Uh oh
Today Tory reached the most terrifying milestone imaginable this side of a driver’s license. Tory can now crawl over the baby gate. This baby gate goes across the top of the stairway and keeps our children on the upper, childproofed level. The lower level is home to breakables, pretties, and our bedroom as the last bastion of our identities as adults. May heaven help us.
I made this discovery when Abbie returned home from preschool. After walking outside to help Abbie off the bus and into the house, I found Tory wandering the lower level. I could’ve swore that I shut the gate as I walked him back up the stairs. At the top, I discovered the gate was indeed shut. I assumed it was an oversight on my part, that maybe Tory had walked downstairs while the gate was open and I had missed him on the stairs as a result of my critical sleep deficit.
I walked back downstairs to help Abbie remove her coat and backpack after school. I also needed to return several pretties to their rightful location after she’d spent the past 90 seconds touching everything on the lower level with a speed that Santa Claus would covet. When I saw Tory toddling down the stairs a minute later, I knew I had trouble.
With everyone back on the upper level, I watched my children roam free in hopes that I would figure out what was happeing. In between keeping Abbie out of the cupboards and pulling Ian off the furniture, I saw Tory climb the gate. Our gate is made from sturdy white plastic and attached to the wall. Its surface is filled with holes to let air, sound, and light pass from room to room. Those holes are the perfect size for a toddler to grab a toe-hold on his way up the gate. He can apparently climb this gate by using these holes for balance, and then somehow fling himself over the top to the other side of the gate where he can gently climb down to the stairway instead of tumbling down the stairs like I always envision him doing.
I spent the rest of the day watching him closely, and scolding him deeply whenever he approached the gate. By this evening, he had stopped trying to climb the gate, apparently getting the message that he should never, ever, ever climb the gate without making sure that daddy isn’t paying attention. I need to keep him on the upper level for the health of my child, my sanity, and my pretties.
I made this discovery when Abbie returned home from preschool. After walking outside to help Abbie off the bus and into the house, I found Tory wandering the lower level. I could’ve swore that I shut the gate as I walked him back up the stairs. At the top, I discovered the gate was indeed shut. I assumed it was an oversight on my part, that maybe Tory had walked downstairs while the gate was open and I had missed him on the stairs as a result of my critical sleep deficit.
I walked back downstairs to help Abbie remove her coat and backpack after school. I also needed to return several pretties to their rightful location after she’d spent the past 90 seconds touching everything on the lower level with a speed that Santa Claus would covet. When I saw Tory toddling down the stairs a minute later, I knew I had trouble.
With everyone back on the upper level, I watched my children roam free in hopes that I would figure out what was happeing. In between keeping Abbie out of the cupboards and pulling Ian off the furniture, I saw Tory climb the gate. Our gate is made from sturdy white plastic and attached to the wall. Its surface is filled with holes to let air, sound, and light pass from room to room. Those holes are the perfect size for a toddler to grab a toe-hold on his way up the gate. He can apparently climb this gate by using these holes for balance, and then somehow fling himself over the top to the other side of the gate where he can gently climb down to the stairway instead of tumbling down the stairs like I always envision him doing.
I spent the rest of the day watching him closely, and scolding him deeply whenever he approached the gate. By this evening, he had stopped trying to climb the gate, apparently getting the message that he should never, ever, ever climb the gate without making sure that daddy isn’t paying attention. I need to keep him on the upper level for the health of my child, my sanity, and my pretties.
posted by Matt at
11:47 PM
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