Speedy Child

Our house is relatively child-proof, but Pippin keeps getting older and faster. If I leave a door open, he finds it, guaranteed.



If Pippin gets into our bedroom, he grabs my computer, my makeup, Faramir's tools, or study books. We obviously don't encourage this.

If he gets into the bathroom, there are sharp tile corners and baby shampoo bottles. I let him play with the bath letters on the wall sometimes, but only if I'm in the room. Sometimes we parents play with the bath letters too.

If he gets into the kitchen there are recycle boxes and wooden spoons and snacks - not dangerous, but very messy.

If he gets into the living room closet there's a printer and his clothes = more messes.

The hall and living room (which is partly playroom and Pippin's bedroom) are fair game, and everything else stays behind shut doors or child-gates when he's awake and roaming.

Today he had a good long nap, and I was able to send emails, do some cooking, and take an uninterrupted shower. Bliss.

Then I hear him wake up. I cuddle him, read him part of a story. It's such a cosy happy moment. Then I put him down so I can open the curtains.

Unsurprisingly, Pippin escapes out of the living room, down the hall, and into the bedroom at lightning speed.

I race after, extract him from the bedroom, and put him in the hall. He disappears.

I race toward the kitchen, shutting the bedroom door, bathroom door, and w.c. door on my way. He's not in the kitchen, which means he's probably in the living room closet. I shut the kitchen gate and race into the living room. No Pippin. Then I hear a muffled howl.

Turns out my speedy child was hiding in the bathroom and is now scared stiff of the dark.



P.S. Pippin got over this trauma in a short amount of time and continues to wander into the bathroom when the door is left open.