What's new: Mallory edition

Before she was born, I worried that Mallory would be our firecracker child. Although she's been a wonderful, calm and complacent baby thus far... I can't quite shake the feeling that the honeymoon may be over.

The best development with Mallory over the past week or two is that she is now a settled night sleeper (or at least, she's on her way to being one.) Most nights she is in bed by 7:30 and is up once for a feeding around 3 or 4 a.m. before bunking down again til morning. This is so heavenly, I can't even tell you. I don't know how long she'll go with that night feeding but as long as it's not six night feedings anymore... I'm happy.

She has 8 teeth now, having got the top two front teeth within 24 hours of each other last week. She eats almost everything as far as cereals, fruits and vegetables go, as well as chicken and beef, and yesterday I gave her some cheese for the first time. I think this is a little earlier than Liam started dairy, but she loves it; and I'm looking for finger food ideas, and this fits the bill. I also think back to Liam's little friend, KFC Baby, who was eating fast food gravy at 2 months old; surely this can't be any worse, right? I may try yogurt next, but still plan to hold her off straight milk until 9 months or so.

Craziest of all, she is pulling up on everything and keeping us on our toes. She even lets go momentarily now; I think she'll be walking by the end of the year for sure. This is becoming a problem when, for instance, I'm in the shower. If I let her play with toys on the floor in her room (which is what I normally do - I can see her when I stick my head out) she's liable to pull up on something and possibly take a header. If I put her in her crib, Liam climbs in to be with her, and his method of climbing in finishes off with a drop over the rail that is likely to hurt her if she's in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't want her playing in the bathroom with me because the floor is ceramic tile and she'll hurt herself if she falls in there. The exersaucer is already packed away; she hates being confined...

She has also learned how to take CDs out of the CD player in her room, which is under her change table only because that's the only place it will fit - it's too deep for the bookshelf.

And, the downside of the extended nighttime sleeping hours is that her daytime sleeps have been cut even shorter. Yesterday, she got up an hour before Liam did, went down for a nap 15 minutes after him, and woke up more than an hour before he did. And then she only went to bed 20 or so minutes earlier than him at night. I do wish she were more of a sleeper, but I guess she has too much to get done in a day. With any luck she will be a Martha Stewart type who only requires 4 hours of sleep per night as an adult and is able to build a business empire because of it.