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So NOT babyproofed.
As Joshua's mobility increased a few weeks ago, it quickly became apparent that he was not always going to remain in his safe little play area in the living room. He started venturing out into the main hall and curiously eyeing the staircase. He even has bravely wandered into the kids toy room.
We timed him, and found that we could safely leave him alone in the living room for about 30 seconds before he could make his way to the stairs. And the stairs aren't the only danger. Basically, the living room (now his toy room) is the ONLY baby-proofed room in the house. "Oh my heck!" you may exclaim. "A pediatrician whose entire house isn't babyproofed? I confess. I think babyproofing is a "first baby" thing. It was for us, anyway. Back then, we lived in a small one-bedroom apartment, and our first-born was our whole life. So of course, we were 100% babyproofed. Not so with our third. Big house, more kids, lots of Legos and other chokable toys spread throughout the house. So the best we can do now is keep one room perfectly safe, and only let him play in that room. Whenever we are hanging out in another room, it's the exersaucer, babyseat, or our arms for him. High need phase.
The little man has entered a new phase. It's a mixture of separation anxiety and clinginess. He will protest whenever we leave the room. I don't know why I'm surprised by this. It's not like I've told a million mom's that this is normal for this age. I guess whenever something happens to ME, it always takes me by surprise.
Gone are the days when we could leave him to play happily on his own while we do whatever we want around the house. Now, one of us has to stay in his toy room/living room with him. We've started getting creative. We'll get him playing on his own, then we'll climb over the couch and sneak away, without him realizing it. It's kind of fun. Of course, he is too smart for us, and we'll hear his protesting usually within a minute or less. Life behind bars.
Ok. So obviously Joshua is not going to happily stay in his toy room to play. And we are obviously not going to sit there for 24 hours a day to make sure he doesn't crawl away an run amuck throughout our "unbabyproofed" house.
Our solution? Put him in jail. Of course, it's not REALLY jail, and you can tell by his smiles that he thinks his new bars are a blast. This helpful boundary keeps him safely secured in his toy room to play. I'm sure it won't take him long to figure out he is really stuck, and he won't be smiling so much when that happens.
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