Baby Safety

While this isn't the blog post I'm sure you all have been on pins and needles waiting for, I wanted to show off our mad skillz at baby proofing the house - which includes a little bit of parent proofing as well.

We installed this great gate at the top of our stairs that has a handle on it to easily lock and unlock, with a nice loud "click." However since we go up and down this set of stairs a lot, we decided we wanted to take it one step further and incorporate some visualization into parent-proofing the baby gate. This is what we have!

We put red tape across the top in a line, and then wrote 'SAFE' with the letters on different parts of the handle. This way I can easily look at the handle and see that the line is straight AND it says "SAFE" to me - confirming that it is safe to let the baby roam! The line also continues on the back so you can see it there as well.

Now below is what it looks like when the gate is open! One, the bright yellow catches your eye to let you know something is amiss. And in case you can't figure it out, it says what is amiss: the gate is "OPEN." In retrospect I think I should have written "DANGER" here instead, but this does clearly convey what the situation is.

And also, since we both enjoy order*, having both a line that is broken and a word that is broken invokes all our OCD tendencies to straighten the line and form the word - thereby closing the gate!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this new system. I love being able to scan the room and visually see and read that my baby is safe. At least when it comes to getting through this gate!

So I'm curious - any interesting tricks you've had to baby-proofing your house?

*We "enjoy" order, however implementing it is very hard - our house is usually in a state of chaos. But when we have order, we enjoy it :)

The dreams of the young - music for my baby

When I was younger, about late teens, I was very involved with studies and music. Quitespecifically classical   music. I read about, studied it, played it. Part of this research included learning about the benefits of exposing children to classical music early - apparently it is supposed to increase brain development. And as someone who listened to classical music a lot, I liked this.

"When I'm a parent," I would think snobbily, "I will expose my child to classical music in utero! I'll play it all day! They will fall asleep to it!" And so were my well-laid plans. 

And as with most well-laid plans, this one has gone astray. Because, what I didn't realize then, is how exhausting parenting is, and how anything remotely relaxing - such as classical music - may not be in the best interest of the safety of the child. Although it could invoke a great nap for me!

So what do my son and I listen to? On my tired days - which is most days - we rock out to modern Bollywood music.  There is nothing about Bollywood music that says "stay still and take a nap." Everything about the music says "Dance and dance! Move! Life is rhythm and we got to keep moving!"

And so I bop around the room and he is exposed to multi-cultural music (or so I tell myself). And I love this multi-culturalish family we have going here.

And I laugh at the well-laid plans of my youth. Somethings are just way more fun!