Safe Haven (or not)

So, when Annabelle has trotted to her bedroom alone, I normally do not worry as her bedroom has been pretty much child proofed (until today)! I don't leave her for an extended period of time by any means, but if I'm in the kitchen washing dishes with my hands soaked in dish water, I normally have a second to dry my hands before I trot off after her to her bedroom to find her.

I can see her go into her bedroom from the kitchen, and she normally either closes the door so she can access the books on the bookshelf behind the door (which is fastened to the wall) or she'll go to the corner of the room nearest to the bathroom and back of the house (which houses a bright pink fabric foldable box of her toys). All visible outlets are protected with those little child proofing thing-a-ma-jigs you put into the outlets with the exception of the one that has her CD player plugged into it, and the CD player is sitting on the floor. I guess she could unplug the CD player to access the outlet herself, so maybe I need to rethink that one.

So, I was actually thinking yesterday about her climbing fiascoes, and I started wondering how long it would take her to figure out that she can climb onto couches, recliners and the glider in her bedroom.

Because she often will just "get it" suddenly (about anything), I started thinking (again) that maybe I need to pull out the baby gates to lock her in the kitchen with me while I am cooking. For the most part, when I am preparing dinner, I am in a time crunch to get everything prepared by the time Annabelle's Daddy gets home so that we are all ready to eat by 6:00 or 6:30 p.m. If dinner is served much later than that, Annabelle is typically a fussy little girl during dinner.

So, Annabelle's Nonnie visited us today, and she watched Miss Annabelle while I cooked Pumpkin Pies and Puppy Chow for Thanksgiving tomorrow as well as tidied up a bit. She took Annabelle to her bedroom to read books, and when I walked in Annabelle's bedroom to say hello, Annabelle was sitting in the glider with her Teddy Bear, and she was just grinning ear to ear as she played with Nonnie's jewelry and rocked. Very cute, right? Well, yes, it was very cute at the time as she seemed to enjoy herself, and Nonnie said that she liked to rock her Teddy Bear.

Later on in the day, Annabelle went straight to her bedroom, and I followed her. She immediately went to the glider, and she proceeded to lift her right leg to try and climb onto the glider. Where on earth do they learn that they actually have to lift their legs to climb onto things? I don't lift my legs to sit in the glider.

So, I am afraid that Nonnie has introduced Annabelle to yet another new danger, and as a result, Annabelle's bedroom is no longer a safe haven!

I did get on to Nonnie for showing Annabelle this new trick (jokingly of course). She was going to learn it some day on her own anyway. I was just hoping that I had a few more weeks!