This is a great age to begin moving away from the bottle, before your baby begins to grow overly attached to it, as he or she might to a "lovey." Most doctors consider 9 to 12 months to be an ideal bottle-weaning window. The longer you wait, the harder it will be.
It's helpful to use sippy cups (plastic cups with spout tops) during the transition between the bottle and a "real" cup. In fact, you might stick to sippy cups throughout the preschool years because the top prevents spills. If the sippy cup is a little hard for your baby to get used to, consider a cup with a spout that's more like a bottle nipple.
Introduce the sippy cup by filling it with some water and letting your baby experiment. Or try filling it with some breast milk or formula and offering it instead of a bottle for one feeding each day. It's best to substitute a cup for bottle at times when your baby is alert and open to trying new things, rather than springing it on your baby at bedtime.
On the other hand, some parents swear by the cold-turkey approach – getting rid of all the bottles and going straight to a sippy cup. If your baby is healthy and developing on schedule, he or she may be able to make that switch with only a day or two's fuss. It's okay if your baby drinks less milk or formula during the transition, but talk to your baby's doctor if you're concerned.
New kinds of play
Around now your baby's play will probably start shifting from mastering fine motor skills (that thumb-and-forefinger grasp should be down pat) to exercising larger muscles. Some children this age have an attention span of two to five minutes for quiet activities – though your baby's favorite games may not be all that quiet.
Your baby probably thinks it's fun to push, throw, and knock everything down. He or she will give you a toy as well as take one, and likes games where items are put in containers and dumped out again. This works well with blocks in buckets or boxes and with pots and pans, which your baby can nest inside one another. The loud sounds of those pots and pans banging together are thrilling, too.