My Baby is a....

Vampire. Yes, yes she is. When she was five months old, she bit Nate's finger and drew blood. She has been aspiring to draw blood again. Isabella and I are her victims of choice. Apparently we are the softest targets. And she shows a preference for shoulders and cheeks. Thankfully she doesn't bite while she's eating, I assure you that would have not only put an end to breastfeeding, but produced a scream heard round the world. No, she bites while pretending to give kisses. Or when she snuggles up against your shoulder. She's soft, smiley, lovey, then...chomp. And she has jaws of iron that must be pried off, then she gets offended about being detached from her victim.

My main solace is she isn't really biting anywhere that would allow any of us to bleed to death. Her vampire skills aren't developed well enough to cause irreversible damage. She is working on it though. In the meantime, we are trying to provide alternatives for her to gnaw on. Wooden blocks, dolls, blankets, fruit, sippy cups, books, lip gloss tubes. She likes all of those things for a minute, but none satiate her need for long. She will throw her substitute aside, get a small gleam in her eye and lunge.......

It's good that she has so many other redeeming qualities.