New playpen*

This afternoon I walked into the bedroom to find my screaming Isabella scrunched into one end of the bassinet the mattress was askew, the sheet half off… as has been the case a few times recently. But this time there was a new twist: somehow she’d turned on the light and the vibrator mechanism. I think she did it with her feet. Which is quite a feat indeed since the controls are on the outside. After calling Dom in to see her new accomplishment, I finally acknowledged that I was getting scared to leave her in the bassinet. She’s really to big for it, only two inches clearance on either end. She obviously finds it uncomfortable.

We’re seeking a crib and think we might have found one through my sister-in-law’s homeschooling group. But in the meantime, we went out to Target and bought a playpen. Once we get the crib, we’ll be able to put it in the office where her floor rolling gets her into precarious situations—we’ve found her licking the side of the trashcan and a cardboard box—or in the living room where I’ve found her rolling under the couch and holding daddy’s slipper and getting cozy with the stroller wheels.

I’ll still let her roll around on the floor and explore while I’m on hand to monitor her. But it was getting to be a problem that I couldn’t turn my back on her for even a minute without worrying what trouble she might get into.

When Dom had the new playpen set up in the bedroom, I put her down and she started wailing. But then he reached over and turned her onto her belly. She switched from wail to calm and alert, rolled back to her back and began to explore her new environment. I was able to leave her there for about half an hour while I did soem other tasks. I could never have left her that long in the bassinet. Even though we’ve only had it a few hours, I’m already calling the playpen a huge success.

*I realize they are now being called “play yards” rather than “play pens” but I’m going to continue to call it what they were called when I was growing up. So there.