by Anthony Romanelli

Within the last two weeks, our daughter, 8 months old, has decided to double as a boxer who enjoys the idea of beating herself up. Not exactly, but it is sure seeming that way...

Our crib has three settings. The first setting is for the newborn-the mattress is closest to the top of the crib...this way, we old fogies don't have to bend all the way down to pick up baby precious. The second setting is for when baby precious turns a bit older, but not old enough to pull herself up, but she can if she wanted to. The final setting is all the way at the bottom of the crib, this way, baby precious can't pull herself out of the crib...her arms may barely be above the top of the crib.

Well, this past weekend we have learned that Baby J is stronger and more willing than we give her credit for...On FRIDAY (Round One): Baby J is taking her nap with the crib on the middle setting, and while both my wife and I are in separate parts of the upstairs where the bedrooms are, we both separately hear a "THUD." We both shot up and ended up meeting in the middle of the hallway, curious and worried at the same time. We open the door and Baby J is OUTSIDE the crib, howling on the floor. "Oh, my God," we both spout off in amazement. I pick her up and just hold her while she wails. Moments later Baby J reaches out toward mommy, who also helps calm her down. We immediately move the mattress down to the lower level.

Score: Floor: 1
Baby J: 0

On SATURDAY (Round Two): Baby J is taking her afternoon nap with the mattress in the absolute lowest point in the crib...no way she can beat herself up, right? Um, there IS a reason I'm writing this, right? Well, she eventually wakes up because I hear her chatting herself up. (At some point, just sit outside your child's room and just listen to them babble, it's ridiculously adorable. Anyway, I continue to let her babble away and I leave with a tiny "My kids are so cute," kind of grin.

Five minutes later, my wife goes in and gets Baby J from her nap and yells to me, "Honey, come here." I walk in and see blood on her mattress and blood all over my little girl's face.

"What the hell?" I say. I look closer and with a pretty good guess I gather that Baby J IS strong enough to pull herself up, but NOT strong enough to KEEP herself up for any period of time-she probably pulled herself up and fell face first into the corner of the crib-which is solid oak, by the way. The cool part of this, if there is one...Baby J NEVER CRIED...she just took a beating from a crib and completely sloughed it off as if it was nothing.

Score: Crib: 0

Baby J: 1

Just give Baby J a pair of boxing gloves and a mouthpiece...for the briefest of moments she made me think, "My kid is tougher than your kid."