Stepping Stones: Baby-proofing for the Younger One

Recently, I have been baby-proofing our house.  Almost three years into parenting, and the time has come to stick the outlet covers in the sockets, purchase safety gates to block the stairs, and move lamps to the few safe places I can find.

I remember a year and a half ago or so, a well-meaning friend told me to be thankful John wasn’t crawling yet… that when he did, he’d be into everything, and “Boy, will you be in trouble!”  Yes, there were tears shed over those remarks after I simply nodded and smiled like what she said didn’t faze me.

So here I am, baby proofing – not for John (not yet at least), but for Daniel, my 7 month-old explorer.  It is not uncommon to find him discovering new places to pull up, even once up inside a chair.

And I had to laugh at the irony of the situation when I turned around for one minute to stick a few safety plugs into outlets and then found Daniel on the landing having just crawled up 5 entire stairs.  Until then, I didn’t even know he could do that!

Let me emphasize how very grateful we are for Daniel’s milestones.  Without a doubt, we are incredibly grateful for all that both of our boys can do in this very moment and mostly for just WHO they are and the joy they bring us. 

But time is a funny and evasive thing, especially when it seems to be “out of order” or not going according to my desired or anticipated timeline.  Watching Daniel achieve one milestone after another activates a few things in my heart: 

1)   I am in awe… just in utter awe.  How is this skill or that so effortless? How did it just appear over night?  Do people realize the miracles I behold every single day?!  Do their jaws drop as ours do when their child does something new (and then for the next 100 plus times he does that same exact thing)?

2)   I am grateful. We have learned not to take anything for granted and more importantly to celebrate each step our boys take, big and small.

3)   Sometimes, I am sad if I’m honest.  Daniel’s strides can be bittersweet for a Mama who also wants so much for her older son.  Daniel can crawl and get to me whenever he wants or needs me while John cannot.  Fortunately, I am blessed with an amazing husband who reminded me that John is able to get to me in other ways.  He lets me know when he needs me through his sweet coos (okay, sometimes they are more like enraged groans!).

What a blessing it is to know that our times are in the Lord’s hands.  His timeline may be different from mine, but HIS is perfect.  We operate within linear time with finite perspectives, whereas God is both above time and sovereign working within time… even if that means baby proofing for my younger one first, only having had 19 days on earth with my son Warren, or fighting against the “what if’s” for John’s future.

I pray we can all savor this very moment, as crazy or disordered as it may seem – for this is the one we have been given.  If we are only looking to the unknowns of the future or the sorrows or triumphs of the past, we will be robbed of the beauty in this present moment that passes so quickly. 

I pray today we can enjoy exactly where we are.  I know I am truly blessed.  I can say that with 100% assurance.  I pray you will feel God’s blessings today as well.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

"From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’"

Acts 17: 26-28