Flock In Progress: Continual Growth and Failing Force Fields

A wise Benjamin Franklin once said "Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." Fine, Ben, fine. Continual growth leads to great things, blah blah blah. I am certain that one day, as I watch Kayla approach a podium, preparing to make her acceptance speech (Nobel Prize...Presidency...), I will agree. That said...currently, continual growth is leading to this: a certain little baby crawling around the room at the speed of light and exposing our apartment for the certain death trap that it is.

Kayla is a crawler. No more army crawl, no more worm-dance across the carpet, she is up on hands and knees, boldly going where no Smush has gone before. And, unfortunately, those destinations tend to be the rickety DVD stands, the multitude of TV related chords, the piece of plastic wrap that somehow managed to slip, fall and wind up under the edge of the couch...the kid has Danger Radar and not in the Spidey Sense - danger is near, seek safety - way, but more in the Evil Knievel - "Did someone say "danger"? YAHOO!!!!" - way. How? Why? I don't know, but she somehow manages to spot the ever-so-dull looking DVR machine from across the room and she zeroes in and *ZOOM*, in the blink of an eye she is on it, trying to pull it, bite it, stick her fingers in it...what is the appeal??

And so, it appears that the time to baby proof is upon us. And let me tell you, this is no easy task. When you think of baby proofing, you think of moving breakable objects off of lower shelves, you think of putting locks on cabinets that house chemicals, you think of plugging outlets and securing bookshelves, and all of these things are good. They're great. And they aren't enough. What you probably haven't thought of is where you are going to put those two tall DVD towers that, no matter what you do, are topple dangers. You probably haven't thought about what you're going to do about the DVD and DVR players that are sitting on the exposed shelves of your TV stand and which have no other place to go. You probably haven't thought about the fact that there are chords in your living room that have to be there (hello, you need light...), but that are baby magnets, no matter how far behind that lamp you try to shove them. And you probably haven't thought about the fact that pretty soon your baby is going to be pulling up and oh God...it's a whole other world of dangers. I've been trying to baby proof, but it is so freaking hard. Thank God for the Exersaucer, which is the only way one can run to the bathroom, run to find a phone or run to answer the door, when baby is awake, without having to worry about baby trying to take her own life into her hands while you're out of sight.

For awhile, we thought we were safe. Yes, Kayla was crawling, but she seemed to be trapped on the rubber play mat we'd set out in the center of the room. She would zoom around the play mat, but when she reached the edge -ERRRRRRRRRK- she would stop, freeze and then retreat. "Perfect," we thought, "invisible force field!" And so we were safe for a time, but tonight, Kayla managed to penetrate the invisible force field, escaping onto the wooden floor and from there...to infinity and beyond! Now her crawling knows no bounds and she is into the dining area, the kitchen, and anyplace she darned well chooses, in the blink of an eye.

Alas...

And so the baby proofing takes a new turn. And really, it needs to take two turns, because now we not only have to consider new rooms, but really, Kayla is looking like she's about to figure out this whole pulling up thing too, so now we have to work on baby proofing from that angle as well. Oi vay.

All that said...I am just stupidly proud of her. Every time she crawls a little farther, a little faster, looks a little more aware, I just swell with pride. I love watching her learn. It is absolutely amazing.

Oh, Snuzzles...you are almost 8 months old and you are just more fun and more exciting every day. Thanks for making mommy and daddy's year.

Speaking of which...a few long overdue photos of Snuzzles past month:

She got to celebrate her Great Grandma's birthday...