My son will be 8 months the 19th and he is very close to crawling! He is a litte behind on these skills because he is 26 lbs! lol. How can I keep a "nice, adult home" and still make it safe for my son to be free to crawl around?
check out www.babycenter.com - they have great childproofing checklists for crawlers, then walkers and up. they also sell baby-proofing products, but you can usually find them cheaper at wal-mart, same brand names, so you're not losing any value! good luck and get ready to start running after him! :)
Keep him busy. If you play with him and show him what he is and isn't allowed to do and keep him busy he will be less likely to bother the things he isn't allowed to touch. My son didn't bother anything when he was little. We had shelves with glass things on it from floor to above my head and he didn't try to touch a single thing. Just set limits and be firm with them, give him another option when you take him away from something. If you say "No, we don't play with the glass, we play with truck" and sit down and play truck with him, he will figure it out.
As my daughter learned to crawl, I did NOT move my knickknacks....she learned that they were off limits. If and when she did attempt to grab something, a simple NO did the trick! I did put a gate at the top and bottom of our stair steps. The bathroom was off limits too, the door was shut and or a safety device on the toilet. Also, the cleaning supplies, either move them up or get a locking device for that cupboard as well! Hope these are some simple ideas that will help you!
I don't know how your home is designed, and this will make a difference, but my husband and I created "child-safe" areas and then "adult areas." So we baby-gated off our kitchen and family room and child-proofed those rooms, leaving the front hall, living room, and dining room off limits to the baby (unless very closely supervised, of course), and fully decorated. We did the same things upstairs. We baby-gated off the hallways with the kids' bedrooms, but left the loft and our bedroom open to the stairs, so that once again we have a safe place for him to play, and our own space. Of course he's always supervised, even in his areas, but I didn't bother removing my low decorations and such in the more formal rooms where he will not be spending much time. Good luck!
