Babyproofing
Ages ago, when Raina was a baby, we babyproofed the house: toilet locks, outlet plugs, sturdier end tables, picture frames out of her reach, and poisonous stuff and plastic bags locked up. What we did was perfectly sufficient for Raina. However, it was not really babyproofing, as we discovered each time we had a little boy over. They immediately beelined for pulling out the board games and dumping out the pieces (a disaster with Axis and Allies!) and climbing up the bar stools to end up on the counters. Each happened in the the space of the opening five minutes of their visits, and I realized that having a little girl is significantly different from having a little boy.
But now we have Lola, and I'm realizing that having a little Raina was just different from most other babies. Lola delights in playing with things that we want her to avoid, and she leaves chaos and destruction in her wake. She stayed home yesterday with Eric because she was sick (and she's home today, still sick), so these are Lola actions not at 100%.
She:
- repeatedly stuck her hands in the trash can, trying to pull out items.
- opened up the bathroom cabinets and dumped tampons all over the floor. Plus, she knocked the shampoo bottles in the bathtub.
- found her collection of bibs and burp cloths and spread them around the dining room.
- pushed the kitchen chairs all over the kitchen until they hit carpet and fell over.
- climbed up on Raina's rocking chair, stood up in it, and started rocking back and forth. She does the same thing on our floor-low rocking chair too.
- tried to eat her diaper / butt spray bottle (this one is a popular action).
- knocked all the books off the bottom two bookshelves onto the floor. (We have multiple bookcases, so she gets to do this a lot.)
- grabbed at the dog's food and tried to splash the water out of Roxanne's bowls.
- pulled back the covers of her favorite books and then stepped and bounced on them. Global Babies is in a sorry state.
- pulled apart our shoe racks, carried all the shoes to different parts of the house, and occasionally chewed on them.
- batted and smashed the window blinds until we pulled them out of her reach. Then she mouthed the window. (This second part is cute, because she's talking to the baby in the window reflection, but we now have mouth marks all over the windows and the TV as a result.)
- spun Eric's office chair -- even when he was sitting in it.
- moved the babyproof blocking of the entertainment center, opened it up, turned on the playstation, removed a controller, and started pressing buttons. (This one was earlier in the sickness week, but I'm still impressed by it.)
- took the mah jongg tile holders (big blocks of wood) and knocked them into things to make big sounds!
What's amazing to me is that she napped for 4.5 hours and ate for probably 1.5 hours of the 9 hours Samantha, Raina, and I were gone yesterday. Lola's remaining three hours were spent causing mayhem and headaches for Eric.
Although she's from the same parents as Raina, she's a completely different kid. But, on the positive side, Lola can occupy herself independently for hours! =)
But now we have Lola, and I'm realizing that having a little Raina was just different from most other babies. Lola delights in playing with things that we want her to avoid, and she leaves chaos and destruction in her wake. She stayed home yesterday with Eric because she was sick (and she's home today, still sick), so these are Lola actions not at 100%.
She:
- repeatedly stuck her hands in the trash can, trying to pull out items.
- opened up the bathroom cabinets and dumped tampons all over the floor. Plus, she knocked the shampoo bottles in the bathtub.
- found her collection of bibs and burp cloths and spread them around the dining room.
- pushed the kitchen chairs all over the kitchen until they hit carpet and fell over.
- climbed up on Raina's rocking chair, stood up in it, and started rocking back and forth. She does the same thing on our floor-low rocking chair too.
- tried to eat her diaper / butt spray bottle (this one is a popular action).
- knocked all the books off the bottom two bookshelves onto the floor. (We have multiple bookcases, so she gets to do this a lot.)
- grabbed at the dog's food and tried to splash the water out of Roxanne's bowls.
- pulled back the covers of her favorite books and then stepped and bounced on them. Global Babies is in a sorry state.
- pulled apart our shoe racks, carried all the shoes to different parts of the house, and occasionally chewed on them.
- batted and smashed the window blinds until we pulled them out of her reach. Then she mouthed the window. (This second part is cute, because she's talking to the baby in the window reflection, but we now have mouth marks all over the windows and the TV as a result.)
- spun Eric's office chair -- even when he was sitting in it.
- moved the babyproof blocking of the entertainment center, opened it up, turned on the playstation, removed a controller, and started pressing buttons. (This one was earlier in the sickness week, but I'm still impressed by it.)
- took the mah jongg tile holders (big blocks of wood) and knocked them into things to make big sounds!
What's amazing to me is that she napped for 4.5 hours and ate for probably 1.5 hours of the 9 hours Samantha, Raina, and I were gone yesterday. Lola's remaining three hours were spent causing mayhem and headaches for Eric.
Although she's from the same parents as Raina, she's a completely different kid. But, on the positive side, Lola can occupy herself independently for hours! =)
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