I am AMAZED at the growth and progress of an eight month old boy. Recently, Jeremy and I have discovered how time consuming it is to baby-proof a house. My word!! We started first with plugs for all of the outlets. Who knew there were so many outlets allowed in a house?! I can't imagine how people with bigger houses baby-proof. After plugging in plastic caps into all of my outlets, I decided to celebrate my good efforts with something to eat.

After eating some pieces of dried mango, I began to notice an eerie silence. It's like that moment in a movie where the music gets loud and intense to suggest that something scary is about to happen. I noticed that I didn't hear Austin making noises anymore. My heart felt at ease knowing that the silence had nothing to do with any electrical outlets since I had just plugged them all with plastic.

After searching around I found Austin in his room, which is a safe and logical place for him to be. So of course I searched there last. I found Austin on the floor playing with a little fan that I had unplugged in order to baby-proof the outlet. Austin was smiling away with the end of the plug to the fan sticking out of his mouth. He could not have been more happy! When he smiled, he showed his little nubs for teeth on the bottom and drool ran down all over himself and all over the cord.

I learned two things that day. #1- Crawling is a much faster and efficient way of transportation than I had ever imagined. I had always assumed that an adult with a walking leg span could be faster than a little tot on all fours scooting across the floor, but this is simply not the case!! He has learned to not only shift into higher gears, but he has also learned how to steer. Life was much quieter when he only knew first gear. And if something got in his way, he would stop and roll over onto his back and look up at the ceiling and stare at something for hours to keep his attention. Oh the good ol' days!

Lesson #2- There is no such as baby-proofing a house! If it's not an outlet, then it's the cord that used to be in the outlet. If it's not the top shelf of your best China, it is the crumb of who-knows-what that looks like has been on the floor since before you lived there. If it isn't the cupboards with the child-proof lock then it's the bottle laying wide open with the child-proof cap!

I'm not saying that I don't think it's a good idea to take precautions to keeping your kids out of trouble and out of things they shouldn't be in to. What I AM saying is that there is not enough time in the day to properly and efficiently take all precautions before the little squirt finds the one you missed.