baby-proofing and bubble wrap.

Remember how months ago I was praying every day that Aldon would finally learn how to crawl? 

Well, he did! Well, sort of. He has his own method, kind of a 'kick-stand crawl'. And, since hindsight is 20/20, I realize that life was much simpler before he was scooting all over the place.

Allow me to list the things he's gotten into today (keep in mind, this is just this morning. We've been up since 8, so this is only 2 and a half hours of mastery):
- Emptied the bottom level of the bookshelf in the living room. I had to move everything up and cram it into the top 2 cubbies, but I'm sure once he realizes he can pull himself up on that the bookshelf is gonna go bye-bye. 
-Across the room we keep an area of toys for him. A small toy hamper, a box of toys, and a few free standing large toys. He tipped over both toy bins and took all the toys out. It was HILARIOUS since he was acting like a kid on Christmas finding toys he hasn't played with in, oh, a day.
-Keegan has some welding equipment and other big boy toys shoved in a corner, that got found and is currently looking for a new home.
-He has managed to unplug the computer cord three times. (I'm still trying to find a way to put cords and things up out of his reach, other than taping them down, which I just might have to do anyways.)
-We usually keep a small stack of diapers and wipes out with a little blanket to use as a diaper changing area... the kid loves playing in his own (clean!) diapers. And chewing on baby wipes. And butt paste makes for good finger paint when mom's doing the dishes, just ask Aldon!
-The DVD's have been scattered across the floor, their home is the TV stand in the corner. 
-Next to my rocking chair I keep my knitting basket with all my needles, yarn, patterns, and projects in it. It has one of those latch things where you have to turn the thingy to the side and whatnot. Aldon scooted over to it and I figured it was harmless cause he couldn't get the lock open. He did. And he looooves yarn.
-He's tried to get underneath the computer desk about ten dozen times since it's cord heaven under there, but mean ol' mom has managed to prevent that.
-When he's not getting around and into everything, he discovered that he can pull apart all of the pieces of his playmat. It's a foam tile mat with edging, but each of the tiles is also a puzzle. It's about 6' X 5', and each tile puzzle has about 8 pieces. Needless to say, I'm finding these little foam pieces EVERYWHERE. He chews on some, shoves some under the coach, in corners, in his shorts (I found the missing frog leg piece while doing laundry the other day, apparently he stored it in his clothes for safe keeping.)

Needless to say, this week is gonna bring some major changes for us in the form of multiple baby-proofing kits. We already did the obvious cabinet latches and outlet covers (and Keegan put some doorknob covers on the backdoor; I appreciated his zest but um, I don't think Aldon will be tall enough to reach the knob anyways until he's like 3) but this is whole baby-proof the house thing apparently calls for some heavy duty equipment. 

I keep drifting back to when I lived alone and had my townhouse all set up so cutesy with everything in it's place and little knick knacks here and there; bookshelves full of biographies of inspirational people, the occasional chick-lit good read, my Cosmo magazines.. now: it's stuffed with parenting 'how-to' manuals, the complete line of 'What To Expect...' books, children's books, and of course the only magazines are Parenting, Parents, and American Baby. Ahhhh, what a treasured life I live ;)

Another new development for Aldon- he can stand on his own! For like, four seconds tops, but hey it still counts! He's taken a few accidental steps on his own, but doesn't really realize what he's doing. He gets so excited over skills he masters, and we do, too... but this recent almost walking thing terrifies me. I swear I'm about to wrap him in yards of bubble wrap cause he's bound to fall sometime. And I'm talking the industrial, huge bubbles on this wrap, not those puny little ones. Because obviously that won't make other babies at daycare laugh at him. 

From this little peanut....

...to this almost-toddler in what seems like overnight. Amazing.