Monday, June 13, 2011

10 Things You Learn Once You Have a Little One on the Move

Once Ethan began crawling, everything became a new adventure for both him and me. Before he could move he was always limited in what he could interact with. Now it seems that the whole world has opened up to him and nothing is out of reach anymore.

1. The first thing you learn is your house is really dirty... Babies tend to find every little nook and cranny. You know that baseboard you haven't had time to look at? Yeah, it's incredibly dusty and a baby can't wait to get their hands on it. Oh, there's a crumb on the floor??? He's going to want to eat that. You may have thought you had a clean house...you don't.

2. Electronics are super fun....Ethan will head straight for the cords. He loves to chew on them. He also loves to try and stick his fingers in the outlets (they are covered now) although every time you use one you have to remember to stick the cover back in because Captain Observer will notice that you forgot. Also, babies leave the womb with the knowledge that phones, computers, remotes, and ipods are the poop a loop. MUST.HAVE.THING.WITH.BUTTONS!

3. You Haven't Been Doing the 30 Day Shred? No problem! You will be chasing and bending and throwing an almost 20 pound human being over your shoulder a million, bijilllion times a day. You'll be fine, seriously.

4. Doorstops are the bomb diggity...Those noisy little doorstops that you forgot you even had are so much fun to play with. Unfortunately they are also dangerous since the little white cap could come off and go into the mouth. These are now "I'm totally out of ideas" supervised play times. 

5. OMG who knew there was so much crap on the floor??? It seems there are potential dangers lurking with every inch of carpeting. All those little plasticy pieces from the tags off new baby clothes...choking hazard. You can't see them, they can. Yikes! Dropped a tiny shred of paper on the ground? Yep, another choking hazard. Random strings...yep...you guessed it. Choking hazard. 

6. Babies don't know that unstable items are dangerous. The screen door that won't stay shut, the drawers in the tiled bathroom and kitchen, the tiny side table in the nursery, the rocking ottoman in the bedroom...yep, they will try to pull up on all of that. Especially if you have turned your head for a nano second.

7. Stairs look awesome! Oh yeah, it's our new mission in life to go both up and down the stairs. He will make a bee line for them if he can get the chance. Apparently babies have ZERO fear.

8. Finding new ways to contain them becomes your new daytime hobby. Once they figure out they can get everywhere they want to go, containment becomes a four letter word. The pack and play they used to play in, the jumper they use to love, the play pen they could spend half an hour in, the swing bahahaha.....all crap now. Whhhhhaaaaaaa!!!!!

9. You will start to see everything in a new light. As much as those above points sound negative, they really aren't. The "on the move" time is so much fun. You gotta think about how much they get to experience now and how new everything is. You learn new things to do with ordinary items like Tupperware and shiny knobs and moving doors and drawers. It truly is exciting to watch them take it all in.

10. Crawling doesn't mean your life is over, it means the fun is just beginning. Once Ethan started crawling I felt like we began a whole new chapter. There are a whole new set of rules to be learned. Everything is adventurous. There are countless of new things to show him. I'm beginning to see him as *gasp* not a baby.

18 comments :

  1. I used to think I was a pretty clean person....once J started spending more time on the floor I realized just how much our dogs shed. Seriously I could vaccumm 12 times a day and still find hair everywhere. It grosses me out!

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  2. I love your list...especially the part about the Shred. ;) You're shredding...in other ways. :)

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  3. I love, love, love your list! :) My son is walking...well, more or less running...right now, and I am constantly having to find new ways to keep him entertained and out of trouble. :)

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  4. This is ALL so true!!! Addie pulls up too and is now trying to climb things (like the back of the couch)...seriously, adventure is the name of the game. So scary...and exciting...all at once:)

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  5. I completely agree! It's been interesting to say the least. :)

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  6. Oh, dear, this is what I have to look forward to? haha! Emmy is about to crawl any second now and I am already freaking out about how I'm going to contain her. But you're absolutely right, it's so fascinating and exciting seeing them explore and learn. Plus, her newest talent of holding her own bottle is making my life a little easier ;)

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  7. Oh my gosh. I was laughing so hard reading this. I relate to every single one of these things. The plastic tags on baby clothes?!! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!

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  8. Ok, I need to tape this list up. My LO is 5mos and I'm already worried about the crawling stage!

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  9. Loved this!
    I have a feeling that I may have an early crawler on my hands, and I'm already panicking a tiny bit over all the things that she could get into. Especially the electronics! She loves to pull on all the cords and knock things over. It should be fun.

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  10. I like how most of these happened during today's play date!

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  11. Isn't it wonderful the things you find out once they go mobile?!

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  12. Hahaha... another great list to file away for future reference :-)

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  13. I love this list! 30 day shred is totally not necessary for mamas with babies on the go. Number 8 and 10 could not be more true!

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  14. Love this list...taking note for when Nolan crawls. At least I got the live action when you came to visit so I could get an idea. I really think electronics should be their favorite toys...it's an obsession! Ha ha or how Ethan was so interesting in screws or screw holes. Why do we even bother to buy toys?

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  15. This is such a great list! every time my nieces come to visit I feel like I am frantically trying to clean every nook and cranny of the floor. And our stairs are definitely where the kids beeline first!

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  16. great list! i hate those little clear tag holders! also, we supper glued the white things on to the door stops and yanked on them with all our might to make sure they arent going anywhere!

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  17. I remember with my first just wishing and wishing that she would crawl, and then when she did, I wondered why I had wanted it to happen so quickly -- for all the reasons you mentioned! Flash forward 10 years, and we have another newborn -- hopefully we'll be a little more prepared this time (and hoping she waits a while to be mobile!!).

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  18. ah yes... these all sound so familiar! & not to make it worse...but it does get worse when they are tall enough to start pulling things off the backs of chairs to they fall on them, or off the edges of tables. I thought my world was already turned upside down! Visiting from The Mommy Matters blog. Looks like you might be fun to follow!

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