Sunday, August 23, 2009

Great Disgraces

1972 brought us the Watergate scandal, 1993 was the Whitewatergate controversy, and now we face an even bigger disdain in American history... Babygate. No, I'm not referring to the under-qualified moose-hunting former governor of Alaska's first (and I'm sure not last) scandal that she faced.

When referring to Babygate, I'm talking about Kensington's playroom which has now been barred off from the kitchen and the living room (thanks to Chris, Kyle, a screw gun and some random drill bits that took way to long to find). With the look of total disgust on her face, I'm sure Kensi feels like us childproofing her room was turning her space into a prison-like setting that completely inhibits her ability to explore and develop. On the contrary, childproofing her playroom should balance the many factors as daddies that we face: safety, aesthetics, supervision level, and livability.

Of course the hazards our little chickpea is exposed to will vary with their stages of her development. Our once passive three month old was exposed to many less hazards than her almost eight month old curiosity exposes her to now.

From what our pediatrician has said, the things we need to be concerned with are falls from stairs (which in our case, from the living room she can fall down stairs to the bathroom and the basement, or climb up to the bedroom and topple down like a slinky), electrical shocks (we should be covered as every outlet is covered, but we take nothing for granted), poisoning (What... you mistake baking powder for baking soda ONCE and people never let you live it down), choking on small objects (note to self, hide childhood marble collection), water accidents (she will now walk around in a life jacket until she's eighteen. Wait, can she wear a life vest at the convent? I'll have to check with Mother Superior on this one. Maybe if I can get it in black), climbing furniture which can topple (place very heavy objects on all shelves to weight it down- check), and bumping into the corners of furniture or counter tops (must go to Home Depot to rent sander to round all corners on everything in the house). Looks like we're set. For the moment.

Kensington doesn't have an issue being closed in. The issue she has is being locked in her cell placed in her room by herself. As long as one of us are in the room with her, she's fine... but the moment one of us escapes leaves she lets us know that she's going to shank us scream until she gets her way. We're not saying that she's spoiled, but she normally gets her way. Enough said.

2 comments:

Eastiopians said...

LOL! You guys are great...and she is adorable. Thanks for stopping by my blog...I can't wait to watch your journey...just wait for toddler-hood, heh heh heh (evil laugh). Wait, I better keep karma happy, I have a toddler waiting for me in Ethiopia. :)

Theresa

Sara Bishop said...

Funny! We had also blocked our baby in the living room until we could trust her not to get into the dog's kennel in the kitchen. She's almost 3 and we dont even lock the poisons anymore because she's so used to not being able to get in those cabinets.

you might enjoy this blog : http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/ about raising kids without being crazy overprotective