Creepy Crawlers

They look innocent, then they start moving.

Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.

Jack is crawling...everywhere. Parker is starting to crawl, but is currently much slower than Jack. By my estimation, it will be about a week or so before both little guys are everywhere in our house.

Since Owen was in the crawling stage oh so many months ago, our house has been babyproofed. All electrical outlets were covered, drawers and cabinets locked, and knicknacks (those function-less items that look great on a coffee table or bookshelf, but serve no real purpose) were removed. Our house went from Restoration Hardware to Babies 'R Us in less than a week. There was no reason to try to keep the house looking like a magazine when we spent every other minute prying something out of Owen's hand as he was trying to eat it. Foolishly, I thought that we were pretty set in that department when P and J got to that stage. How soon did I forget, that we can no longer *picnic* on the floor, leave the bathroom door open, or leave a room for longer than 5 seconds.

*Picnics on the floor are the Connisonville way to keep all children happy while the adults get to eat. We try to eat together with everyone in their respective chairs, but that is not always the best decision as one or many children are OVER their seat in quick fashion. Somedays we don't have the energy to fight the battle so we end up eating/playing in the living room to make everyone happy.*

Now that they are into crawling, both P and J are on a personal mission. They fixate on one item - a toy, a random cheerio on the floor, Jen's flip-flops, etc. and go full force until they get it. I have forgotten how semi-annoying this can be when you are not prepared/tired and have to constantly be on the lookout for an approaching baby, focusing especially on what they are trying to put into their mouths. Here are some of the things that I forgot about this stage that I have been quickly reminded of:

• potentially pulling toys off of the coffee table and on to their heads
• almost stepping on/tripping over babies in the house
• instability while seated in the bathtub and trying to grab toys out of their reach
• grabbing Dad's eyes, nose, sunglasses, hat, phone, and pens, while they are being held
• trying to pull themselves up on Dad, Mom, their cribs, furniture, etc.

It is just humorous that with every new stage the little ones are getting into, I think it is going to be "easier" and it turns out that it isn't necessarily easier...just different.