On March 5th, Niko got bailed out of baby-jail and is now free to crawl (and, hopefully walk soon) on the 1st floor of our house. Well, most of the 1st floor as the kitchen and cat area are off limit to him. I wonder who bailed him out?
I am by no means handy and was very glad that the Friday before, we had a handyman hang shelves (we can always use more places to put stuff) and drill holes so Nina and I could attach furniture to walls. He actually had a better idea for attaching furniture and did it for us!!! Thanks Doug. The only holes I had to drill were to secure the gates on the 1st floor and it was fairly easy. I won’t even tell you about the gates we purchased and returned because they didn’t work for what we wanted. Please don’t look at the pantry door for the holes I drilled for those gates (as instructed by Nina).
I also have to thank Nina’s dad and step-mom who were visiting us from out town that weekend. They baby wrangled a lot so Nina and I could get it completed. Without help, it is always so hard to do stuff because we just run out of time.
It is so nice for Niko as he has more room to play and explore. I feel bad (not that bad) for Franklin cat because Niko likes to chase him, pull his fur, and jump on him and Franklin accepts it. Hey, Franklin can go somewhere where the baby can’t go, but he refuses. We are trying to teach Niko to be gentle with Franklin. Even though Franklin is de-clawed in the front, he has teeth and can bat pretty hard with his feet. All 3 of us humans in the house have learned that the hard way.
Our reward was an Amazon purchase for a new vacuum cleaner. I know, extravagant!!! Hey, our old one was old and wasn’t working well and our new vacuum will make it much easier to clean. We also have a little portable vacuum. Every night since his freedom we do a 5-minute clean up and that means putting all the baby toys and real life toys (diapers, water bottles, empty boxes, or clothes) away and doing a quick vacuum to remove food, fur, and stuff that comes in from the outside. By away, I mean everything goes in a 4×4 IKEA shelving unit. We also have a 2×4 IKEA shelving unit in his bedroom. As I am writing this paragraph, I am in his bedroom staring at the 2×4, 2 IKEA bookcases, an IKEA dresser, 2 rugs from Target, a mini fridge, lots of clean laundry that needs to be folded, and a nice air mattress (that I have used several times for both naps and evening since Niko is still sleeping in our room in his IKEA crib). We have to wait a few minutes after he dozes off before we can join him or we risk waking him up (that has happened a few times). Note…I am not being paid any money by IKEA but if somebody from there reads this and forwards this to management, I would be happy to take money or more IKEA products.
The next room for baby proofing is Niko’s room (we started a few weeks ago). Basically, I think it will take a few hours as we just have to tidy up (with the new vacuum), move the clean laundry somewhere else (probably our bedroom), secure the dresser drawers and attach it to the wall (the handyman way), and secure a bookcase door (it has my Beatles stuff in it). I am going to try to start tomorrow. Notice I said try because something always comes up like me taking a nap.
