Who knew? tip of the day

For those of us with wood floors and wood floor vent covers (I don't actually know anyone else with this combination, but hey), and babies that have discovered how to pull up the vent covers to expose the sheet metal duct underneath, my mom had a great idea: velcro strips between the floor and the vent cover. I bought a giant box of velcro today, so we'll see how it actually works.

Yesterday I learned...

that metal whisks should come with a parental advisory warning: Not For Babies!!

I thought, hmmm, this tiny whisk will keep Spencer occupied for the next few minutes while I do (whatever it was I was doing). I came back into the room a few seconds later and he had pulled the loopy things completely out of the handle. Ack! Images of poking eyes out!!

I never knew that the loops on a traditional metal whisk weren't attached to the handle. Evidently, they're just shoved into the handle and held in by friction, which we all know isn't going to stop a one-year-old.

On another note, today I had the genius idea to get a vinyl table cloth for the dining room table. We changed to the antique high chair I grew up in, but it doesn't have a tray. The travel placemat we had worked okay, but Spencer kept wadding or rolling it up or dumping it off the table (the suction cups don't work well on wood). My friend also told me to get a piece to go under the high chair. It looks nicer than a towel, but is just as easy to clean.

Yay, solutions!

Somebody please solve this problem

How do you cover every single square inch of chewable crib side? I went in this morning and noticed a half-dollar sized chunk chewed out of the tall side of the crib. The front rail is covered with a fabric rail guard that works well (although one morning I found the velcro that secures it pulled apart and a new chew spot under it.) He has only superficially chewed on the back rail. But the ends? Is he just roaming around the crib looking for the newest place to chew? Argh. I am starting to wonder why crib manufacturers think it's a good idea to make cribs out of soft wood. I know it makes it cheaper and I should've thought of that when we got this crib, but shouldn't they all be made out of hard, teeth-proof wood? Like those HABA teethers you can buy at the Learning Tree.

Signs he's not a baby anymore

1. As of this week, he's down to one nap a day that starts at about 1 p.m. and last about 1.5-2 hours. Sometimes there's a 15-minute catnap around 5:30.

2. Last night he fed himself his entire dinner of chicken, acorn squash and carrots. I still have a bunch of puree and I haven't figured out how to prepare/store large amounts of finger foods for him, so we won't be putting the spoons away yet, but the day is coming.

3. He'll be one year old in 2.5 weeks. How did that happen?