Poling Family Adventures: "Baby Proofing" and other thoughts from this week

So Dave and I kept talking about how we need to baby proof the upstairs of our house so that Grayson can crawl around and have a good time and I don't always have to be saying "no" and pulling him away from things... which in the end just gives us a frustrated, crying baby. The thing that really kicked us into gear was that Grayson finally figured out how to open the kitchen drawers. Below is a picture of him looking quite proud of himself after opening his first drawer which happened to contain none other than the baby proofing items I had bought.

We have spent the last couple of nights moving things around and putting protective covers on outlets and locks on all the drawers and cabinets. This turned out to be quite a project since we don't have the best cabinets in the world and not all the drawers are the correct size to allow for the locks to be installed. Dave had to make some adjustments (ie he cut chunks out of the back of the drawers) in order to put latches on all of them. This morning though everything was done and I was excited to let Grayson crawl around without me having to yell at him.

Everything was going quite nicely until he crawled down the hallway. We have a flashlight in the outlet and Grayson figured out how to remove it in about 20 seconds. And then decided the best part to put in his mouth would be the plug... so that had to be relocated. Then while I wasn't looking, of course, he figured out how to pull himself up on the fireplace bench... There is absolutely nothing wrong with this except that Dave had left a lighter out the night before and I snatched it away just before it went in the mouth. He then cruised his way to the other end of the fireplace where he managed to get a CD in his mouth before I knew what had happened. Apparently I'm not so great at baby proofing... and also... this little guy is going to be trouble! :)

In other, unrelated news, I have recently been clothes shopping for Grayson. Up until this point we have been extremely lucky in the clothing department and I've only ever had to buy him the occasional pajamas or sweatshirt, however he just went through a major growth spurt and needed the next size up in clothes. So for the first time... I got to go shopping! It was so much fun to pick out outfits and clothes and while I still need a few more things to complete his fall/winter wardrobe... I'm almost there. The problem is he needs a winter coat. And every nice, actually has a chance to keep him warm coat is between $45 and $60!!! I feel like that is a lot of money for a coat that may not even fit him all winter! So I'm holding off as long as I can to see if they start to go on sale or in case he grows a bunch again... but soon I may just have to suck it up and buy him a coat.

Finally Grayson has two new favorite activities, besides showing me how crappy I am at baby proofing the house. One is to blow raspberries into the air when I feed him foods he decides he doesn't want to eat that day... it case you don't know how this turns out... there is food everywhere including all over me. And when I say "no Grayson, that is not what we do with food"... he smiles at me with his lips still closed so that any remaining food in his mouth oozes out of his smile. It is more fun than you could possibly imagine.

His second favorite activity, now that he's realized he can get himself where he wants to be, is to chase the dog or cats around the room. Though he gets the biggest kick out of chasing the dog, I think because the dog is so big. But Boomer is pretty much scared of the small child moving towards him so he jumps up and moves away every time Grayson gets close. Which Grayson and I both think is pretty funny. I think Boomer is so scared because Grayson is always grabbing at his eyes and nose and he knows he's not allowed to do anything about it. But the other day Grayson got close... and it turns out all he wants now is to play with the tags on Boomer's collar. Boomer was not happy that I made him lay still for these pictures but now that he knows what Grayson wants he doesn't jump up and run away so quickly anymore.