As of Sunday we are officially a gate free house and it feels very odd. For almost 4 years we had gates on both doors of the living room and one at the top of the stairs. Right before Christmas we removed the living room ones because the girls kept pushing over an ottoman and climbing over them anyway. But that gate at the top of the stairs gave us the illusion of safety, knowing the girls wouldn't wander downstairs in the night, instead it was actually getting to be dangerous. One day a couple weeks ago I found a stool sitting on the hall side up against the gate. I'm not sure who the culprit was but fortunately no one actually tried that escape. Then to make matters worse this weekend the girls where fighting over who was going to be "line leader" and I saw the gate start to push over the step. So I got out the drill and removed the screws on the gate at the top of the stairs. Of course I still keep reaching for it when I'm heading down!
We also just removed Lucy's bed rail. Wow - this really means I don't have any babies left. I'm just not sure if that is a good thing or a sad thing!!
A Brighter Sunshine
I could have never imagined how much brighter the sun would shine because you are in my life.
A journal of my experiences with Cate and her pure brillance.
We still have the gates at the tops of both stairways. Sammi respects the gates for what they are, and doesn't try to get through them, which is good - she knows it's just to keep her safe. But we had a similar moment of liberation a few weeks ago when we removed the childproof doorknob cover from inside her bedroom door and also removed the bedrail on the same day! Duh, she hasn't fallen out of bed since. I guess being overprotective isn't such a bad thing, but I know how she just lights up at the opportunity to be more independent. :-)
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