Oh, the joys of childproofing. Once again, we visited the local home improvement store, this time seeking bolts to, umm, bolt various shelves and shelving units to the wall so they don't come crashing down on our agile offspring. We needed drywall screws and some other things that apparently don't exist, so we had to punt and make something up, again. We figured out how to use something called strapping to secure the kitchen shelves, requiring still more drywall screws.
We also determined that our lovely, large, and looming Expedit bookcase from Ikea has to be raised up over the baseboard, some 6 inches, in order to be bolted securely to the wall. After discussing our options, we decided we would use 2x12x12 boards screwed together to raise the bookshelf safely. Soo, we had to get our 12 foot boards cut into 6 foot halves. Ever had to haul wood to get cut at a home improvement store? With a baby? Awesome! Baby J sat in the shopping cart calmly while we hauled the first board far away from him (though still within eye sight) but protested about the second and began to cry when we went to get the cart to haul it all away.
And then there was the saw. Loud and whining and not much liked by baby J. But it had to be done. Now we can make more of our house less of a hazard, our ultimate goal. And our fixes will not be tooo much of an eyesore, we hope. Because aesthetics are really not the main concern...but I kind of like the way things look, you know? So there's that!
In the meantime, we are teaching J how to tell by the tone of our voices that chewing on cords or grabbing the guitar or emptying the kitchen trash are not activities of which we approve. So far, he's taking this tone to mean he needs to giggle and start to scuttle away as quickly as possible. Not exactly what we had in mind...but it will do in a pinch!
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