This is getting serious. The other day, Elsa and Clio were on the play gym mat / blanket complex we regularly set up for them on the living room floor, while I was in and out of the kitchen, making pureed sweet potatoes. (I've been possessed of late by some kind of evil SuperMom demon who has convinced me that in addition to juggling twins, a part-time job, a marriage, housework, exercise, a social life, a novel in progress and a blog, I should really be making my own baby food, too. Does anyone have any holy water?)
Anyway, I got a little too absorbed in the fun of pureeing (vive la Cuisinart!) and went a little too long without going into the living room to check on the girls. When I finally did (bad mother! bad! bad!) Elsa had crept her way off the play mat and blanket, over the rug and onto the hardwood, and was inches away from the power strip where our stereo components, fan, and Alastair's phone and iPod chargers are plugged in. Her little hand was outstretched, reaching, grabbing, yearning for those delicious plugs and wires. I quickly scooped her up and put her in the Jumparoo and made two mental notes: 1.) Do not leave babies on floor unattended for more than one minute at a time. 2.) Start babyproofing, stat.
This relatively slow creeping is just the beginning, of course. Elsa is going to crawl any day now. She is at the stage where she's getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. Pretty soon it's going to click: "hey, I can move one hand, then a leg, then...whoah! Power strip, here I come!" Clio is making progress, too, doing more belly-pivoting and shimmying of her own. She can get up into a serious upward dog now, and push a little with her knees on the floor.
When the day comes that they are both crawling, we are -- how do I put this delicately? -- fucked. One baby crawling is tough enough. But two, in different directions? (Because of course they'll go in different directions.) Oy. And yes, I know. Just wait until they're walking. On the upside, I suppose constantly chasing after them could help me lose the last five pregnancy pounds.
I think I've got a decent handle on the basics of babyproofing: cover the outlets, move any small or breakable objects out of reach, babyproof cabinet doors, put up gates as needed, set up the Pack-n-Play for brief periods of containment, consider vacuuming/sweeping more often so babies don't ingest too many dust bunnies. Any other lesser-known tips? Things you didn't think of until disaster (almost) struck?
