And yet here we are.
I've been able to successfully avoid purchasing a particular item in all my years of mothering...but now, that item has been procured. I have been defeated in my quest to run a fairly open house.
We are now in lock-down.
And all because 8 of 8 has chosen to take my fairly progressive ideals on allowing children to explore their environments, has taken my dearly held theology that toddlers should be taught boundaries through example and not through enclosure, he has taken all that gentle, yes-I-have-my-degree-in-child-psychology thing and has shoved it squarely up my nose.
He is a marauding toddler.
He pillages, he vanquishes, he rearranges many of the home furnishings.
And he has a penchant for dragging his twin sister around by the hair.
Which she responds to by biting the fire out of him.
All while I try to teach multiplication tables to their older siblings.
So I've put them in the Toddler Zoo. We toss them native foods. We include items to stimulate their minds. And we do pin them up separately.
Because I frown on my young trying to feed upon each other.
And I would like 7 of 8 to keep most of her hair.
Should you come while the Toddler Zoo is open for visitors, please keep your fingers away from the enclosures...we never know when one of them might bite...
Rockin' the Super XLT Baby Yards,
Children exist to disabuse us of our most prized child raising theories, don't you think so? And to bring us to our knees in humility...
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I don't know, letting them have at each other might have been a good social science lesson for the older ones?
Oh my goodness, that is so funny and cute.
ReplyDeleteI just bought one of those play yards on eBay yesterday, only I bought mine for the twin ferrets that we just adopted. Nater has graduated to climbing over such enclosures. He "outclimbed" his crib ages ago... he looks at me probably thinking to himself, "Come on Mom...Challenge me".
Hopefully, for your sanity's sake, 8 of 8 refrains from the monkey moves for at least a little while :)
Love it! When I got to the part about food, I thought, Don't Feed The Bears! Cause you know, if you give a mouse a cookie...
ReplyDeleteWonderful Post!
Blessings, Carolynn
Lockdown is right! That's quite a fence. (It's not electrified, is it?)
ReplyDeleteI have always wondered how mothers of twins are able to keep them both stimulated and satisfied, with all the needs a single baby needs to have managed. But in my imagination, I was always thinking of a mom whose only children were twins -- not 6 plus 2 more!
Don't feel guilty over the gate, Julie. From my vantage point, it's a safety feature not a lifestyle. (We fenced off the basement stairs with ours. Safety first!)
- Julia
Every time I come here, I smile. When I'm not turning green with envy, that is.
ReplyDeleteI just adore your outlook on life and the way you tell a story.
And how did you manage to get six kids through toddlerhood without a gate?
Just when we think we have it all figured out, one of them pulls the rug out from under us.
ReplyDeleteI think your zoo looks fabulous. I might have to come visit.
Ok i am laughing so hard her in rainy NC!!! It is always so hard to imagine little people that look that sweet working to turn all of our hair gray.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that you are stopping baldness and canabalism in their tracks!!
Toddler Zoo=Shower...
ReplyDeleteI love that!! Lock down:-) Hee, hee, hee.
ReplyDeleteI think I need one of those. And my kids are 6 and 8. Arghhhhh. :) Parenting is not an easy job.
ReplyDeleteToddler zoo....love it!
ReplyDeleteYou say lock down, I say clubhouse. It's all in the spin! ;)
ReplyDeleteI mean this in the nicest way but I can just see you or the older kids tossing Goldfish into those little enclosures! Too funny!
ReplyDeleteI love them sitting so sweet in their cute little chairs!
That would be more acceptable them my duct tape idea LOL but I/m sure that wouldn't stop my little monkey!!!!
ReplyDeleteShe is a climber and a very good one! How can't I take advantage of it I wonder!!!!
Ps both of your babies are adorable in these picture, Love their chair! and both drinking milk so precious!!!!
But she's so cute!!! Good luck. I can't believe they're happy in there. You must have magic.
ReplyDeleteToo cute...yes, sometimes, we just have to chuck the how-to books and philosophies out the window and use "primitive methods". They don't look too disturbed for this method, either!
ReplyDeleteI SO need one of those. Last week alone I found my daredevil toddler sitting in the top rack of the dishwasher (thankfully the dishes were clean and most were put away), the bathroom sink, and a drawer. Trying to homeschool one and keep up with this little guy is about to make my hair gray. I can't imagine how you do it with eight!
ReplyDeleteah, the toddler zoo. my big guy busted out! he also is trying to learn how to open the gates to the stairs. he will not accept imprisonment!
