Here, there, and everywhere....

FrauElyse

DS figured out in the past week how to sit up entirely by himself, crawl, and pull up on things.  He's already almost standing up!  Yay for him except he is EVERYWHERE!  I babyproof but he still manages to find something to get into.  I don't want to pen him in, but I'm thinking I might have to.  I'm also glad he's gotten more independent and wants to play, but it's exhausting chasing him all over our tiny apartment and sometimes I have to cook dinner, etc.  

Note: He doesn't really like his exersaucer or his jumpy gym thing because they constrict his movement.  

Is it mean to pen him in?  If not, do you have any play-pen recommendations? 

FrauElyse

I guess I am just being a little neat-freaky, but I do worry about our vertical blinds.  We rent an apartment so we can't take them down.  Is there a way to babyproof those (ie, keeping him from ripping them down)?

Marsee

We just had to fence DS in last weekend. Things were getting way too dangerous. He's not really penned in, though. We got two of these: 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/North-States-Superyard-Xt-Gate/8457890 

and connected them together as needed. We blocked off the wall of the TV and fireplace, but he pretty much has free reign of the rest of the living room. However, I did put a barrier up so he can't get into the kitchen. Yes, he's technically penned in, but he still can get around the whole room and not be stuck inside a tiny "box".

 

We babyproofed everything so he can explore things, but he has his toys too. We also just moved our old coffee table up from the basement. Our nice one is too dangerous and he was grabbing at everything on it. Our old one is pretty crappy so I'm not worried about him ruining it and we made sure to take all of our normal coffee table stuff off of it. Now I've been putting a few of his things around/on it so he can explore the "new" table. I know you probably don't have a lot of extra space, but what if you got some things at a garage sale or Craigslist that he can play on/around and put your nicer things in storage for awhile?

tslmom87

You don't have to pen him in. I never did and we survived. When I was doing things around the house I wore dd. When I was in the family room(where I am 90% of the day, I'd baby gate the door way, it's completely baby proofed so she'd just play with her toys!

Hth!

FrauElyse

Thanks Marsee!  That's something I might look into.

FWIW....I meant the vertical blinds like the long plastic ones that hang in front of sliding doors.  One entire wall of our living room is a sliding door so we have a lot of them.  I realize the cords are very dangerous and have babyproofed all of the normal blinds.  (The vertical ones have no cords or pulley chains.)  Also, I try to wear him but sometimes he gets mad and wants out.