Baby Proofing and the Unhappy Baby

The big box that had been keeping Mara contained in the living room has pretty much stopped working. We knew this time would come eventually! Mara figured out how to push it out of her way or climb over it - whatever she needed to do in order to get through.

She's started to get into more things too. She often opens up the cabinet that holds all of our DVDs...and then starts dumping them all out on the floor. In the kitchens she's figured out how to open cabinets. So far she hasn't been emptying those. (So far!) Some of her other favorite activities are pulling things off the fridge, sticking her hands in the cat water fountain, and the most annoying - grabbing cat food out of the cat dishes and throwing it all over the floor.

So, we went out today to try to find a gate. Most of the standard gates won't fit the space that we needed so we had to get an extended one (which also happens to be really tall!) to block off the kitchen. It does have a door, so that's nice. Of course, as you can see, Mara still managed to get to the cat dish through the gate!

We also got the DVD cabinet baby-proofed. She sure wasn't happy about that when she tried to get the doors open!

We already had a gate for the top of the stairs, but lately she's been trying to climb up the stairs too, so we got another gate that we can use at the bottom of the stairs when she's in the kitchen. She's a great climber - but forgets that's she's on the stairs and will start to topple over if you aren't right there.

She's been walking for about 2 weeks now, and is a PRO! It's hard to even remember her NOT walking! Her balance is great and she is so proud of herself as she does it. She is such a big girl!