The big house.

Our house has become, The Big House.

In more ways than one. When we bought it, it was a sweet 1700 square foot house. It was cute and it stole my heart the first time I saw it. In my naivete, as a 22 year old newlywed, I thought it would be PLENTY big for us and our future children.

After Ellie was born, I realized that might not be true. I remember being shocked at how much stuff she needed. Our little house soon felt very full, and I wasn't so sure that we could fit another baby. So, when we were expecting Annie, we started an addition to our home. Again, my naieveness came into play, when I believed the builders, and thought our home would be done by the time Annie was born.

This is me and Annie in Annie's room shortly after she was born.


As you can see, it wasn't exactly done.

It was finally done 16 months later.

The next month I found out we were expecting Austin.

He was the first of our babies to have the big house to explore. Annie was never much of an explorer, even amongst the power tools and building paraphernalia. I am SO THANKFUL now that we didn't have Austin during that time!

Austin...well, you know.

Austin is the reason we have these...

Now that our house is bigger, my little turbo man has LOTS of things to get into, that he shouldn't. His two big sisters keep me busy too, and therefore he has more chances to slip out of my sight. We invested in those two gates awhile back, and let me tell you...they are worth their weight in GOLD. Of course he still finds things to get into, but for the most part it's manageable. We've moved everything we can to higher ground, or fixed it so he can't get into it.

HOWEVER, he is a very resourceful child. The other day he discovered something new. The kitchen faucet. We have an opening above the sink, that looks into the living room. Just below the opening in the living room is a couch. He climbs onto the couch, and into the opening, reaches the faucet (which has one of those pull out heads), and proceeds to douse the entire area around the sink with water. After a few times, I was about at my wit's end! The crushing blow came when he soaked everything so thoroughly, that I had to empty the drawers to dry them out. Then came my salvation...in the form of an idea from Jen. She suggested a small gate for the opening. Wow! That had never occurred to me! So, now we have....


Prison.

Okay, it's not really prison. But as you stand in my living room and look around at all the barricades, it can be pretty comical! But hey, it helps me keep my sanity in tact!

And by the way, Jen is having twin boys in a few months. So Jen, I wanted to thank you for your great suggestion, and let you know that when your boys are 18 months old, and start getting into EVERYTHING, you can borrow my baby gates.

I have plenty.