Yes, I Allow the Kids to Do This

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Obstacle Course 2000, "the greatest obstacle course ever" (according to my six-year-old).

Was I upset when I walked in the house this afternoon and found the couch in the dining room and the dining chairs in the living room? A little. Stuff like this used to make me really, really angry...and I still wish it wouldn't happen...but it does. I just choose not to flip out.

Bug started walking like he was shot out of a cannon at 10 months old, was climbing ladders at the playground at 11 months, and running all over the house at his first birthday party. I'm not exaggerating.

As a new mom (who was also pregnant at the time with Pie), I was beside myself with this little ball of energy. Not long after the day I walked into the dining room to discover Bug standing on the table, about to swing from the chandelier, (which I absolutely did not allow), my mom came to visit. As we sat in the living room trying to have some coffee and conversation, baby Bug, who was probably close to two years old by then, kept climbing on and off the coffee table in front of us. I remember trying to coax him down, distract him, scold him. He wouldn't stop. My anxiety and despair and helplessness was obvious, and my mom commented, "what's wrong with letting him stand on the coffee table? Think about it in the grand scheme of things. Is it really worth getting so upset over?"

We knew how agile Bug was, and knew that he probably was less likely to hurt himself than a kid who was less acrobatically inclined. So I took my mom's advice and chose not to pick that battle. And that's why my first floor is still, on most days,  home to some incarnation of the Obstacle Course 2000. It's not the perfect solution, but for now, it's one that works.