The toilet paper bandit

We've been having to do a lot more baby-proofing for our current baby than we had to do for the other two. I think it's mostly due to the layout of the house. For instance, in WV we never needed a safety gate because there was a door at the top of the steps to the basement. Here the stairway is wide open. In WV, once we were up and about, we could pretty much see everywhere in the house from anywhere else in the house. Here we can't. In WV pretty much the only barrier we put up for our toddlers was one locked kitchen cabinet, and even then it was just a rubber band stretched over the handles of the cupboard. And in WV we had a lot more up-high storage, including two rows of shelves in our laundry closet (which was right in the kitchen, so we could keep sharp kitchen items like our blender and grater in there) and a huge cabinet that was almost a closet in the bathroom. Here, if we want to store anything bigger than a bar of soap, in our bathrooms, like for instance, toilet paper (which is a good idea to have around), it has to go under the sinks. And that little bundle of entropy, who we call Caleb, has decided that toilet paper is his new favorite toy.

I agree with him that toilet paper is a lot of fun. He likes to walk around with two rolls on his two hands, which is actually kind of cute, but lately, he's been starting to tear pieces off as he walks, and the other day, he pulled the center right out of a roll. In case you've never realized it before, toilet paper has the potential to create a huge mess.

I've put a lock on our bathroom under-the-sink cabinet and taken all the extra toilet paper out of the hallway bathroom (dangerous, I know). I've even had to take the in-use rolls off the holders, placing them on the counters, thereby creating clutter, which I have a severe aversion to. I know that this time in our lives is only temporary, and that this too shall pass (thank you, Melissa, for that mantra), but in the meantime, it is extremely exasperating.