6.27.2005

child proofing - stage 3

I remember buying those little cabinet locks when my now 24 year old was a baby. That was the extent of my baby-proofing. Well, that and the rug that covered the fireplace hearth which had already caused a couple of stitches. That approach was sufficient for my first three kids.
This fourth one is crafty. ...and curious. She's been out of her crib now for well over a year because she'd climb out. Or maybe she'd jump out - we've seen her jump off the kitchen counter. We just know we'd hear a THUD and she'd come barrelling into our room sometime between midnight and 2. The crib got dismantled pretty quickly. She still comes into the room, but sometimes now, she sneaks instead of barrells. When this happens, she usually scares the bejeezus out of me. I prefer barrelling.

I've been suspicious that she's figured out the cabinet locks for a week or so. I've found little travel bottles of lotion in strange places. Yesterday afternoon, there was a peculiar smell from her - a pleasant one - but peculiar. I looked at all the available lotion containers - not it. Found the sunblock (she LOVES sunblock) - not it. I found some very nice smelling polish remover a while ago. She found it too - and put it ALL over. Then she tried to fix it by washing herself in the kitchen sink with dishwashing soap. It took about 5 rinsings to get that off. After that, she found a nice black marker behind locked doors, and now she needs another shower.

At three, she's not old enough for me to trust taking the damn locks off, but how to keep her out? Looking for good ideas!

In the meantime, if you want some of the more dangerous or permanently messy things in my house, you'll have to look WAY up. And it has to be a way up that is inaccessible by countertop of any kind. She's even gotten really good at using my step stool to reach. Which of course, I will need to use more and more now because I am still a shrimp.

My only idea so far is to buy a bunch of plastic spiders and put them in the cabinets I want to keep her out of. She has this incredible ability to see a spider at almost any distance. That might work.

1 comment:

kyknoord said...

We've adopted the 'child proofing by attrition' approach. If the Engine of Destruction breaks or ingests it, we don't replace it. I like the rubber spider idea, though. Quite fiendish. I hope you have video camera handy.