Yes, we have another deterrent. But since this one is meant for Cubby instead of the dogs, it does not have electric current in it and we have not baited it with electrified salami.
It's a baby gate. How lame. But how necessary.
We have not actually had a baby gate in the house before this because Blackrock, unlike a modern house, is all about the doors. Every room can be closed off from the rooms on either side just by closing the doors. No open plans here. This is quite handy when I want to corral Cubby in the living room so I can sit down on the couch for a few minutes without chasing him up the stairs or into the kitchen or away from that oh-so-fascinating toilet brush in the bathroom. (Kids are so gross.) I just shut the doors.
But now the woodstove is going. And woodstove heat does not go through a door. So if I closed the door between the living room and the dining room where the woodstove lives, it wasn't long before the living room was freezing and the dining room was boiling.
Enter the gate. A. bought it and set it up yesterday. He got the tall one, because Cubby is tall. Also spry. So A. thought he'd better get a bigger one to keep The Force contained.
An early appearance of the "Seriously, Mom?" face. I suspect I will see this face a lot in the coming years.
Unfortunately, the tall gate, though it does seem to contain the child*, is also a serious pain in the ass for the shorter adults in the house. That is, the MiL and me.
Due to our bizarre and definitely not standard-size doorways, it's not a permanently installed gate that can open and close; it just stays in place with tension. This means, however, that it's not very convenient to move it. The MiL and I can both juuuuust step over it, but not gracefully and certainly not easily. I'm going to eat it trying to get over this thing one of these days, I just know it.
But. It does allow me to sit on my ass in the living room with Cubby without freezing said ass off, so we'll just accept it as yet another irritating inconvenience of winter at Blackrock. It's a long list.
* So far. He's already tried to climb it a couple of times, so it's possible Cubby will be the one to eat it on this gate.
That face says it all. Bad Mommy. Just one of the many times he'll be thwarted for safety reasons. Oh well. Guess that applies to the females of the household as well. Too bad Cubby can't understand that you and the Mil are being inconvenienced, not that it would matter to a 1+.
ReplyDeleteI laughed heartily at the last sentence of your post. That was after I had grinned greatly at the thought of you 'eating it'. I think it was the phrase...it brought to mind the perfect picture of you landing face first on the floor with the gate tangled between your legs.
ReplyDeleteI am also in the height challenged part of the population with you. I commiserate .
I do see the need for the baby gate however. I am also in the part of the population that heats with wood and a hot wood stove.
Just knowing how smart Cubby seems from the blog , I think he will learn very quickly to stay away from it. Maybe the gate won't be needed for too long....at least till he scales it to get closer to the warm woodstove. Beth
Is he wearing slippers from two different pairs, or is that what that pair looks like?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I saw a video where they had two baby gates stacked up in a doorway, and the kid -- looked younger than Cubby's current self -- climbed up one side and down the other.
Actually, he only climbed a little of the way down, then he dropped off and bounced. Then got to his feet and walked away.
Word verification: asmso -- abbreviation used to end an argument of the type: "Are not ... Am so ... Are not ... Am so ... "
That's what they look like. They're handmade wool bootie slippers from an Etsy vendor, made from recycled wool sweaters. They are awesome. The best, warmest children's slippers I could find.
ReplyDeleteGotta love that face! Those gates really are a pain. We had them in the house sometimes when my mom had daycare, and we short folks have to get on our tippy toes to get over such gates. I don't think I ever completely ate it, but I was certainly less than graceful going over it.
ReplyDeleteI've fallen over these gates when they were used to keep puppies in line. Fortunately, they seem to give with body weight so they crash down with you rather than killing you outright. Mary in MN
ReplyDeleteMy son learned to climb on the gate then fall over it pretty early on. So we ended up stacking two on top of each other. That lasted a short time until he learned to tackle the gates and knock them down like a linebacker. (The tension won't hold the full force of a motivated, 40 pound toddler.) We finally gave up and let him fall down the stairs a few times. (Just kidding! But he did fall down the stairs several times until he was about five years old. He seems to have survived just fine.)
ReplyDeleteKeep that picture. When he's 16 and shows you that very same face, remind him what it looks like.
ReplyDelete