Baby-proofing

We're baby-proofing!

Some parts were easy, especially because we remembered doing them for the first child. Actually, we never got around to removing the safety latches from the dangerous drawers and cabinets! But we lowered Laurel's crib mattress right before Christmas, the first time we noticed she was capable of pulling herself up on the rail. (She doesn't do it often, but she has done it.) We put up the baby gates in two key doorways, at this point mostly to prevent Laurel from scooting out of the family room to examine the diaper pail. Luckily Isaac can operate both gates, or their inconvenience would outweigh their safety value.

But now with the second child we have the possessions of the first child to baby-proof. Isaac used to have his array of art and office supplies stored on a low bookshelf in the family room, but this week I had to move them to my bedroom. Now he has a "studio" next to my easel, which is also in my bedroom. This isn't as convenient for his spontaneous creative work, but maybe it means he can keep himself occupied while I paint.

Isaac's toys have also been baby-proofed. Some toys, like the marble run, have been banished to his room. For small toys that are stored in the living room, I had previously bought latching bins at the Container Store, and Isaac has been indoctrinated into returning the items to these bins. But he has a number of large, delicate, and expensive toy vehicles, which we used to store at ground level. So Craig just built another row of bookshelves in our living room, and now Isaac has several toy storage shelves that are completely unreachable by Laurel -- until she learns to climb on a chair, but hopefully that will be in the distant future!

Actually, Isaac himself seldom tried to stand on a chair to reach a forbidden item; now that I think back, perhaps he never did. He wasn't much of an adventurer. We baby-proofed the house for him, of course, but we didn't strip the place bare. We left many of our possessions, including our books and records, on low shelves where he could reach them, and he mostly left them alone. I mean, he wasn't some sort of preternaturally obedient baby, and in the course of investigation he did some damage, but he never wrecked anything completely and he never hurt himself. He was curious, but easy-going and fundamentally cautious. Kind of like now!

What about Laurel? Is she going to need a lot of baby-proofing? It's hard to say. We might find out soon, though, because her mobility is increasing! She has pulled up several times completely by herself, once on the living room couch and once on the family room coffee table. Once she is standing (or leaning!) she still needs someone to help her, though, because she has terrible balance and can't remember to keep holding on. She has figured out how to move from her belly to a sitting position, which is a relief -- she no longer fusses to be rescued. And she is finally beginning to legitimately crawl! Well, she at least gets her knees beneath her, with her back parallel to the floor, although she has only made a tentative shuffle or two. Mostly she still gets around by scooting or creeping on her bottom.

My biggest baby-proofing challenge right now is dust jackets. They are one of Laurel's favorite things. She likes to sit by the bookcase in the kitchen and rip off tiny pieces of the brittle dust jackets on the vintage cookbooks. Then she eats them. If she hears me call out to her while she is doing this, she gives a guilty start, laughs, and stuffs the paper in her mouth even more quickly.

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It was just two months ago that the pediatrician was concerned about Laurel's near-total lack of mobility. It was just one month ago that she could only shove herself backward on her belly when she tried to crawl. When you're not even a year old, a month is a long time! That's one of the remarkable things about living with small children -- the passage of time is so slow for them, and sometimes they manage to share that perspective.