The living & dining room are open to each other & the kitchen is just separated by a fireplace & built-in entertainment center. Without buying massive gates that wrap halfway around the house, there wasn't a way to contain the boys.
My parents have a sunroom off of their living room & offered to convert it into the boys playroom. The sunroom has french doors that close it off from the living room & there are cabinets & a sink in it. So we moved all the toys & jumpers out there & we loaded the cabinets up with diapers, wipes, snacks, formula & bottles. We have everything we need in one place, the boys are contained & I'm not chasing babies all over the place anymore :o)
It is also nice to have an outdoor view.
The boys have a lot of room to move around!
Papa talking with the boys after snack time :)
That was fantastic of the parents! and what a great play room!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks great! I'm envious. We have an open-concept house so we can't contain the girls in one room. Therefore we've become the "massive gates" people. We've had to block off certain areas so they are somewhat contained and safe. They love it but they've taken over our house!
ReplyDeleteI wish more people knew more about extended rear facing with children in car seats. It breaks my heart to see so many FB and IG pictures with infants and children under 3 already forward facing.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that in almost every state, the law is 20lbs AND one year of age before you can turn them forward facing legally?
Did you also know that the vertebrae do not begin to fuse until age 3-6 years old. This is why rear-facing is the safest as it gives more support and protection to the incomplete vertebrae and therefore the spinal cord. With vertebrae in pieces, a forward facing child has a greater chance of damage to the spinal cord when their head and neck whip forward and back in a crash. Internal decapitation is no joke and it doesn't take much force from an accident to cause it.
One other common mistake I see? Chest clips. They are not called stomach clips, they are called chest clips. The chest clip is designed to keep the harness straps properly positioned on the child’s shoulders; this is important because the harness is the component that keeps the child restrained in the car seat. A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed that 59% of child harnesses are not tight enough. If the harness is loose and the chest clip is too low, one or both harness straps can slide off the child’s shoulders, allowing the child to potentially be ejected from the car seat in the event of a crash.
In a collision, the chest clip can cause damage and/or internal bleeding to vital organs in your child's abdominal region, which is not protected by the ribcage.
I wish I had been more knowledgable about car seats when I'd had Robby, but now that I know better, I try to do better with my kids and pass on the information.