Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Don't Fence Me In

So now that I can officially crawl the length of the living room, let the babyproofing begin. (Or continue. Apparently one of Mama's nesting activities before I was born was to do "some" babyproofing, which really meant just trying out 100 different types of latches and locks.)

So here's what they're using, to my chagrin.

Super Stopper for the windows to keep them from opening too far and me from falling out.

Blind Winder. For the venetian blinds- works like a tape measure and retracts the cord for you. They work pretty well, but you need to be careful not to put too much cord in them (you cut the blind cord before attaching them. shorter is better).

Hands-free Gate- one of the only hands-free, pressure mounted gates my moms could find. Apparently drilling into plaster is something you dont want to do on a regular basis, and having a gate that you dont have to step over is also important to them. So this is one of the few that meets both criteria.

Sliding Outlet Covers My moms did some research and chose this type of outlet cover for a few reasons- first, the plastic ones are apparently pretty easy for some little ones to take out (and possibly choke on). The ones that you have to turn can be hard to use. So they picked these, which we already have on some outlets; although I am not allowed to play with cords, my moms tell me they are easy to use. For them. Not me.

We are facing a few dilemas and welcome input:

1) Any way (other than the parental eagle eye) to childproof cords? like for example the cord that runs from the lamp to the wall or the radio on the table to the wall? I love to play with cords, put them in my mouth, etc. Light is a pretty important thing to have, so they cant remove the lamps altogether or they wont be able to see my cute face....

2) Anyone have any suggestions on anchoring big furniture to plaster walls? Because I love to climb already, my moms have horrible visions of the tv cabinet falling on me. We use plastic anchor things for pictures and such, but what about huge-*ss furniture? What wont pull out of the wall?

3 comments:

A.M.S. said...

If your cord concern is mostly about chewing and getting tangled, you can find plastic, ribbed tubing that has a slit down the side to allow the cord to be fed into it. We use it on every power cord in the house to keep the cat from chewing through them. Usually get 6' in a package for about $3. Try any electronics store. If you have a Fry's in your area, they always have it.

If you are concerned about containing the excess length, look for something called a cable turtle.

As for heavy furniture, 2 "L" brackets can be attached to the top of the cabinet, and then attached to the wall. That's about the only way to do it that I know of. Your friendly hardware store might be able to offer other suggestions.

Good luck!

Gus, Clay and Mommy said...

Thanks for the suggestions! We don't have Fry's but I'm sure we'll be able to find this stuff somewhere (even if we have to look on the internets...)

Trista said...

We used l brackets to anchor our heavy furniture to our lath and plaster walls. Lath and plaster walls DO have studs, they're just harder to find... if you can find a stud, great, if not, there are molly bolts at the hardware store that are rated for higher poundage...

As for the cords, if you can't find those ribbed tubing, there are also hard plastic channels that you can thread your wires through and then screw down to the floor or wall. Our friends did that for their entertainment system. We haven't gone that far yet -- most of our cords are behind large pieces of furntiure. But I can see a time when something like that might be necessary.

 
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