This year has been a whirlwind. I mean, it was just yesterday that Aubrey was born right? She went to her 9 month check up today!!! She's short and skinny with a big head - love it! She's been standing on her own (getting up with the aid of a chair or mommy's hand), but she's able to stand on her own for a good five minutes. Crazy right?
She's also been mobile. When I say mobile, I mean mobile. She is so quick. It's so cute to go around the corner, and watch the little rug rat follow you and peak around that corner.
And my little Ansley - she's no baby anymore. That's what she thinks. She is ONE MONTH away from being two. When I ask her if she's my baby, she responds with "No, I big girl." So sad - she's growing up way too fast. She's also onto potty training. Funny story: Ryan and I went to the store without extra diapers or clothes and totally forgot that she had no diapers on. We made it home dry. Thank goodness. That would have been bad for the Home Depot associates.
Here are my lovelys. I took them for a stroll in our subdivision. We don't have a double stroller, so we're thinking about getting one.

Another tanget: This stroller in the picture - I purchased it at one of those kid's consignment stores. Anyway, I was looking for a jogging stroller. I saw this there, and saw that it was shaped like one. I took my phone, googled Amazon for reviews for about 20 minutes before the purchase, and then finally walked up to the register and purchased it for $65. Come to find it, it's NOT a jogging stroller. Sad face. Oh well - lesson learned. The lesson? Sleep on it before making purchases, even if you googled about it right there in the store.
Back to the topic at hand - with two rug rats under the age of 2, and the youngest one turning one soon, you can believe that they will get into EVERYTHING. In our household, we try to baby proof as much as possible to "Be Safe" (quotes will be explained in the last paragraph of this post). That's pretty easy because we still don't have furniture in our living room. We don't feel bad about this because I went to a client's house to do photos, and she didn't have any either! 🙂
For those that wonder why, its because I now know why people spend good money on furniture. Its because they last - and they shouldn't go out of style due to fads. I used to be the type that bought furniture "just to fill the space", but I've come to the conclusion that making a room and designing a room takes time...and money. Lots of it. So, we're doing it slowly and having a good time at it. Hey, its less dusting right?
Anyway, back to baby proofing and "Being Safe". These are the things I recommend buying for sockets and the cabinet locks. They both are made by Safety 1st and are sold at Walmart and Home Depot. They are AWESOME.
This socket with the middle thing makes it easier for parents to take off, but harder for kids to figure out.

This thing makes sure your cabinet doesn't open.

This cabinet lock below is terrible. I mean, terrible. Don't buy it. It's also made by Safety 1st.

Other than that, we did buy a tension gate that we used when we lived in an apartment, but the gate was too narrow. So we are in the process of upgrading that. We've moved all of our cleaning stuff from the bottom shelf to the top shelf.
Last night, I watched an episode of Modern Family for the first time - and it was about baby proofing. Al Bundy (okay, I know that's not his name, but that's his name in my mind) said, "How did kids survive back in the stone ages without baby proofing?" His wife said, "Some of them probably didn't." Okay, I extrapolated those comments and they are not verbatim, but they get the point across.