Good morning! It's a glorious day here in New York. I'm sorry if you're being impacted by flooding and crazy weather in other places! Today's post is a work in progress, but it's something I've been wanting to talk about, and when a friend/reader asked about it yesterday, I figured I'd jump in, even if I haven't fully perfected everything. The deal: baby proofing with bookshelves and decor generally.

Specifically, my friend asked how I kept so many books on the lower shelves with a baby around. As you can see, part of the answer is that...
 I don't. Though I don't mind when he plays with books, it was a hot mess on a daily basis, so I made use of the bottom shelf to hold corralled goods and baby bait. Those woven baskets with leather-like tops are our "memory" baskets, and the the taupe box (a boot box I'll jazz up some day) is holding Lou's most precious artwork. Blankets in a basket, and then the best looking blocks ever in a an accessible basket for West.

I also have some toys hidden it the taller urn basket on the other side of the bookshelf.

These little stores of toys, coupled with a bunch of baby-friendly goods on the coffee table, have been enough to keep West occupied so that he's actually stopped going after the books on the upper shelf.

About that coffee table:

We're using a kid's art table I sidewalk-scavenged, so it's already got slightly rounded corners (perfect for Wobbly West), and I don't care if it gets dinged. I might try to give it a makeover at some point, by the way, so stay tuned on that. Anyway, some people are perfectly content to just have an empty coffee table, free from tchotckes and bric-a-brac.

I am not one of those people.

In choosing what to put here, I wanted good-looking stuff that the kids could play with without fear. So far, we're using some maracas, a bowl of soft felted beads, a thrifted wooden sculpture-like thing that, perhaps because of its resemblance to a boob, is wildly popular with the babies, and some soft rubber coasters that are, inexplicably, wildly popular with babies and five-year-olds alike. The maracas are just the best: I have a low tolerance for the kind of toy noise that comes from toys that require batteries, but these are really fun to listen to when they're being enthusiastically deployed in impromptu concerts. As I say, it's a work in progress: I've actually had a lot of fun looking in our home and at thrift stores for pretty objects that could capture the imagination of little guys safely. I'm thinking now about adding some paper mache goods, or a set of blocks that spell out LOVE that I want to give a little sprucing...it's the sort of thing I enjoy thinking about. What about you all? Are you working to keep the decor going in your house even while munchkins live there? Or have you thrown in the towel entirely and replaced your carpets with this? Do share! Thanks for checking in and let's talk tomorrow!