Baby Proofing

We didn't rush to baby proof our house.  It's already pretty kid friendly- no expensive crystal or sharp knives lying around.  We knew it wouldn't be necessary until she was mobile, and hadn't decided exactly what we'd need to do.  Then time just sort of snuck away from us, and as she began to roll and crawl we've found ourselves pulling her away from cords and books and shelves over and over again.  We finally decided that for her safety and our sanity it needed to be done now, so we baby proofed the living room last weekend.

We gated her in.  I was on the fence about this one, (ha no pun intended).  It was the most expensive and ugliest step, but I finally decided it would be worth it to be able to keep her out of the dining room when need be.  That's where many of our books are that she is attempting to eat, and that's where my ironing board is usually set up- I am super paranoid about my iron falling on her, even when it's not hot.  We bought a cheap-o gate for one doorway, but had to get a nicer one (more than twice as expensive) for the other doorway because of its width.

Chris tied up all the cords tight behind the TV stand, and then put a piece of plywood in front of them for good measure.

We plugged all the outlets.  This is an obvious and easy one, but she demonstrated over and over again just how specifically important it was for her by trying her hardest to jam her pointer finger into those outlets.

Bonus prize in this picture: A sneak peak of my bedhead in the dirty mirror above the outlet.

We tethered the bookshelf [that she totally climbs on] to the wall, as well as the lamp in the corner.

We took the pallets out from under the couch.  She kept trying to climb up on the couch and bumping her face on them when she fell.  Once she gets better at climbing we'll put these back in.  In the meantime we're finally going to stain and varnish them.

I just took out the fireplace screen and tools.  We won't need them in the summer anyway, and I didn't want them to fall on her.  In a few months she may figure out how to climb up here and then I don't know what we'll do, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

So, what did we miss?  Did we hit anything you forgot about in your home?  I'm sure we'll have some issues to face with the TV stand as she gets a little bigger.  I've heard of people using double sided tape to stick their flat-screen TVs down and prevent their kids from knocking them over.  Of course we could also mount it to the wall.  How to keep her away from the computer and the Xbox I'm a little less certain.  We may have to get creative!