The Gate

The dreaded day has come. Baby gate day. Up until now we had been getting by with the walker wedged against the stairs to prevent climbing. One night I was cooking dinner, my sidekick crawling at my feet. About two minutes later I noticed she was gone. I figured she had crawled away to the living room so I peeked in there and asked the girls if they had her. No, was the answer so I checked around the bar. Not there. We checked all her favorite places. Not at Buggy's school supply drawers. Not in the bathroom. We couldn't find her anywhere! 

 

Somehow she had managed to silently squeeze past the walker there on the left and make it all the way to the top of the stairs where she was happily munching away on a bit of paper someone had left on the floor.

We knew she could climb since she'd made it up a step or two in recent weeks before getting caught, but we had no idea she could climb an entire flight of stairs (and steep ones at that). I still can't believe she didn't fall!

I headed for the basement mid-dinner prep and pulled out the dusty baby gate. It's a pain for the girls (and us) to have to open and close every time they want to go upstairs but it had become critically necessary. 

Here's a video of one last crawl to freedom before the bars of justice clanged shut.

 

"What's this?" 

I went back to my dinner prep and she went back to her trouble-seeking ways. She quickly discovered that someone had left the bathroom door open and apparently decided it was a prime opportunity. I found her pumping out soap from a bottle that had been left on the floor. All in a matter of minutes of course. 

By the time I found her both she and the floor were covered in watermelon scented slimy-goodness. I was trying to keep dinner from burning so I striped her down and washed the soap off her hands. She followed me back to the kitchen to test out the strength of the gate. 

"Hi Mom."

"O sole mio!"

"Hmm...can't seem to get past this thing."

"But I'll figure it out someday. They can't stop me for long."

:P