In theory, the idea is to give the monkey a bit more independence and freedom.
After all, he’s not only crawling now, but pulling himself up to standing, and beginning to “transfer” from one handhold to the next. He’s not quite doing a lateral shuffle yet, but rather getting his hands from where they are at “point A” to a new handhold at “point B” and then bringing his feet along for the ride. Once he starts doing it the other way around, it’ll be only a matter of weeks before walk-stumbling and then walk-headbanging and then walking.
But in practice, it’s time to jail that sucker in.
There are steel bars across our two openings to the common living room/dining room area (one large, one small), and one to be installed tomorrow at the top of the stairs to the top floor. Stairs to the basement can be sealed off further with the door, but the main idea is that keeping him contained to the living area will keep him away from both sets of stairs at once. As a somewhat forgetful guy, I’m happy to jail him a little bit, even though the dogs are less appreciative of the new obstacles.
Which isn’t to say we’re going nutty. We’re both doing good at not being those paranoid overprotective types, but I have to admit it takes concerted effort. I can relate to parents who see danger around every corner because hey, there IS danger around every corner! Electric outlets, sharp objects, sleeping dogs who might be startled by an ear-pull, staircases, toxins… you don’t know how unsafe your house is until you unleash a child on it. That said, we let him take a few bumps along the way cause bumps are inevitable. We let him shove “dirty” (ie. not washed every day… no OCD here) toys in his mouth because it’s futile to try to prevent such things.
I don’t even know that my sister and I had gates around the house as youngsters. Heck, I was climbing out of my crib and making it safely to the floor before I could even say “dada”. Which makes me only slightly worried that our security measures aren’t tall enough!
Cold Lake was a bungalow, so no stairs and likely no gates. Not sure about the house in Portage, though. You’d have to ask Mom.
Hah, good point!
The upstairs gate is now in place, and man was it an ordeal. It was only after it was installed (well, sort of mid-way) that I said, “Ahhh… I see a better way of doing this…” but it was too late.