Day 561 - Poll Results & New Poll

Last week I asked whether or not it was worth it to spend $500 to enroll the kids in a Gymboree class. Seventy-five percent of you responded that I should save my money and take the kids to a park. Far behind, only fifteen percent thought I should shop around to see if there might be anything less expensive (perhaps like a park?).

Lisa and I decided that $500 is too much to spend on the kids for toddler classes. I did find a nearby play area for kids that only costs $9 per kid for about one hour of play. We may try that a few times, but I really can't justify spending $500 right now. I mean there are so many other things you can do with $500!

Like this! LINK
Or this! LINK
Even 38 of these! LINK

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Emma and Andrew are very active and energetic. Or as my dad says while lying on the sofa, "They sure ain't lazy!" Emma loves to walk around outside touching leaves, flowers, and homeless men. She also loves to dance and spin when we're playing music on our stereo system. As for Andrew, he would rather run than walk. One second he's on one side of the room trying to climb the sofa, and the next second he's on the other side throwing stacking blocks in the air.

It sure is fun and tiring to watch the kids play, but week by week we find objects in the house that once seemed harmless become death traps. For example, our dining room chairs. Our chairs were just harmless wooden items to rest our flat, Asian asses on. But then Andrew thought it would be fun to tip them over, and the chairs suddenly became wooden items that could trap Emma on the floor. So we moved all of the chairs into our bedroom.

Since I have been trapped in our bedroom for the past month because the chairs have made it impossible to leave, I wondered how far we need to go to make our house safe for the kids. We have done all of the obvious childproofing like cabinet locks, electrical socket plugs, toilet locks, and turning our bed of nails upside down, but do we need to remove more furniture from the common rooms? When does it come to the point where enough is enough, and we'll just have to deal with some baby bruising?