As the little guy is getting more active with rolling over, is getting closer to crawling, and generally grabs everything within arm reach when carrying him, I find myself worrying a lot.  It has kept we from sleeping well the last 2 nights, and it is consuming me overall that I am afraid he will hurt himself at any given moment.  Gone are the days when the little guy would sit comfortably in my arms – now he wants to interact with that crazy world out there.

My worries apply to everyday situations that if you are not 100% alert, could be a life-changer.  For example, what if I just pop into the kitchen with him to grab the bottle for him that has been warming, and my wife has been cutting something with a knife and left it on the counter.  Boom, he grabs the knife.  It freaks me out just thinking about it.  It could also be something hot, a pen sitting on a table, or basically anything hard (he has no control over the arms and is smashing everything into his face at the moment).  Your mind begins to look at everything like a hazard.  E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

So, apparently it is time to put everything away all the time, and make sure my wife and I have agreements about how the kitchen will get handled.  Everyone talks about “babyproofing the home”, and I guess this is what they mean by that.  There is little need to do this until the 6 month point, but now the time is upon us.  And it also applies to the floor – how much padding do we put on the floor, and how to we make sure he doesn’t smack his head when playing in the baby gym (or rolling out from it).

There is of course another alternative to hiding everything.  We could wrap our apartment, our stuff, and our baby’s head and hands with foam and bubble wrap to make sure it is all as safe as possible.  Not sure if that is a good idea, I can’t imagine it is easy to cut tomatoes with a bubble wrap knife, and I imagine he will get frustrated trying to pick things up with a bubble-wrap mitten on.  Back to the drawing board.  Hopefully the anxiety will pass soon, but I have a feeling this is just what it is like to be a parent – always something to worry about.