Baby Gates

We now have a new, super deluxe, custom built baby gate, thanks to poor Sam's adventures yesterday.  Our back staircase was more or less off limits until this past week, when the weather warmed up.  Most likely, Sam did not know it existed.  It is used really just to access the backyard, back deck, and cellar.  Since the backyard was covered in three feet of snow for most of the winter, Sam may also have not known that existed.  Now that the weather has finally improved, he thinks the back deck is his new playroom.  

When he wants to go somewhere lately, he points and says,"go," and then, "bye-bye," and takes off.  The back porch is his new favorite destination.  Just about adjacent to the back deck is the staircase, which has been blocked off by an ill-fitting, balanced baby gate and a ladder, while we found a baby gate that fit the narrow dimensions and was also designed for the top of the stairs.  

I was actually online researching these non-existent baby gates, thinking that Sam was in the kitchen with my husband, which he was, until he apparently decided to head to the door to the back porch.  On the way, he must have become curious about the backstairs, and the next thing we knew, he had tumbled down them, head first.

Sam is fine, relatively.  He looks more or less like has been in a bar fight, an egg of varying colors on his forehead, and a cut next to his nose.  His parents, not so fine.  I didn't stop shaking for a few hours, like the adrenaline after a near car accident.  (I recommend wine when you find your child is still intact).  My father, a contractor, came over immediately, after I called him crying, to construct this indestructible baby gate.  

What we learned (other than to have the fitted baby gate up & installed before the child is curious about the stairs), is that the forehead is the best place for a baby to land when falling on their head.  Unless the nurse was just trying to make us feel better.  

That few minutes of utter panic was enough to send me into a re-baby proofing frenzy, especially as the weather gets warmer and we are outside more.  Next installment will be the fenced in backyard.