Mountain Climbing

We took a big step this weekend, to prevent an even bigger leap. We have installed the hard-mount baby gate at the top of our stairs.

Over the last few days, Gracie has taken a huge interest in the stairs.

She kept inching closer and closer to the edge to look over, and has started flinging toys through the banister from the second floor onto the first. I will give her some credit, they do make a nice bang when the crash. It is almost the same level of bang that my heart made the first time I heard it.

Now that she is focused on walking, crawling is at lightening speeds. One second she is sitting there chewing in a shoe, the next she is on the landing flinging toys. Or more heart stopping, looking over the edge of the landing and down the stairs.

Hence the official installation of the gate and several holes in the hardwood banister. Eh, it is contractor grade though, so this just means that I will be able to replace it in a few years, right? Right??

So this is a win-win project! We keep our baby safe and I have the illusion that I will get some high priced home improvement in the years to come. Well, Lil’Rick doesn’t seem too happy about the arrangement. It is cramping his style.

We have a second mobile gate at the bottom of the stairs now too because when I caught her peering through the rail on the 3rd step of the stairs, my heart once again stopped for a moment. I yanked her off the stairs and slapped up the gate. What I didn’t realize is that I was trapping the dog on the stairs. Stuck in the limbo between the couch and our bed. 2 hours later, I noticed the whimpering.

Maybe if he starts peeing on the carpeting, we can add another home improvement project onto the list sooner instead of later!