymboree, Music Together and story time at my local library. To see the wonder and amazement when the teacher sang, played instruments, blew bubbles and pulled out the parachute was awesome. I also was involved with a weekly playgroup that had formed out of the first new mom luncheons I attended when my baby was six weeks old! Having the babies “play” with each other AND getting in some quality mom time was so fun! I think the most important thing to remember about this time is to just have fun and start to talk to your baby about the world around them and think of fun ways to have them interact and develop their new skills too.
About our team
Dr. Gina Lamb – Amato MD
Gina is a general pediatrician and developmental pediatrician who works at Village Pediatrics and Agho Medical practices both in Manhattan, NY. She has a masters in child therapy and works with a child psychologist Rosa Vasquez PhD performing office and home consultation for newborns and parents, office and home developmental assessments, school consultations and parent child playgroups where play and art along with baby massage and other techniques are used to help parents bond and support their child’s development. Formerly, Gina was the Director of Pediatric Special Medical Needs before she went into private practice where she cared for medically fragile infants and children. She is also a Early Intervention Pediatrician for Early Intervention which assesses and treats infants from age zero to 3 years. She has extensive experience in Early Head Start programs which work with infants from prenatal to 3 years of age. She is the mother of a beautiful daughter who is 3 years old and the joy of my life. Her husband is an artist, producer and owns Synchronicity Space, a non-profit arts organization that supports emerging artist in fine art and theatre. Finally, she is also an artist who paints mainly babies and children.
Katie Blanchet
Katie is a stay-at-home mom with one child who is 8 months old.
Elise Jones
Elise is the social media director and blog editor for babybites. She is responsible for engaging and investigating a variety of parenting topics found on babybites’ social media channels: parenting videos (webbybites), blog, Facebook, Twitter, and BlogTalkRadio show. The babybites’ blog is an outlet for moms who are in search of information to support them in their role as a parent. Prior to working with babybites, Elise was a teacher and worked in corporate PR. She is a wife and loving mom of two lovely girls and currently resides in New Jersey. In her spare time (HA!) she performs in the theater and is an active member of her local public arts council as well as blogs at Here in This House.
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Like what you see? Here are our past Ask & You Shall Receive Baby columns:
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