As any responsible (or neurotic in my case) parent knows, baby-proofing a house is a critical priority. In our household, we tend to be more reactive parents, rather than pro-active, always scrambling to keep up with Dylan's rapid development. We didn't expect him to start crawling as early as he did at 6 months, and we certainly didn't expect him to transition to being a true bi-ped until he was closer to a year old, but at 10 months, he is the master of his own domain, toddling all over the place with his uneven, straight legged steps. Every time he starts to take off, I'm both overwhelmed with pride and terror, scanning a mile-wide radius for all things he could possibly run into or trip over, since he hasn't quite mastered the finer aspects of speed and directional control.
Now that Dylan can walk his dandy little self wherever he wants to go, albeit in a roundabout way, and reach places he never could on all fours, he's absolutely delighted at being able to pull and (slam) close each and every cabinet door he comes across. My Proud Mommy ego says 'oh, what a smart little man, learning how to open and close the cabinets all on his own!,' as I stand there repeatedly saying 'open, close, open, close' 10 times in a row in rhythm with his moves, convinced that I'm teaching him valuable language association skills. My Risk Management Mommy ego says 'oh sh*t, why haven't we installed those stupid cabinet safety locks yet?!' (They have been sitting out on the counter for a week). Finally, after putting Dylan to bed last night, we decided to tackle the (ridiculously overcomplicated) task of installing cabinet safety locks.
After doing extensive research online about the best rated, easiest to install cabinet locks, we opted to go with the magnetized ones with the cool magnet key that were supposedly a 'cinch' to install and super easy to use (thanks Katie > Suzy & Joe). As I sat on my kitchen floor testing out the yet-to-be-installed locks, I was actually quite impressed at how simple yet effective they were, and I was all excited to finally get them installed and have a fully baby-proofed kitchen. I counted 10 cabinet doors in our kitchen within reach of Dylan's little alligator arms, and I figured once we learned how to install one, the rest would be easy.
One hour later, we're sitting on the floor of the kitchen in a pile of fresh sawdust from the 10 holes that we've drilled into 1 cabinet door, and we've got exactly ZERO cabinet locks installed. We tried every possible position and location in trying to align the lock and catch properly-- along the top edge and the side, just like the stupid little pictures in the instruction sheet. Apparently, the design of our (totally average) cabinets isn't suited for the super cool magnet locks. ARRRGH!
New plan: buy more baby gates and ban Dylan the villain from the kitchen. Who needs cabinet locks anyway?? By the time I'm done baby-gating the house to keep Dylan from all areas of potential danger, he will have his own life-size, 2-story version of Mouse Trap (yea!) to navigate. I tell myself that this will only make him smarter by having to figure out mazes and directions and a complex labyrinth just to get around his house. I will leave little cheesy poofs and goldfish crackers and ravioli along the floor to keep him on the right trail, so he doesn't get lost and confused. Yes, this is a WAY better plan than installing silly cabinet locks. :)
Happy manic Monday!
Claire
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