She walks upstairs, alone or in pairs...

We don't have any stairs. So last night, at Sweetie's staff party, when she had been carried around for just about as long as she could stand, I took her to the sunken living room. I figured there wasn't much there she could attack, and nobody else was down there. Plus, the only way out was two stairs, so she couldn't get out.

Wrong! Several baby-admirers joined us in that room, and as we watched her crawl around, someone said "Oh, she's going for the stairs." "That's okay," I foolishly replied, "I don't think she can navigate them." I think I had JUST gotten it out of my mouth when she got one leg up on the first stair. Then she got the other leg up, stood up, and flopped belly-first onto the second stair, then cruised proudly underfoot into the kitchen. I retrieved her, but that was clearly the new fun game. She climbed those stairs like she was trying to improve her personal best time. It just surprised me because she's never seen stairs before, so I assumed she wouldn't know what to do. But she's a stair-climbing champ!

We had a great night's sleep last night. I kind of cheated -- she fell asleep while eating, so I put her down asleep in the crib. The Sleep Lady says to put them down "drowsy but awake," but it was later than it should have been, so I just put her down asleep. She woke up at 12:30 and I fed her, then put her down. She wasn't sleeping, but I put her down, patted her, shushed her, and left. She cried for maybe five or ten minutes, then fell asleep again and slept until 8am!