When Mr. Jumper and I were house hunting three years ago, we looked at key selling points like location and number of bedrooms.  We bought our house because it seemed perfect to start a family in.  We have enough bedrooms, a nice back yard, and a neighborhood filled with kids.  Even though we bought our house with the intention of starting a family, not once did the idea of having to babyproof cross our minds.

So here we are, three years later, in a wonderful home… with one gigantic babyproofing hazard.

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See the banister behind Baby Jumper?  It’s our lovely 1980’s split entry home’s idea of “safety.”  We can stick our heads between the balusters, which means Baby Jumper’s entire body could fit through.  We hired a contractor to fix this for us, but they’re not done with the project yet.  In the meantime, we have items stacked up against the railing to prevent Baby Jumper from falling through.

On top of that, Baby Jumper is on the move.  She has given up playing with her favorite toys and is saying hello to her new friends — the couch, the tv stand, our kitchen and her chair.  This can only mean one thing:  time to amp up our babyproofing.

I don’t think anything could have truly prepared us for what life is like with a baby on the move.  We’ve worked really hard to make sure our house is safe for Little Jumper.  Electrical outlets have been covered with plastic shields.  All drawers in the kitchen have been secured with cabinet locks.  Breakables have been put into storage. All sharp objects have been hidden and put out of reach.  And medicines and chemicals are on high-up, locked shelves.

She started crawling at an early age, around 5 months, and has spent the last two months perfecting her crawl and getting faster and faster.  More recently, she started climbing and standing.  This means she’s pulling herself up to stand on the couch, the TV stand, laundry baskets, or anything else that’s within reach and in her height range.  Now her favorite thing is to climb onto her chair, stand on it, look out the living room window and shriek at the neighbors walking their dogs.


The nervous, first-time mom in me panics every time I see Baby Jumper climbing on something I don’t think she should be near.  If I’m folding laundry, she tries to climb the laundry basket.  She’s having the time of her life, and all I can think about are her tiny fingers getting caught in the holes in the basket.  And the couch?  She loves pulling herself up to stand, but I have visions of her toppling over backward. It’s been hard for me, but I’ve learned I have to calm my inner nervousness and let Little Jumper learn, grow, and explore.

How has a mobile baby changed your life?