De-childproofing

I'm still getting emails from the online baby experts reminding me that it's time to start potty training, that I should be enrolling Finn in pre-school, that there are lots of online options for college funds and that 19-months is exactly the right time to start prepping for the SAT, but nobody will tell me whether it's too soon to start de-childproofing.

I only bring this up because, as another rainy Seattle winter has rolled around, Kitty decided that she could no longer live without a fireplace. In the interests of safety, we had a big ottoman blocking ours, which was not conducive to fires. To try and get fire-ready, but still maintain some semblance of safety (and to keep the cats from peeing in the ashes), we invested in some fireplace doors.

Totally safe, right? In order to set himself on fire, he will now need to overpower those tiny little fridge magnets that hold the doors closed. Of course, I don't have any corresponding safety equipment on the big fireplace poker that is now sitting right next to those doors.

A year ago, we would've been more concerned with this setup, but we've spent the last 19-months watching Finn nearly smash his head into every solid object between here and NY and he's still in one piece. The great football coach Al Pacino once said "Life is a game of inches," and nowhere is that more true than when you're watching a toddler climb on top of a rickety cardboard box right in between a stone floor, a pointy table and a fireplace.

So far, so good. The inches have gone in our favor, though I've got a 30+ year old scar above my right eye that says it doesn't always go that way.

But as long as he falls toward the fireplace, and not onto the poker, and/or doesn't break the glass doors in the process, we're all good!

Here is the still-in-one-piece-for-the-moment monkey one more time, looking oh-so-comfortable next to one of his future ex-wives. Good luck with that, boy.