Safetyproofing

This weekend was our safetyproofing weekend, inspired by the arrival of Mirena. While River can now cross a room, mostly pulling himself across, he’s not yet in danger of getting into too many things. Mirena however, at 8.5 months old, already crawls like a pro, stands up and even walks when holding onto something. It was actually helpful that her presence motivated us to safetyproof ahead of when River needs it.

What did we do?

Turned the coffee table so that the edges are less accessible and there is more open space in the living room. Put plastic covers on the corners of the coffee table. So far, these haven’t been very effective though since both babies were immediately drawn to them and were able to pull them off easily. One remains on, the other is on the floor.

Put wires as much out of reach as possible. We gathered them at the back of tables and other furniture.

Put plugs in the electrical sockets.

Got a used gate on freecycle to block access to the kitchen.

Got a sectional gate playyard in order to block off a safe area for play. We also ordered a foam mat so that there will be a soft surface within the playyard to roll around. We have yet to try this set-up.

Took books off of lower shelves and boxed them up.

Put latches on kitchen cabinets. I admit we’ve been a bit lax about keeping them off, because the child-proof openers are not so easy for adults to open either. But we’ll be more careful with the cabinet that contains cleaners and other potentially dangerous items.

Put all writing devices out of reach.

Make the office an off-limits space, and the kitchen an off-limits space to Mirena.

We’ll see how this works in practice and whether any additional steps are needed. I wish there was some type of device available to baby proof babies from each other. Because the main problem we had on our first day with two babies in the house was them touching and potentially injuring each other.