Even the Table is NOT Safe!

My baby just turned a year old, and now she thinks she’s one of the big kids. Nothing is safe, anymore. She has two older brothers, and they have taught her well. Not that she’s as good as Superman – faster than a speeding bullet, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound – but she’s fairly close.

I recently wrote about how she’s become a dare devil, but she’s gotten worse.

She has developed a sudden and intense desire to be up. Her desire to be up on things, like the rocking chair – that’s fine with Mom. Her desire to be up on things, like Mom’s bed – that’s equally fine with Mom. But this sudden and intense desire to play the computer, and so climbing up to get there, that’s a big problem. And this all-consuming desire to be on top of the dinner table – all the time, any time – that’s at the top of my list of big problems.

And she’s fast, really, really fast. I’ll take her down from one high surface or another, set her in another room, turn around to get something – and she’s already back to the high surface. What’s most disturbing to me is that she’s not even walking yet! She’s trying to walk, and has taken some tentative steps, but not overly mobile, just yet. I can’t imagine what she’s going to do when she can walk!

I was helping my preschooler with a sticker puzzle the other day, and stepped away to get something. I don’t really remember what, but when I came back the baby was on the table. Not only was she on the table, she had dumped out all of the Marshmallow cereal from the cereal box. She was happy, sitting there in a circle of cereal, carefully picking out all the marshmallows. It was a proud moment for the baby and a bit of a frustrating moment for the Mom.

Her other place of interest to try to get to is our desktop computer. She wants to play on the computer, just like the big kids. So, she works really hard anytime she can to get access to the computer. She’s really good at opening the calculator program, as well as shutting the whole thing down. It’s gotten so bad that my children can’t do their computer homework until the baby is taking her nap.

But, her favorite place to climb to is still the kitchen table. She climbs up just to see if there is anything she wants on the table.

Editor’s Note: Mom wanted a picture of her on the table for an article…. so Dad went to take it, and as he went to take it, he clicked the shutter button on accident as he quickly placed the camera down and stopped the baby from falling.  She didn’t hit the ground, although she would have if Dad wasn’t right there.  This is what was found on the camera:

After that, we changed what it means to have cleared the dinner table. Now, instead of just clearing away the dishes, all the chairs need to be turned around so their backs are facing the table.  (We TRIED just pulling the chairs away from the table, but she can also push the chairs over to where she wants them to go.) She can still get up on the chairs, but the backs act as an impressive barrier that she hasn’t learned to breach – yet.

What precarious situations have your children found their way into?  What solutions did you find to solve the problem?