Obstacles

So for those of you that have had the pleasure of going under the knife for your child (i.e. C-section), you already know about the long list of doctor's orders with which you arrive home, so many of which aren't realistic! You are NOT allowed to drive--OK, that one isn't too bad since you are on pain meds, you aren't allowed to walk up stairs--difficult when your nursery is on the second floor, you aren't allowed to take a bath--which for some reason you start to crave in order to relax at night after the kids are asleep, and the topper...you aren't allowed to pick up anything heavier than 10 pounds. This was where Ian and I ran into trouble because Elijah is a good 25 pounds now! So, momma can't put Elijah in his high chair to eat; momma can't put Elijah in the bath to get clean, momma can't put him up on the changing table to change his diaper, up to the sink to wash his hands, into his crib to sleep...and the double kicker...momma can't carry him up the stairs to his own bedroom! So basically, if we correctly heed the doctor's orders, momma has to feed and change an unbathed Elijah in the middle of the living room, chucking the used diapers into the corner and using the pain meds to put him to sleep for the night right there on the floor.

After we arrived home with Joaquin, but before my mother left and I was alone with the 2 kiddos, we had to figure out how to solve this dilemma. Little did we know, this would end up being Elijah's favorite part about getting a baby brother...all the new obstacle courses made for him around the house! :) He has little step stools everywhere and he is just big enough to try to step up on his own (with the help of mothers hand of course). The problem is, he may be totally sleepy and then get SUPER EXCITED to go up the obstacle course that it becomes a problem to get to bed afterwards. Nonetheless, I thought I would show you a pic of his crib course. (Note: we did try to get doggy stairs and/or more mainstream ways to get him up to the heights, but everything was either too low or too steep. So it was out to the garage to rummage around for random useful objects.)

Here we have an old suitcase, followed by a slanted foot rest, a bench covered with a yoga mat (for traction of course), a metal file case, the lowered crib side, and a small footstool to land on once inside the crib! Go Elijah Go!