Child-Proof Lock Hell!

Help! I'm in Child-Proof Lock Hell! Because we have one little boy just about ready to take off crawling, we've had to re-babyproof our house, since some of our "proofing" has broken or been taken down since 2004/2005 when we originally installed it for Tyler.

So, innocently as possible, I grab the "Baby-Proofing Tote" we have, that contains every baby-proofing item known to man. Most important was under the kitchen sink, where we keep our cleaners.

So, I remove the old hinges that have broken, and start to install the new ones. First of all, I'm doing this by myself. (Kyle and Tyler are at the store.) Do you have any idea how hard it is to put a screw through oak, with a HAND-POWERED screw driver? I'll tell you what - it's freaking impossible!!! I'm literally breaking a sweat trying to get this tiny f*#%ing screw through the cabinet door. Sure - I could wait until Kyle gets home and do this right with a drill and a power screw driver, but being the stubborn person I am - I keep going.

Okay - so I'm not as strong as I think I am. On the third door, I give up. I have dropped the teeny-tiny screw on the floor about 16 times because I can't even get it STARTED in the door! I wait for Kyle to get home, so he can help finish.

Looking around though, just thinking what we have had to change in our house after having Tyler as far as "baby-proofing" goes. Here's a list of the items we have bought/installed for that purpose:

1. Door/drawer locks on every door/drawer that could be opened.
2. 2 baby gates
3. Door handle locks so Tyler couldn't get out of the garage door or front door. (My parents still can't figure these out!)
4. A 4 foot pole that goes outside the sliding glass door so Tyler couldn't get out the backdoor without me knowing (I found him outside in his pajamas before - scared me to death!)
5. Refrigerator and Freezer door locks
6. Oven lock (Tyler's favorite game used to be holding on the oven handle and throwing himself down to the floor - slamming the door down with him. He has no fear!)
7. Covers to go over the gas controls
8. Outlet covers (I have so many of these it isn't even funny!)
9. A spout cover for the bathtub
10. We bought a special TV/TV stand that are connected together so he couldn't pull the TV over (this was after he broke our 55 inch projection television 2 years ago!)

Anymore, it seems that if we're going to buy it and bring it into the house, it has to pass our mental "baby-proof" test.

• Could it be broken easily,
• have a piece that comes off,
• is it easily fixable and
• could it be used as a weapon.

Four easy questions we ask ourselves. Seriously, we have a toy graveyard in our bedroom for toys to go that have become weapons. The most innocent toy could become a weapon, and then there are the obvious. Obvious are the toy hammers with toy sets and anything that looks like a gun or a knife, not so obvious are the vacuum attachments and blocks. For some reason, Tyler has never done well with blocks. I LOVED them as a child - he likes to throw them. All blocks are at the top of his closet - and he knows if he wants to play with them he can, but the first one he throws - they get picked up and put away immediately.

It's funny how things have changed, and now we're starting that cycle again with Connor. He has a huge fascination with remote controls, so he has his own from an old VCR. We let Tyler use ours to play with years ago thinking "what could he hurt?". Well - 2 buttons on the remote stopped working almost immediately, and the teeth marks never went away.

Connor seems to have a different personality than Tyler, so hopefully he's not as destructive as Tyler was. Our poor appliances can't afford too many more dents!!!