ReplyDeletethe pictures are adorable and so funny that they are separated :)
Oh do I ever feel your pain! I had to do this with Joshua because he was such a climber!
ReplyDeleteThat is so cute. The look perfectly happy in their enclosure!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could have borrowed your new procurement when my son and his family visited over the holidays. He and his beautiful wife have a two year old that gave me a run for my money. How wonderful it would have been to close off forbidden ground and kept her safely enclosed in a toddler-proof area.
ReplyDeleteWay too funny! Kids are great for making us eat our words and rethink our glorious strategies, aren't they? Loved this post!
ReplyDeleteTHAT is too funny!! I never did gates - although I am not as busy as you are!
ReplyDeletemmm...you are right with my mom on that philosophy. However, she caved when our 10 of soon-to-be 13 scaled the kitchen cabinets and ate her professional grade hair bleach. To be fair..it does kinda look like frosting. :) They look happy in them though. I love 7 of 8's pink chair.--kirsten--
ReplyDeleteToddler Zoo! HAHAHA!!!!! That is hilarious!
ReplyDeletePure genius. Toddler zoo.. lockdown. Spectacular! Love it!!!
ReplyDeleteSigh, I miss the days when a cage and a bottle of milk was all I needed to contain my wild animals.
ReplyDeleteYour 8 of 8 reminds me of my #7. #7 would move couches and beds around...acck! Must be a youngest son thing.
I too initially hated the idea. But now I LOVE my Super XLT Baby yard!! I got it when my daughter was learning to walk, while we were living in a 2-bdrm house with family, who didn't have children or childproof-anything . . . So I succumbed. But I'm STILL saying, 'I will never buy one of those child-leashes! My child still has SOME dignity left!'
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha. I'm still shake my head over how much havoc twins can wreak. It's definitely different than a singleton, even if it's only one of the pair that is up for an adventure. :)
ReplyDeleteLOL! Great post! :)
ReplyDeleteOoops! Caleb is my BIL...he must have been using the 'puter before me! It's me...:-P
ReplyDeleteRidiculously adorable! Your babies are so cute : ). I can't stand it!
ReplyDeleteoh brother! i managed to get through most of my kids without a gate, too. but these last two... with all the remodleling, it's really necessary to keep them out of the worst of it. they're really good at finding daddy's tools and wondering off with them...
ReplyDeleteYep, we had to do the gate thing, too, with our first little boy. He was an early walker, extremely bright and quite the escape artist...add a set of stairs in with that and a gate was very, very neccessary!
ReplyDeleteI say using the gate in this situation isn't a failure, it's just good sense. Rest easy, Octamom!
Toddler zoo? You are a hoot!
ReplyDeleteI have to laugh because we also have boy-girl twins, our boy is younger by a whole minute. You call yours 8 of 8, we call ours The Troublemaker!
ReplyDeleteBabygates and baby yards are for their protection - in case we suffer from temporary insanity! hmmm I wonder where I put those gates, I think I still need them!!
You simply crack me up!
ReplyDeleteIsn't parenting humbling?
Mrs. Nurse Boy
It looks like heaven to me and I only have one little old Linus. Of course, I, like you, try to keep the house open and accessible to him preferring to teach limits. However, it took Linus less than a month of walking (or was it crawling?) for me to realize the kitchen cabinet latches and all still needed to be locked down. Thus, we have a gate blocking out the kitchen and all its hazards. He goes in there with me but never without me.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I agree with Cheryl, that it is all in how you spin it. Clubhouse indeed.
We've always lived in houses with stairs and stairways, so the that area always had a latched baby gate.
ReplyDeleteFor the last few children, I had the drawer safety hooks and the kitchen doors all had the safety hooks also. But with a few years of kids yanking on the drawers and doors, the hooks broke off and ripped off.
When we redid our kitchen a last summer, I didn't want to put holes again in the doors and drawers, so we installed baby gates at each doorway. Mister Crinkle-Nose had figured out how to climb over them (even when he had a cast!), so now I am constantly redirecting him to the living room to play with his toys (not Mom's kitchen "toys").We've had a feew children who were monkeys, but this boy really loves to climb. I think an enclosure liek the one you are showing seems greta! :)
Hey great enclosure, lots of space too. Mine used to be pinned under an upturned crib! (joking LOL).
ReplyDeleteI love that they can still see each other! Bet siblings 1 - 6 think its hilarious :)
Happy teaching in relative peace!
