Blast-off

[Phoebe]

Once your infants reached a certain age, did they just take off in their development?



Avery is 8 months and recently seems like she downloaded all these new moves overnight. A week ago she was trying to crawl, now she has added a couple words (mama and hi) to her vocabulary (consisting of kitty and dada), taken off crawling and now pulls herself up on furniture and stairs.



She is so excited about her new skills. So are we. Now we have to babyproof the house. Can anyone recommend gates?



Jennifer

[mommax3]

Jennifer,



Every baby is different, but it has been my experience with my boys that at a certain point, it all comes together and WATCH OUT! This has been true for all three of them, motor-wise. My 9 month old (today ) has started crawling in the past two weeks and is well on his way to pulling up -- I know he will do it before this month is over.



I have no recommendations for gates -- I am still using the ones I bought pre-children to keep my cats out of the Christmas tree, so they are old. I didn't use them with my second baby and don't know if I will with this one either. My house has kind of migrated to a permanently baby-proofed zone. I would recommend ones that you can step over easily because the reality is that you will do that rather than take them down or open and close them.



One idea for you -- try to have at least a couple of low cabinets filled with tupperware or other stuff that Avery can play with without hurting herself. You'll have to pick it up later but it will buy you time when you are cooking. Also look for magnet/toy thingies at Toys R Us or somewhere -- Nathan (my youngest) is fascinated with these right now.



Have fun -- this is my favorite baby stage!



Sally

I agree with Sally...this is one of the most fun stages!!! I also had a tupperware cupboard...and then used baby locks on the other cupboards When I was cooking, I'd also let them play with a pot and a wooden spoon....



We tried out several different baby gates, and honestly...we always used the cheap-os from Wal-Mart and they worked just fine. They weren't as attractive as some of the top models, but they do the job. Just don't a gate directly at the top of the stairs....in case it loosens and falls...you don't want baby to take a tumble....Set it back from the stairs a bit if you are gating off the top floor....



have fun with this new stage!!!!!



Kris
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