Kitchen Gate III - The Prisoner of Kitchenaban

So, Eli and Jude have suddenly entered into a climbing phase. I'd seen signs that it was coming a few weeks ago when I left the living room to make them lunch and when I came back, they had magically appeared on top of the couch. They did not do that trick again until a few days ago when it was all out, non-stop climbfest. I've been going out of my mind chasing after them and pulling them off of things and moving fragile objects and remote controls to higher ground.

What, you may be asking yourself, does this have to do with the kitchen gate saga? I will explain. For those who have never seen our apartment, we have a generally open plan. You enter directly into the living room, looking down the hallway to the master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room. On the opposite side of the living room, there is a dining area with another entrance to the kitchen and Eli and Jude's room. Our previous babyproofing included a big red toy box blocking the hallway and gates blocking the one kitchen entrance and my office area. This set up has worked surprisingly well - minus the previous kitchen gate dramas - since December. It probably would have continued to work if I hadn't needed to rearrange our furniture a little bit due to the climbing insanity.

We - being young, hip, utilitarian, and poor - have a storage cube that doubles as an ottoman (thank goodness the boys haven't figured out that it OPENS!) that was previously blocking an absurd amount of wires attached to all kinds of electronic goodies used to play games and watch television. We also stacked the bumbo seats on top of it for good measure. I was out of the room again, fixing food as always, when I heard two thumps and giggles, and started seeing things disappear off of the kitchen pass-through. I looked around the corner and there was Eli, standing on top of the storage cube holding our mail in one hand and the cord to the PS3 in the other. Jude was standing at his feet, smiling and also holding some paper that had been pulled off of the counter. I'm sure my eyes bugged out of my sockets and I ran to Eli and took him down, telling him "No!" and tried to put things back the way they were supposed to be. The boys, in a truly remarkable bit of teamwork, each pulled down one of the bumbo seats I'd just replaced and climbed back on top of the cube. I realized then that our furniture was moving again.

I went through the same process as a couple of weeks ago (see Kitchen Gate II) and started calling around to local stores to find another of those Crosstown gates for the other side of the kitchen. But - SHOCKER! - BRU hadn't restocked since I bought their last one! So there were none at Walmart, Target, or BRU within 50 miles of us. I was pretty frustrated when I decided to go out on a limb and tried Toys 'R' Us. The clerk I spoke to said she had FIVE in stock. I made her go check to make sure they were actually there and they were! I sent Travis to pick it up after he was done working and we set it up during the second nap of the day. We moved the cube to the corner of our living room behind the papasan chair and put the toy box where the cube used to be. Our kitchen is now like a little jail cell though, with gates on either side.


Eli and Jude love this new set-up though. They've been running up and down the hallway that was previously off limits constantly since it became open to them. They've also been standing with one on each side of the kitchen and laughing at eachother. It's very cute. I'm glad to give them a little more space to run around. I think we've finally found a layout that will work... *fingers crossed*