Building a Harry-proof house

I’ve said before on several occasions that having a baby turns your life upside down. I’ve now discovered it’s not just your life that gets turned upside down – it’s also your house.

Now Harry’s crawling and, sometimes at least, walking, nothing is safe. If a door is left open, he’s through it; if there’s something he shouldn’t touch, he’s got hold of it. All of those toys he had at Christmas are quickly forgotten if he’s got the chance to grab our laptop or chew the hi-fi.

He knows his way around the house now too – put him down upstairs and he can find his way to the shower in seconds; leave the living room door open and he’s in the kitchen banging away on the piano.

So we’ve had to Harry-proof the house. We’ve got gates up everywhere and parts of the house now resemble a prison.

We’ve also had to rearrange the furniture in some parts of the house to keep Harry away from anything dangerous. Our front room, for instance, is now carefully arranged to stop him going near the fireplace or television. At least this gives him a little bit of freedom to roam – he’s already outgrown his playpen.

He still needs to be watched at all times though – he’s becoming quite skilled at climbing over and into things. The other day he managed to get into his toy box, which was previously an effective barrier to the television. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t get out of it but I know it’s only a matter of time.

It was therefore a huge relief when we took him Blue Bears Play Barn in Wrexham, an indoor play area – fully cushioned – that he can explore without giving us heart failure.

Harry had a great time and, I’ll admit it, so did I, chasing after him as he climbed stairs, negotiated obstacles and generally tired himself out. One of the highlights was sitting him on my knee as we shot down one of the larger slides.

Of course Harry was fast asleep the moment we put him in the car. I was quite tired too and realised that crawling around on all fours for an hour isn’t ideal for a man approaching his mid-thirties. It was certainly worth the aches and pains afterwards, though.