Baby-Proof

I've been thinking a lot about baby-proofing.  To proof?  Or not to proof?

Daphne now is officially crawling.  It happened slowly.  First she rocked back and forth on all fours for weeks.  Then she was army dragging herself across the living room.  We think she was able to actually crawl on all fours about a week and half ago, but within the last two days, she has improved immensely.  Great, right?  Sure.  But now I'm faced with a kid who can move!  That's a whole new phase for these new parents.  I've never before been so concerned with how recently I've swept the floor.

I think I've decided not to get another gate.  We have one leftover from when my former pup, Griffin, was having a difficult time living in an apartment.  Dogs, babies - a gate is a gate, right?  Our house isn't large, there are no stairs, so I don't anticipate needing to use it on a daily basis. If we do, it will be to block our girl from the kitchen.  There are only two of us, but man I can make a mess in there.  Matt calls me a "dervish" as in whirling dervish when I'm creating a meal.  I usually cook and he usually cleans up my dervish after dinner.   Teamwork.

I know I have a lot to learn and each new day will teach me a new lesson about how to handle a crawling babe.  For now, I just want to throw things away.  We have too much stuff.  Too much, too much, too much.  I just told Matt this morning that I'd like to purge every area of the house.  I have no idea where to start, but here's the list.

• Kitchen pantry 
• Tupperware cabinet 
• Cabinet under the sink
• Laundry room closet
• Office Book Shelves 
• The living room entertainment center/shelves
• Office closet 
• Daphne's closet 
• My closet  
• The T-Shirt Chest 
• Our bathroom linen closet 
• My nightstand 
• The garage

That's pretty much the whole house....

Just today, I removed the trash can in the office.  It just had paper and a plastic bag or two in it, but it took Daphne about ten seconds to get to it and do this:

We no longer have a trash can in the office. 

I am trying not think too much about it, but I can't help but realize this is the beginning of my trying to protect Daphne from doing herself harm.  It's easy enough to clear shelves and make sure she stays away from sockets.  But what about when her feelings get hurt or she makes choices that are not good ones.  What if she's mean to someone?  What if she doesn't value her own safety?  I'm not sure I'll be able to handle that.  I work in a high school for goodness sake.  I know what happens there.  I know what happens when parents feel like their kid is spiraling or when they have no idea what is going on.  I know plenty of confident, happy young people, but I also know pregnant students, students who are mean to their peers, students who are bullied, students who make poor choices about drugs and alcohol, students who are on serious medications for chemical imbalances, students who are insecure about who they are.  

As she learns to have her physical independence, Daphne is going through her first month of "stranger danger."  She certainly has no fear of climbing up on the entertainment center, but if I walk to the kitchen to fill my water glass, she loses her marbles.  We've purposely been giving her some supervised alone time to play with her toys and explore by herself.  This obviously involves making sure she doesn't cause herself physical harm, but it also involves giving her the space to feel confident even when she's not engaged with us.  

So it begins.  The high-wire dance of giving her enough freedom to make mistakes and to learn, but not so much distance that she feels abandoned or without support.