Time for the Baby Gate

Yup...little Gabby is up to no good. I had to put up the baby gate because she keeps eating paper from all over the place. And Brooklynn keeps leaving a trail of paper everywhere SHE goes...so the combination is lethal.

She's happy in here for maybe 10 minutes. Then she realized that she's in a prison.

I can't say no to this little face so usually I take her out as soon as she cries.

More Brooklynn-Proofing

Yeah...after several days of Brooklynn taking off the outlet covers and proceeding to try and stick her fingers in the holes...it was time for a change. I tried duct tape over the covers. (And I should have learned that duct tape doesn't seem to hold Brooklynn back.) SO then I had to unscrew the cover, put masking tape over the outlet and then screw the plate back on....obviously a temporary option until I could get to the store to buy something else. I ended up going with blank outlet covers....who knew they even sold those?!?! I can't really use the outlets now but that is ok!

Child Locks

I know why all the experts tell you to baby-proof BEFORE the baby comes. I thought we did...I bought a few outlet covers and thought the rest was unnecessary. Then we got cabinet locks for our kitchen. I skipped the drawer locks because Brooklynn couldn't reach them anyway. (Now she can.) Then we started just putting things that we didn't want her to get on top of the counter or in our room or just "up high." We're running out of places...and she can reach them all now, anyway (the bad part of having really tall children). I need to build a shelf around the top of every single room in the house. Not only can she reach things on the counter, but she is smart enough to go get a stool, climb up on it and reach whatever thing she wants. So now we have to just put things in our room...and our room is a MESS from just throwing things in there. Boy does that room need some work.
Brooklynn has been emptying her entire dresser every time she is in there. It really delays her nap and it also makes a big mess for me to clean up. I've tried having her help me, and she does, but it isn't really folded at all when she helps.
So I broke down and bought child locks for all the things in Brooklynn's room the other day. And so far it has taken me one full evening and one FULL morning of trying to put them on. I'm still not done.

One reason is that I have to wait for a time when Brooklynn isn't in there sleeping. I tried last night so Josh could watch the girls. I kept dropping the screws...over and over and over. ANY time I try and fix or hang anything this is a common problem for me. I FINALLY got two of the doors for her bookcase done...and we couldn't push bedtime back any more. I still had one more door and three drawers for her dresser left.

So this morning I attempted to tackle this and start first thing in the morning. I literally worked on it every chance I could. I even skipped breakfast because I wanted to get some done while Brooklynn was strapped in a booster chair. I had to take a break to feed Gabby, I took another break to get Brooklynn out of her chair, change her and get her dressed. I had to take several breaks to get Gabby to stop crying so I could maybe? put her down in her bouncy seat so I could get back to work on the child locks. Today was a Cece day but she wasn't coming until 11 so I had all morning to finish before Brooklynn's nap later. There is no way I'd be able to try and work on it with all three kids there...Brooklynn just can't be trusted to be nice to them. So that is why I was working so hard to try and get it done. There are clothes all over Brooklynn's room, all over the hallway. Basically I refuse to put the clothes back away until I get the locks done or I'll just be doing it again after her next nap. And frankly, I'm sick of clothes all over the house. I want to get them back in the drawers. And it's hard to get the kids dressed because there are NO clothes left in the dresser. 

Guess how many locks I got done for the entire morning before Cece got here? ONE. That is IT. So...I will be working on them again when Josh gets home. I only have three more to put on. Should be easy, right?

(Now if only my screwdriver hadn't run out of juice after the last lock...I'd be set.)

The Counter is No Longer Childproof.

So we used to just put things on our counter that we didn't want Brooklynn to get. Various choking hazards, sharp knives, hot pans, candy...etc.
I think it started with the candy, she FOUND her way up there somehow to get the candy. Sometimes we let her have some because she's being so resourceful to get it. (If we put it RIGHT in the middle she can't get it, but if it's closer to one side, she finds the right side and runs to it to grab the candy.)
So the other day she burnt her hand on a hot glue gun (cooling off, but still). I had burnt my hand and went to get a band aid. I told her not to touch, put it on the counter--I thought far enough out of reach. Nope. She was busy drawing at her desk so I thought everything was fine. I came back with the band-aids and she ran to her hiding place that she goes to when she doesn't want me to know she's doing something, and then she started crying and showed me her hand. POOR Brooklynn! Later when I put the glue gun away she pointed to it and said, "hot!" and started crying. I guess she's learning a little...it's just so hard. I HATE burns and she kept showing me her hand all day for a few days and saying "boo boo! hot!"
This morning she went to that same hiding spot and I went to look at what she was doing. She managed to grab my container of fish oil pills off the counter, open the lid and looked like she was going to try and eat some. She LOVES her vitamins and knows these are Mommy's vitamins...well I took them away. She got SO mad at me and started crying like she really wanted some. So I gave her one. I said, "you're not going to like it! They're yucky!" (They really are, I even swallow them whole but burp up fish for a few hours afterwards.)
So she bit into it and then looked completely repulsed. Gave it back to me, and then looked even more grossed out like, "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!?" I thought it was all pretty amusing. I tried to warn her. I guess I get a "bad Mommy award" for that one, but I figured she needed to learn that I'm not just saying no for my health...I honestly knew she would hate it. Sometimes we learn the hard way. I guess Brooklynn needs to learn a few of these lessons on her own.
And I need to keep my counter cleared off. Of EVERYTHING. I'm running out of places to put stuff that she can't get. I need to build myself a really high shelf or something. With her height and her climbing skills...I don't think it will matter anyway.