Sunday, December 5, 2010

The dogs are running scared.....

And they should be. Because Dex is starting to mobilize.

I don't remember Kalli mobilizing so quickly. It seemed like it took her forever to start scooting and creeping, and just as long to figure out that she could turn. We spent alot of time picking her up and turning her around, otherwise she would just keep trying to crawl through the wall she had bumped into. I'll admit that it was funny, but it also concerned me. Of course she also started pulling up and walking much sooner than expected, so I suppose it evened out. But Dex? Dex has been rolling onto his belly for months, but didn't really care about going anywhere until recently, when he discovered that rolling around gave him access to things he couldn't normally reach. This week he realized that he could pull himself forward, scoot himself backward, and turn to the side. This morning he started gaining actual ground, and I realized it's officially time to babyproof over babyproofing, as well as possibly invest in a play yard. If nothing else, a play yard will protect the dogs, who Dex has an extreme fascination with. Seriously, my 115lb Labradane can be sitting around doing a whole lotta nothing, and Dex stares at her and cracks up. He tries to share food with her, and loves nothing more than when she licks his little hands or feet. He loves this dog. He is becoming mobile. The dog is not safe. Despite being a huge yellow beast, she's not safe. She's a big love, and gentle as a cotton ball with this baby. She will be terrorized. And I will laugh, because that's just the kind of person I am.

I'm also the kind of person that allows a 115lb dog access to the baby. No, I'm not afraid the dog will hurt him; I've trained her myself and she's the last thing I worry about with him. She loves that baby, and knows to pull away if he starts getting grabby or slappy. I dont leave them alone unsupervised, but I dont worry that the dog is gonna eat the baby. I know many people out there would have a massive coronary if a large dog even sniffed at their little ones, but I'm not one of them. I spent 8 years as a Veterinary Technician and  my daughter was raised with animals from day one. The dogs are part of the family, and I teach my kids to respect them. And I teach the dogs to be gentle and kind to the little ones. I only wish I could teach them to change a diaper as opposed to just trying to ingest them.

I've digressed a bit there. But hey, sometimes I feel like adding a little disclaimer BEFORE someone goes all unhinged over some aspect of my parenting. My point was that Dex is mobile, the dogs are no longer safe, and the mobilizing baby is just in time for Christmas, when there are all sorts of shiny objects to go chasing after! My mother's house is something out of a Christmas Catalog....several trees, train around the tree, mechanical christmas dolls, dolls that tell stories, a "snow scene", complete with glittery fake snow, buildings, sledding children, snowmen etc, and she even goes as far as to wrap empty boxes so it looks like the whole living room has been vomited upon by the Christmas Spirit. It's insane. And it's going to be Dex's favorite freaking thing in the world to crawl around and find things to chew on. I'm either going to need some sort of portable baby containment system STAT, or I'm going to have to duct tape him into my arms.

Before Dex was born, we picked up a Pack N Play. I thought it was the coolest thing ever! It's a playpen! It's a portable crib! It's a changing table! It's sitting in the garage collecting dust! Dex couldnt stand being made to hang out in the damned thing when he was younger, and honestly its not all that quick and easy to put up and then take back down when we go to dinner at mom's, so its been relegated to the garage. Now he's big enough that the pack n play is kinda small for him to move around in without whacking his little noggin on the sides, or getting pissed off cause he's too long to play in it sideways. I miss the days of the old, huge playpens. I'm pretty sure they've stopped making them now since they had those v shaped, metal arms on the sides and anything like that is now considered deadly. Kalli had a huge one of those, and man! She loooooved it. She would play in it while I cleaned or did laundry, and it was tall enough to contain her, but not so tall that she couldnt pull herself up and scoot around the edges. I'm leaning toward this plastic play yard with built in toys this time around. Kinda like a little plastic chicken coop for the baby.  Safe, fun, and he can scoot around and play, crawl, maybe lay an egg or 2. And the dogs will be safe from a drooling, grabbing, pooping baby monster.

Speaking of....Dex is no longer content in his "Dexersaucer". Time to play and pop out a boob. Dex hates to be too far from the boobies. I swear he has radar.

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