Game Day Dad

For us our child started walking around 9 months and this is fairly early from what I’ve read.   I’d just like to say you can never be ready for the increase in anxiety that comes with your first baby learning to walk.   Literally the first time they stumble from you holding them up a for a couple of steps your heart rate changes and doesn’t go back.   Your brain switches to a mode where you identify everything in your home that’s a possible fall hazard and your start to blockade off things to marginalize the damage possibilities.

It’s never enough.

Our poor little pumpkin is running around with a big black shiner a week before pictures!    She managed to fall perfectly in to the corner of a piece of furniture in a split second and bust  her eye.   Mom called me in terror while I was working and sent me several instant messages with pictures trying to figure out if we should go to the emergency room.   Luckily I happened to be with one of my co-workers who helped us determine it wasn’t  a big deal and no doctor necessary.   However here is what I hear about when you should get them checked:

1. If the swelling goes in to the body and not swelling outside.  Supposedly this is a sign of possible break or internal injury?
2. If it’s so close to the eye or temple that that you suspect they could have injured their eye or gotten a concussion.
3. If they don’t stop crying about it.   Our baby stopped crying after a few minutes and took a nap even though my wife was in terror.    But constant pain is a sign that it’s a real injury.

My suggestion on the house is to watch for furniture with sharp corners or sharp points close to the ground.   Your baby is going to take tumbles to the ground daily by the dozen and as long as they don’t end on a sharp point they should be OK!

As soon as your baby starts trying to pull up a little and wobbly standing while you hold them up the natural next step is to put them in the walker.    The whole idea of the walker for me was fun.   Watching our little girl stumble around in that thing not moving too far off.   Chewing on the attached toys and looking in general very entertained.   Because that’s what it is, entertaining.

Fast Forward Three Months

Toot no don’t touch that!  Crash!   Get away from that cat he bites!   AAAAAAAHHH she opened a drawer and pushed it closed on her little hand and is screaming.    OUCH she ran over my foot in the walker!

The baby walker is now like a little wrecking ball of energy powered by our daughter smashing around the house.   It seems like babies have a built in mechanism to go after the things you’d want them have least ordered by most dangerous first.    It’s wild and it’s crazy so you need to be prepared for it because as soon as they’re able to stumble around even a bit you need to baby proof your house.  Buy those little plugs to keep them out of power outlets, move anything breakable or easily knocked over out of the path of the wrecking ball.   As I understand it the safety latches you can add to your cabinets are quickly figured out by the baby and rubber bands wrapped around the cabinet knobs of the cleaning product counters is an effective measure because it requires strength to remove.    You literally have to protect them from themselves!

Bottom line is as soon as they get a little bit of a handle on the baby walker start preparing your house.