Baby This Week: 39 Weeks Old

A baby who has discovered cruising will "walk" around a room while supporting herself with furniture and other surfaces. To encourage walking, hold your baby's hands when she's standing facing you and see whether she can step toward you. Some 9-month-olds are ready to practice walking with a stable push toy. One prop not to use is a walker, as they are associated with serious injuries and can impede normal development, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

By this week, your baby will start to remember more specific information, such as where her toys are in your house. 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. Long-lasting conscious memory of specific events won't develop until your baby's second or third year, when real language emerges.

Your baby can now put objects in a container and remove them. Give her a plastic bucket and some colorful blocks so she can practice this new skill. (Make sure they're not so small that she can swallow them.) She also likes toys with moving parts, such as knobs, levers, or doors that open and close. Big plastic cars that your baby can wheel around on the floor are fun playthings, too.

If you take a toy away from her, your increasingly assertive baby is likely to object. She's really starting to be able to make her needs and wants known. Some sound advice: Give her something new before you take the other object away.

About half of babies this age will initiate passing games — giving away objects and then taking them back. Be her playmate. Try rolling a ball to your baby and see whether she rolls it back to you. Give her a sorting toy or stacking rings and see if she sorts or stacks or hands the pieces to you. She'll also like to share her food, so accept these "gifts" graciously.

- BabyCenter.com