Thursday, September 22, 2016

Perpetual Child-proofing: Welcome to my world

Oh, the joys of having a child with special needs! (Sarcasm detected?)

These past six or so months have had us on high alert. For those of you who have had children, perhaps you remember having to childproof/baby proof your home? Perhaps you still are in this phase. It seems we are back in to this phase again. Imagine your toddling toddler able to reach and climb like a school-aged child. Yup, still lacking fear of almost anything, but now with the ability to reach practically anything. Oh boy.

And oh boy, this boy!

Parents will do anything to keep their children safe. Some parents of special needs children are doing this over time!

#5 is not a hyper, masochistic daredevil (and thank the Lord for that!!!) But he is not afraid to climb on to practically everything (dryer, furniture--including tall shelves, the landings above stairs, the inside of closet walls, the side of the above-ground pool). And he is simply always on a mission--to find interesting things to tap and chew. And just so you know, almost everything can be tapped or chewed: bus passes, credit cards, bookmarks, wooden utensil handles, leaves, charging cords, ear buds, bottles of household cleaners.... Keeping him safe is a full-time gig.

We've had to up our safety game these past few months. This means the dismantling and doing away with the above-ground pool and changing out almost all 19 doors' doorknobs to locking ones. Me and my family are all getting pretty fast at unlocking doors with that little pin thingamajig! I'm sure he would have a blast figuring out how to pick the locks too, but thankfully we still have height to our advantage and he can't reach the locking-picking thingamajig at the top of the door jams. My hubby and I are still going on weekly dates, but now the older kids in charge can't have the tv on, because even it is just a kid show for #6 to watch, they can get distracted and miss that their littlest bro is climbing to the tallest shelf on the bookcase in the other room. 

Love our little explorer and I'm trying to keep rising to the special challenges he brings. I love that my family is so vigilant and forgiving (those bus passes, bookmarks, charging cords, and ear buds belonged to them....)  :-/