During the first few months of his life, Little Man's room was really just a placeholder where we occasionally changed his diaper. It was all set up when we brought him home: crib made up with cute Pooh Bear sheets, basket full of soft stuffed animals, books lined up neatly on the bookshelf that my Dad made for me when I was little. As he grew, we began to spend more and more time in his room, and the pretty little nursery I put together while he was still on the inside was becoming less and less practical for our growing boy.
Now that he is crawling at full speed and pulling up on everything that will hold still long enough, his room needed to be re-vamped in a bad way. Does he want to sit quietly and read books or cuddle the stuffed animals? Nope. He wants to pull all the books off the shelf then zoom towards the bulletin board full of pictures of his family, previously safe sitting propped up against a wall. When I redirect him away from the tiny thumbtacks of doom, he goes directly for the windowsill where he attempts to climb up the wall using only the pull string for the blinds, then darts on his chubby hands and knees to the double bed, where he slides himself underneath to pull out the who-knows-what I've been shoving there to get out of the way.
And so the baby-proofing begins. Since we spend most of our time in the living room and his bedroom, I have been focusing on those rooms first. When it comes to his bedroom, I really wanted it to be the safest and most baby-friendly room in the house. I wanted him to have a place that he could be free to explore without me having to follow him around saying no and re-directed him to something else.
A very good idea in theory, yes. Practically speaking, there is no way I can make the room 100% safe for Little Man. He is a master at finding the one thing in the area that he shouldn't be playing with, then zoning in on it with a focus that an 8-month-old should not be allowed to have. But since it will be awhile until he's allowed to roam free in any room, I rolled up my sleeves to make his room as baby-proof as possible.
First things first: the bulletin board and those tantalizing thumbtacks went up on the wall. All the lamps and his monitor got rearranged so the cords would be hidden behind furniture. The window that he loves stand up against and gaze out of got surrounded by some of those stuffed animals so that when the inevitable tumble occurs he has something soft to land on. Baby books found a place on the bottom shelf of his bookshelf (the only shelf he can reach...at the moment) for him to pull out to his heart's content. Diaper supplies that had a home on the bottom level of his changing table got replaced with toys. Now, for the most part, he is able to climb and pull and explore all he wants in his very own room.
The only thing that has me stumped is the door to his room. It won't stay open by itself, and Little Man's current favorite thing is to remove the doorstop and play with the door. We haven't had any smushed fingers yet, but if anyone has a suggestion of how to keep the door open and secure, I'd love to hear it.
Next up for baby-proofing: the living room.
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