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Well, we didn’t find any smokin’ deals at garage sales this weekend but we did get The Daddy to go do some garage sale drive-bys with us. Minor miracle. As I’ve said before, we don’t shop well together. Not even garage sales. We just barely lost out on a Little Tykes/Fisher Price-type kids picnic table…a minute or two too late. Oh well. There’s always next weekend.

We did, however manage to make our house look like a bumper car track this weekend. Since The Tater Tot seems to act like a bumper car lately, we felt the need to pad the things she is most likely to conk her noggin on. Instead of spending a fortune on the specially-made baby-proofing padding that costs a kazillion dollars and doesn’t stick very well (at least the ones I bought don’t), The Daddy went to the hardware store and bought self-sealing pipe insulation. It’s not pretty but it works! When you pull it off, the adhesive should roll right off with a minor amount of elbow grease. At least it did on our furniture. I can’t vouch for yours, though. It’s super-easy to “install” and easy to cut to fit. Again, if you’re planning on maintaining a lovely and elegant home, this is not the option for you. Our house is quite lovely but we have made it “sturdy” and “unbreakable” for the most part for the next couple of years or so. I keep it nice and tidy but we’ve given up expecting it to be “presentable” for company. We’ve got a small child with many, many toys who likes to run into/fall over onto/trip over/conk her head on anything in her path so we do the best we can!

We also started attaching furniture that is not entirely stable to the wall. Tater Tot will start climbing soon, I have no doubt, and we want to be ready for that. She is a creative little booger and I know that I can’t even imagine all of the scenarios she will get herself into but I’m going to try! The next thing on the list is getting all those cabinet latches on. I’ve secured the ones with knobs but most of the cabinets in our house don’t have them. It seems odd to me that I’m just now “baby-proofing” but Tater Tot hasn’t shown any interest in getting into the cabinets yet. I’m also usually just a step behind her making sure she doesn’t get into anything. But I’m sure that there will be a time soon when she gets away from me for a minute or two maybe while I’m distracted talking to The Grandma on the phone and I want to make sure there’s nothing she can get into.

Every single day I feel grateful to be her Mommy. Don’t get me wrong, she can be a handful and I’m really fond of her naptime! But something happens every day that just makes me melt. Today there were a few things. She signed “eat” spontaneously for the first time. We were just sitting in my closet (it’s a walk-in closet) and she signed “eat”. So I made a huge deal about going downstairs to have a snack of Whole Grain Goldfish Crackers (the most addictive substance known to toddlers, I think) because she signed “eat”. She was in heaven and I was so proud! Then there is the “Let’s Get Mommy” game she and I have started playing. I run away from her and she chases me giggling hysterically with her arms out. I always “fall” and she comes and gives me a hug. *Melt* I love baby hugs! Then there are the funny noises she always makes. I swear I can’t even describe them but they are hilarious! I am always exhausted at the end of the day but I am also happy to see her beautiful little face again every morning. Ah, Mommyhood.