Hoping to Avoid Owies

Happy Mother's Day! The girls gave me a wonderful greeting this morning and presented me with lovely gifts and cards. And I am going to be getting a very lovely charm bracelet from Jack, the idea for which originally came from Michelle (Wellsware.com) It's a custom-made charm bracelet featuring photos or other empherma you provide that they then encase in glass and silver.

It is indeed a lovely Mother's Day and I am grateful to be the mom to three such wonderful daughters. Brigid has really taken a liking to being outside and it's getting harder and harder to contain her. When you tell her she can't go outside, she gets very angry. Jack said she has also decided it's OK to take off down the driveway when told she can't. We may have our hands full until she firmly grasps the concept of what's allowed and what isn't.

She is also getting taller, which means things that were only recently out of reach are now within her grasp. She pulled a plastic bucket of water down on top of her this morning. She wasn't drenched, but the incident made us realize that things on the counter aren't safe anymore. She also gets the idea of climbing, and although she hasn't put it to use -- climbing over the gates, for instance -- she still knows that she puts her foot in the slots to pull herself up. As a result, Jack figured he'd better let down the crib mattress to its lowest point. Now her head barely reaches the top of the crib sides, but I'd rather she be a little torqued than figure out how to propel herself over the side of the crib. It's also harder to put her down for a nap or at night if she's fallen asleep with the mattress so low, but that, too, will have to do in the name of baby safety. When Patricia was a baby, we woke one night to a loud thud and her cries. When we ran into her room, Patricia was on the floor crying, "Owie Mine Head!" having fallen out of the crib in her attempts to escape. The second time, in 10 minutes' time, wasn't funny so she got a stern talking to. She then figured out how to climb out without owie to her head. We then had to install a gate in her doorway to keep her in her room. I hope Baby Brigid doesn't follow in her sister's footsteps. I'd rather not have to soothe a head owie again.