James mastered the toddler zoo at a very early age. Regardless of the type of gate, he quickly became the master locksmith and if that didn't work he switched into acrobat mode. I gave up on the gates. Now he knows how to open door locks and has even been found streaking down the front sidewalk chasing the wayward canine companion on one occasion. I can only imagine what neighbors and passersby were thinking as my poor husband was chasing him down the road.
ReplyDeleteOh dear! We have a superyard as well, though we mostly use it to block off things like the fireplace. Love 7's chair, adorable!!
ReplyDeleteBeing the youngest of ten, the pro babysitter at an early age, and mother of two.....I say
ReplyDeleteNEVER SAY NEVER - or some child will prove you wrong!
P.S.working with preschoolers in my profesional life has also reinforced - "never say never"
each child is unique
Now THAT was funny!
ReplyDeleteI had an in home day care for many years. I never had to put up a gate or even worry about where the kids were...until I kept a set of boy/girl twins. I swear they worked like a tag-team. The gate was for my own sanity. So, i totally loved this post!
ReplyDeleteThis is just too funny. Sometimes you just gotta do something to keep them contained.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, you've got some real fencing going on in there!
ReplyDeleteWow, you have got that toddler fencing down don't you? Sometimes we just need an alternative plan:)
ReplyDeleteHow funny! Just remember to keep them fed while they're in there!! Oh, yeah, I like fences better than muzzles any day!
ReplyDeleteRoban
Oh, I love this post! I really wanted one of those for outside since we have lived in so many rv parks, but we really don't have the room. :( We have a baby gate, but its in storage. I did stoop to buying a leash and we tried it a couple of times. While it does work to a certain extent, its more of a hassle than anything. (We started with the harness, but ended up using the wrist strap in the end.) I must say, I got some pretty interesting looks, but I was trying to see if it would work because when this baby comes, I'm going to have to figure out some way of keeping us all together in public places without going insane....any suggestions? :) BTW, with my kids, if I had one of those zoos in my "house", I would be the one in it so that I could have a few moments to myself. Even the bathroom at this point is no longer sacred! Haha!
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm SO not naive enough to think that my two are any match for EIGHT, it sounds as though 8 of 8 and The Manimal may have been cut from the same cloth. With Sweet Son #1, I did virtually NO babyproofing. I didn't have to! All I had to say was "No, that's a pretty!" or "No, that's an owie!" and the kid didn't touch. The Manimal? Has, since he was small, taken GREAT PRIDE in dismantling, destructing, disassembling, unlocking and generally wreaking havoc on our happy home (and melting our hearts in his spare time!).
ReplyDeleteoh my goodness! you are darn hilarious! We have that gate. We used to use it to keep the dogs away from the twins. then we used it to keep the puppies away from us. now it's gone. replaced by much more portable/faster to move gates.
ReplyDeleteoh my gosh. as i typed this. the strangest thing happened. a bark came from the front porch. where our puppies should not be. yet. as i opened the door (in the dark and frigid night) yes, indeed, both came bolting inside. from whence they shouldn't have come.
Moral of the story?? Need super gate in backyard to circumvent puppy escapees.
Seriously. I couldn't have made that up.
I've been drooling over those gates. I figure I'll be eventually needing one to protect child number 3 (and maybe more?) from Lion and Dragon. I'll put the newborn in the pen and let the big ones go free range. We have had gates to fence off one section of the house when we needed it, and a gate on Lion's room so he couldnt go roaming at 2am but they were useless once he learnt to dismantle them to get out.
ReplyDeleteI hope 7&8 dont learn to climb it too soon!
I am trying to muster up some sympathy for you, 7 and 8 but only a another mother of toddler, how-does-this-work, I-can-take-apart-anything, where-is-my-partner-in-crime, he-made-me-do-it, she-bit/hit-me twins can appreciate how difficult and HYSTERICAL the decision was for this to become a part of your home decor!
ReplyDeleteDo you charge admission?! Those cagees are adorable! Enjoy the enclosures while they work...
ReplyDeleteAt least now he can rearrange his own space..He looks pretty calm this might be just what he needed.
ReplyDeleteA little space to himself!! Go girl!
This is too funny. I have made it through all 7 without the need for gates. Although, my youngest 2 have the eerie ability to pop up in the kitchen just as I'm opening the hot oven. It is scary moments like that in which I really want a gate. I am in awe of your mommy-ness.
ReplyDelete