I've recently become aware that there is not one general level of baby proofing. I mean, unless you just took everything out of your house and padded the walls from the start. Things that didn't need to be gated off when Brinleigh crawled had to be gated off when she started walking. Now she's tall enough to grab things off the kitchen counter. Over the weekend she showed us that all of a sudden she can climb on top of the ottoman that we keep all of her toys in. Later that afternoon she climbed onto the couch. Sunday morning when we woke up she walked to the mudroom to let Gunner out, and actually attempted to open the door by pulling the handle down. That means that with a little more practice, she will be able to escape any door with a pull down door handle. Like our two front doors! (Fortunately, when she's awake we keep a gate up in this doorway to block off the mudroom.) So, we opened the door for her and she proceeded to try and open Gunner's kennel to let him out. Then Kolt went outside to check the mailbox and she damn near escaped right behind him. She's a quick little thing. She has also already attempted to climb onto the coffee table. Besides getting rid of all the furniture or keeping her confined in a gated area, I am at a loss as to what to do about this. So now our days mostly consist of Brinleigh climbing onto the couch and then running back and forth from one end to the other or jumping like she's on a trampoline. Kolt and I hold our breath every time she gets close to the edge and we are constantly repeating "SIT ON YOUR BUTT PLEASE!" Brinleigh understands what we tell her and does follow directions, when she wants to. She will sit on her butt, however, there are only two spots where she insists on sitting, so of course she has to run to one of those spots before sitting. We then praise her with an energetic "Thank You" or "Good job." Of course, she immediately gets back up and starts running from one end to the other again.
