Fortress

When you have a baby, anyone who has will tell you, that there comes a time when you have to babyproof your home. There is all kinds of paraphernalia for this task including cabinet door locks (from simple plastic hooks to a little more complicated magnetic devices that require a manual to figure out how to use,) baby gates for staircases, baby gates for entire rooms, electrical outlet covers, door handle thingiemebobbies and window blind chord contraptions to name a few. Since our house is a two story, we chose to put a gate, not only at the top to keep Nicole from tumbling down the steps (ala Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind), we also put one at the bottom to keep her from climbing up to the top, then falling, you get the picture. Two obvious items that are good for babyproofing your home are pack-n-plays, (its ancestor is the playpen), and cribs...these are both great for keeping babies in a confined location. Unfortunately, there comes a day when babies become toddlers and find ways to climb out of cribs and therefore have to graduate to a bed. After making this transition with Nicole, I knew there would be times when she would not stay in the bed after having been bathed, read to and kissed good night. Since I had decided early on that I wouldn't subscribe to the Mommie Dearest philosophy of bed straps I figured that closing the gate would at least prevent her for a) performing a Scarlett O'Hara and b) deter her from coming down the stairs when she was supposed to be in bed sleeping. One night after the aforementioned routine, I decided to watch some Tivo'ed programs with the spousal unit. We naturally chose a program that wasn't for little ears but soon heard the pitter patter of little feet down the upstairs hallway and just as I realized I had forgotten to close the upstairs gate we heard her little voice exclaim, "Momma, you left the gate open so I HAVE to come down!" So much for constructing the fortress...