The Small Family   

Week 43: Baby Gates ’R Us

Well, it had to be done. Operation Baby Gate is complete. After Theo scaled Mount Vento Court last week, we realized that we could leave the bottom of the stairs empty no more. So, Grandpa Tom came up for the day on Wednesday and helped Theo install the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. I hear Chris just slept in the front pack on Theo while the other boys did all the work. ;-) (Yeah, yeah, okay...it was Theo who slept through it. But he doesn’t want to look like a slacker, so he told me to tell you all that he installed the gate.)

Grandpa Tom, Chris, and Theo were quite productive on Wednesday, while I edited the never-ending Modern Weaponry chapter that is still plaguing me (more on that later). They installed the downstairs baby gate, fixed the upstairs baby gate, installed a permanent shower-curtain rod for me (because Theo yanks on my shower curtain, and the tension rod we were using wasn’t holding up too well), fixed Theo’s ceiling fan, fixed Chris’s crippled desk (which he busted a few weeks ago in an attempt to babyproof), and put cabinet locks on a couple cabinets. Chris and I have already learned to hate the stupid cabinet locks, but luckily they are only on a couple cabinets. We moved all dangerous things (cleaning supplies, glassware, etc.) into a couple cabinets and just put the darn locks on those. If Theo gets into any of the other cabinets (which we know he will!), there’s nothing in them that can hurt him. We just couldn’t live with the darn cabinet locks on everything...I think we’d go nuts!

Theo is continuing to ravage the house as he explores and enjoys his newfound mobility. He is into anything and everything. Today he managed to pull the kitchen garbage can over on himself, and he looked rather cute lying amidst the garbage, I must say. Luckily, it was all paper goods and such, so no harm done.

His other favorite thing is to stand at the sliding glass door and look outside while babbling happily. You’ll see a bunch of pictures of him doing just that in this week’s album. And I’m embarrassed to see in the pix how dirty our glass door looks. Ah well, in my copious spare time, I’ll clean it...someday...when I have copious spare time....

The reason I have no such spare time lately is a godawful book I’m editing. 1,100 pages on game design, with 400+ pages of it being on weapons and artillery. I’m not a gun person, nor am I a war person. I really have no interest in missiles, tanks, chemical warfare, nuclear bombs, or anything of the sort. And yet, for days on end I’ve been reading about this crud. Saturday morning, at precisely 12:04 a.m., I thought I had finally finished it. I celebrated silently, since Chris and Theo and Luna were already sleeping. I went to bed with a happy heart. And then, today, I got news that the author had “forgotten” to submit another 100 pages of warfare crud. ACK!!!!!! It’s the project that will never end! I seriously don’t know if I can face much more of this drivel. I’ll just keep reminding myself, “Long book equals good paycheck equals money to pay off some more bills...” But really, I’d rather never read another word about tanks again. Blech.

And if it’s not bad enough to be stuck reading boring, useless bits of trivia about weaponry, I’m still fighting that same darn cold, as is Theo. Theo seems a lot better today, though. I, alas, am still hacking up a lung all night long, and thus Luna is my bedmate these days as we sack out on the couch. I don’t want to keep Chris and/or Theo awake with my coughing all night, so I escape downstairs and snuggle up with Luna. I don’t think she minds, but I kind of miss my bed and having someone non-furry to cuddle with!

But, we had some fun this week. On Monday, I went to my photography class with Kim. Hats off to our teacher, who made three hours of highly technical photography info about electrons and microprocessors and such relatively interesting. I didn’t think such a thing was possible, but he’s a great teacher. This week we have a little test on some camera specifics, and then I think we get into taking pictures!

The class is about an hour away from Roseville, so on Mondays I’m gone from about 1:30 to about 7:00. Grandma Diane watches Theo from 1:30 to about 4:30, when Chris gets home and takes over. I’m told they had quite a fun time this week. Grandma walked Theo over to Target and then to the park, where he flirted with a little girl while Grandma pushed him on the swings, which is always a favorite activity for him. Then they came home and played for a while, and then Theo demonstrated his stair-climbing prowess for Grandma (who followed him closely in case he toppled). Evidently he shot her the evil eye when she braced my dresser drawer with her leg so he couldn’t pull it open and pinch his fingers in it, but he got over it and set about tipping over laundry baskets instead.

And Saturday, we took a day trip to San Jose to see Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom, as well as Auntie Tanya, Uncle Steve, Nik, Aunt Linda, and Uncle Bill. Theo warmed to Nik much more this time, although he did squawk a bit when Nik tried to give him a very exuberant hug! It’s pretty cute to watch. Nik seems to just want to gleefully hug his cousin, and Theo is more a “give me a little space, man!” baby. Funny to see their two personalities. So far, Nik is definitely more outgoing in general, though Theo warms up and is a real charmer once he is comfortable with people...he just keeps his distance a bit more at first.

I had to laugh on Saturday. Theo was determined to get to two things in the Smalls’ living room: the TV remotes and the TV equipment. These items were on opposite sides of the room, but he kept going back to them. Even when I used my body as a shield so he couldn’t get past me, he attempted to climb over me to reach the TV equipment. Grandma Kathy suggested that I redirect Theo’s attention, but she soon realized how hard it is to dissuade that boy once he has something on his mind! All the baby-rearing books I’ve read say the same thing—“distract and redirect.” And it seems like such good advice...until we try to put it into practice. We redirect, redirect, and redirect some more, and Theo just remains determined to get whatever it is he thinks he wants at the moment. I can’t help but admire the boy’s tenacity. I swear, he’s going to end up running the country or something one day. He has determination like I’ve never seen....

Anyway, it was a good visit—Theo was cheery all day and slept in the car all the way down and all the way home. Bliss!

The only other real news this week is that we finally got around to introducing a new food to Theo’s diet. This week it’s...drum roll, please...corn! He seemed to like it just fine, so there’s one more vegetable he’ll eat, assuming he has no adverse effects from it. He’s not a big fan of veggies, so I’m always happy to find one he likes.

Anyway, must get back to reading about weapons and that garbage, so enjoy the photos, and enjoy your week!