Baby-proofing with almost 3yo twins?

Is it possible? Isabella is going to start crawling soon. How can I
babyproof and still let the twins have freedom?

Suggestions?

--
Brigitte aa #2145
http://ca.geocities.com/bironmonger/
Please excuse the quality. It is under construction and I am still
learning. :-)

"To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it,
requires brains."
~ Mary Pettibone Poole

Brigitte,
I don't really know if it's possible or not. There is a four-year age gap
between my twins and Jenna. I could not find a real solution to separating
toys in one playroom or area so we created two different playrooms. Jenna's
toys have taken over our family room which is our downstairs. (We have a
tri-level house-- you enter on the main floor-- half a flight down to
downstairs and half a flight up to the upstairs.) I have sacrificed my formal
living room on the main floor (for a few years) to Ashlyn and Allyson for their
playroom. A&A share an upstairs bedroom and Jenna has her own upstairs bedroom
but it is small. A&A's playroom has doors on it that can be shut to keep Jenna
out. Unfortunately, though, it is on a different floor of the house which can
be tricky when trying to play, talk with all of them, but we manage. A&A are
very trustworthy five-year-olds and they sometimes bring something down with
them that they can share with Jenna or play with even with her around. Of
course, Jenna is fascinated by "their" playroom and wants to go in there
constantly. We do let her in there if we can give her our full attention to
keep little things out of her mouth. I am beginning to trust her more and more
with that, but she's not even 15 months old yet--so I'm not turning my back
with little stuff around for another year at least!! I do wish we could have
found a better solution because I do feel like I'm "exiling" the twins away
from where DH and I hang out (family room) with Jenna, but they are at an age
where they like to play with each other and ignore us most of the time when
they are playing anyway. I never was a big believer in the playpen--I guess I
just never had much success with it-- I tell my mom (a huge playpen fan) that I
have free-range babies! It's tough. I was just thinking today that I'm really
looking forward to condensing to one playroom-- and eventually to having their
"stuff" in their rooms for the most part. I'm sure I'll miss all the little
kid stuff when the time comes, though!

-Cindy (mom to Ashlyn and Allyson 6/99 and Jenna 6/03)

In article rz8Zc.289395$gE.285497@pd7tw3no,
says...

Is it possible? Isabella is going to start crawling soon. How can I
babyproof and still let the twins have freedom?

Suggestions?

--
Brigitte aa #2145
http://ca.geocities.com/bironmonger/
Please excuse the quality. It is under construction and I am still
learning. :-)

"To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it,
requires brains."
~ Mary Pettibone Poole

We've done the same as Cindy. Holly has downstairs, the big kids have a
room upstairs. EHC are not the best at keeping small stuff away from H2
either, but it has still worked out fine. When H2 was just mobile, I had
her in the hermetically sealed playroom that we used with EHC (our living
room) but that didn't work well as she was soon sick of being alone in there
....... then we had a few sad months where we didn't really *have* a
playroom at all (or any bedrooms, or a kitchen, or ...) then happily our
remodel finished so we got to move EHC's stuff upstairs into an ex-bedroom.

I never gated the new stairs to EHC's toys (the stairs were only finished
when H2 was 21 months so I didn't bother) but maybe because I'm down here,
and it's a full flight and it's *not* gated :-), H2 shows little interest in
going up there when the big kids aren't here. H2 is also not a *very*
mouth-oriented kid, so that helped a little.

I think bottom line you can just never be as careful with the subsequent
children as you were with the first. But if you can't separate the toys,
you obviously need to be super-vigilant and it might help to pick up
everything on a schedule (every 2-3 hours, say?) -- or even make it the
twins' job to check for stuff 3-4 times a day. Pay them a dime or a cookie
a day?

--Janet
Elliot, Hanna, Connor (10/21/96)
and Holly (4/4/01)


"Cindy Senger" wrote in message
...
Brigitte,
I don't really know if it's possible or not. There is a four-year age gap
between my twins and Jenna. I could not find a real solution to
separating
toys in one playroom or area so we created two different playrooms.
Jenna's
toys have taken over our family room which is our downstairs. (We have a
tri-level house-- you enter on the main floor-- half a flight down to
downstairs and half a flight up to the upstairs.) I have sacrificed my
formal
living room on the main floor (for a few years) to Ashlyn and Allyson for
their
playroom. A&A share an upstairs bedroom and Jenna has her own upstairs
bedroom
but it is small. A&A's playroom has doors on it that can be shut to keep
Jenna
out. Unfortunately, though, it is on a different floor of the house which
can
be tricky when trying to play, talk with all of them, but we manage. A&A
are
very trustworthy five-year-olds and they sometimes bring something down
with
them that they can share with Jenna or play with even with her around. Of
course, Jenna is fascinated by "their" playroom and wants to go in there
constantly. We do let her in there if we can give her our full attention
to
keep little things out of her mouth. I am beginning to trust her more and
more
with that, but she's not even 15 months old yet--so I'm not turning my
back
with little stuff around for another year at least!! I do wish we could
have
found a better solution because I do feel like I'm "exiling" the twins
away
from where DH and I hang out (family room) with Jenna, but they are at an
age
where they like to play with each other and ignore us most of the time
when
they are playing anyway. I never was a big believer in the playpen--I
guess I
just never had much success with it-- I tell my mom (a huge playpen fan)
that I
have free-range babies! It's tough. I was just thinking today that I'm
really
looking forward to condensing to one playroom-- and eventually to having
their
"stuff" in their rooms for the most part. I'm sure I'll miss all the
little
kid stuff when the time comes, though!

-Cindy (mom to Ashlyn and Allyson 6/99 and Jenna 6/03)

In article rz8Zc.289395$gE.285497@pd7tw3no,
says...

Is it possible? Isabella is going to start crawling soon. How can I
babyproof and still let the twins have freedom?

Suggestions?

--
Brigitte aa #2145
http://ca.geocities.com/bironmonger/
Please excuse the quality. It is under construction and I am still
learning. :-)

"To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it,
requires brains."
~ Mary Pettibone Poole