Caged Animal!

I received two large packages on my doorstep yesterday. (boxes, they were! Get your mind out of the gutter!) My gates are in! Now that der baby is quite mobile, we decided to invest in two additional walk through gates to secure the house so Little Man can roam the open plains in relative safety. (there's nothing we can do about the constant sister-pestering, sorry kid)

After one single day of the new implemented gated floorplan, (doesn't that just have a ring to it! Like "gated community!") I was on the verge of a serious mental breakdown. As I was hurrying the kids along to get their shoes and socks on because we needed to GO! (Mommy had forgotten some important items last Target trip, and these items needed to be procured post-haste before dinnertime and baby's looming bedtime) That is  when Bunny declared she had left her "cozy jacket" upstairs on her bed. I wailed in disbelief. I kicked myself on the inside for not preempting such a disaster before it hit like a tornado.

This meant I would have to journey from the living room, upstairs, and down the hall to the back bedroom to collect her coat. Romping upstairs seems like a simple task, yes? No! Not any more! This meant I would have to traverse through THREE GATES. Yes, three. One at the bottom of the stairs, one at the top, and one at the entrance to the hallway. (most of the bedrooms are back there, as is the carbon monoxide detector- the same detector that Little Man enjoys pushing the button on, which forces out a loud, highpitched, ear-searing peep for what seems like an hour... so we would prefer he stay away from that thing!)

My friends, my comrades, three gates is just a lot to deal with! Add to this that the majority of my cabinetry requires me to locate a magnet just to open. And I am trying to find new and higher places to put EVERYTHING... I just hate, hate, hate babyproofing! (Little Man is so much more... into stuff!)

I draw the line at outlet covers, though. No way, Jose! They are so pointless and silly! Never once have any of my kids acquired something small enough to fit into the electrical outlets, but they generally have ignored them entirely!

So anyway, I'm already annoyed with the gates, and I am headed out now to find heavy (yet stylish) doorstoppers so I can prop them open when Little Man is sleeping. Just to give me an ounce of sanity whenever I need to scale the stairs.

Why can't babies just leave things ALONE?! And know how to NOT topple to their death from the stairs? It seems like a primal instinct babies should have. Like bird dogs instinctively point to the dead pigeon in the backyard! Just like that!

Sorry, I just really hate babyproofing.