Living on Lockdown

An observation of life with a one year old.

I just about lost it the other day. Anyone with a toddler living at their house will know exactly how I feel.

There is a baby gate that blocks the hall to the front door and staircase. There is a baby gate that blocks the entrance to the dining room. The laundry room door always has to be closed (the dog food and water are in there along with all the cleaning stuff). The basement door must be closed at all times. The bathroom door must be closed at all times. To travel through my main floor, I must navigate through a series of pods, opening and closing each pod as I go.

Any drawer under 4 feet has a baby lock on it. I love the locks that I have which allow me to lock the door open. That makes putting dishes away much easier but I usually can only do that when Little G is sleeping.

The pantry doors have locks on them. The fireplace doors have locks on it.

Onto electronics. We had to move some stuff around but its still not perfect. Luckily right now he cant reach the giant TV but he can reach the Xbox, DVR, Wii and the volume to the stereo system. Ugh. There is really only one area in the entertainment center that encloses any of the list of devices so we decided to move the volume device in there. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite as terrifying as having the volume suddenly crescendo to 125. It scared all of us and always made Little G cry. So it took priority and earned the coveted "no touching space". Now we only have to deal with him randomly turning the Xbox off (this doesn't bother me at the least, but Matt on the other hand doesn't find this very funny at all), and pausing, rewinding, fast forwarding, etc... the DVR. Now that gets on my nerves a little. I usually don't watch much TV, but if I do sit down to watch a show or something it would be nice to not have to play defense the whole time.

I have a nice enclosed area in my quilting studio for Little G to play in. He has now figured out how to move the (for lack of a better word) cage around. He will move the cage over to my shelves and take ALL the nicely, color organized cones of thread off the shelf. He will move the cage over to the TV stand and press all the buttons on the DVD player that's under the TV. He will move the cage completely off of the nice foamy puzzle mat and now prefers to sit on the concrete. What the heck? Maybe its cooler on the concrete. Who knows.

There seems to be something new everyday and I would like to think that it is going to get better sometime soon, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it will only get worse before it gets better. And then when we finally feel like we can start lifting some of the baby proofing, baby 2 will be on the way or already here. HA. Life is funny that way.

Now that I have ranted a little bit, or provided a chuckle or two for any other moms or dads out there, I would like to say that every single thing that I mentioned above is totally worth it. Little G is the greatest thing ever. I feel so lucky to be his mommy. So for now, I will continue to survive in my somewhat baby proofed, pod-like, dysfunctional electronic house.

EDITTED TO ADD:
Because life is full of irony, while I was typing out this post Little G decided to go "exploring". I apparently forgot to close the bathroom door all the way. The picture says it all . . .

Edited AGAIN to add: Apparently I cant spell Edited - I know, spelling was not my major. Im leaving it there as proof of my goof.