Corralling the Jumping Bean

Tuesday morning, I had enough. Our morning routine is to take a walk after Katie gets on the bus, then Jackson plays in the bathroom while I shower and get ready for the day. Our master bathroom has a separate tub and shower. It is completely babyproofed, down to latches on the cabinet, toilet lid locks, and GFI covers on top of the outlets. (Not just those little plug covers; these cover the entire thing.) The one thing that is not Jackson-proofed is the tub itself.

My sweet little baby used to sit nicely in the dry tub, playing with toys and babbling to me while I showered. Then he grew and learned how to climb out. He's been doing that for at least a month. Now he's taken to standing on the side of the tub, walking around it and sitting on the windowsill. Dear God. Y'all have no idea what this does to my blood pressure. I start my shower, glassed in and unable to jump out quickly to get Jackson out of dangerous situations. Usually I sternly and firmly say (okay, yell), "Sit down" and he will. In fact, he started to this past Tuesday. But as he was sitting, he lost his balance and fell into the tub. He hit his head and started screaming. I jumped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and jumped into the bath tub.

BAM! I was wet, y'all. Which means my feet slipped and my butt slammed into the bottom of the tub faster than I could even catch myself, with my right leg still sticking out of the tub. Ouch! Now I'm in pain, Jackson's screaming, I'm cold and wet, Jackson's bleeding somewhere in his mouth, so I just wrapped him in the towel and hugged him. He finally settled down and I finished my shower. But I was fired up (and in pain), and determined to find a way to corral the monkey.

So Wednesday morning, I dragged the Pack & Play into the bathroom (thank God we have a big bathroom) and attempted to assemble it while Jackson tried to climb the tub again. I already had a huge bruise on my right leg from Tuesday's graceful fall, and ended up getting another bruise just trying to assemble the freaking Pack & Play. (My arm strength isn't so great in the morning because of lupus.) But I got it assembled and put Jackson inside of it. He wasn't happy about that, but at least I could shower knowing he was safe.

This morning, Jackson sat in the Pack & Play and played nicely while I showered. The morning rush is much much better now. Thank God! I took some photos of him in his "prison," and he looked so cute. Please ignore the overall untidyness of the rest of the bathroom in the background! I never said I was a stellar housekeeper. My talents lie elsewhere. (At least that's the excuse I keep telling myself!)