bare minimum babyproofing

We just booked our trip to visit DH's family in May. Its going to be a sad trip- DH's mom died in December and we are going for the burial (lives way up north in the midwest and we had to wait until the thaw). Anyway, since its going to be such a project flying with the girls (2 planes- 6 hours total), we decided to stay for 11 days and make the rounds to visit everyone.

We also decided to go to his parents' lake house and open it up for his sibs to use this summer. Its a beautiful property and the cabin is very cozy, but in terms of two mobile toddlers, its just filled with dangerous things. Even though this trip is 2 months away, as soon as I hit the "purchase trip" this morning, I started to freak out!

Lets start with the property. Long driveway that on one side falls off about 10 feet to trees. To get to the lake from the main property you have to descend about 25 stone (slippery!) steps! Oh and the rest of the property is just a 40' drop to the rocky shore of the lake. OMG I'm getting hives thinking about it.

Since the cabin is tiny, I'm sure we are going to spend most of our time outside. How do I keep them away from dangerous things when they don't understand danger (and are showing themselves to be fearless like their daddy- clearly NOT like their momma)? I can't imagine buying another playyard and having it shipped out there, and they HATE their pnp's now- plus those are too small to play in anyway. The baby rental equipment website I know about (babysaway.com) doesn't have any locations near where will be (there are no locations in the whole state!).

As for the cabin, its old and FILLED with tiny chotckes. I might be able to see if one of his sibs can go ahead of time and at least move some of the major chocking hazards up off low tables, but like I said, we've offered to open it for the season.

Any advice? I will have help from his sisters and my nieces, and of course DH, but I feel like I have to have some plan for a safe place for the girls to play that doesn't involve someone holding their hand 24/7. I have to stop thinking about it now because its really stressing me out. I remember last year how we left the girls on a blanket in the middle of the living room and they happily laid there and stared at the ceiling fans. Its a whole new world this year.

 

Will there be a bedroom you will be staying in? You can make that your safe area. And just make sure someone has each of them at all times. (We're going to my mom's in June, and her house is full of glass "treasures", so we're going to do full time watching.)
I'm sure with a bunch of relatives around, there will be no problem finding people to help!
Helen

 

I would take (or ship ahead) two superyards. That will make a big enough space that they feel like they are still part of the room, not separated from everything. You could even put it around some of the furniture that is safe for them and make a new room of sorts. You could also set it up outside. To get down to the lake, you and dh wear very slip resistant shoes and carry them down. That's all I've got, I hth!

 

i second the playyards
our vacation would have been crazy without ours (we would have ended up buying tham while we were there)
our beach house that we rented was so NOT baby proof! we ended up moving the furniture and using our play yard to make a safty circle in the living room.
one safe place to put them down where they had freedom to be one there own, sort of.
i would also bring some outlet covers, as they are pretty cheep and once you have kids you spot outlets with out covers all the time.
we also used the protable highchairs (dont know what they are called) but they were great for feeding, they can be used on the floor or straped to chairs.
we borrowed ours for vacation.
i am going to attach pictures of the chairs and the safty zone.
good luck o i also took our contoured changing pad for diaper changing we just put it on the bed during the day.
good luck.

Abby & Mason ready for dinner
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/lgrazia/IMG_3962.jpg

safty zone
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/lg...a/playroom2.jpg

set up for the next day after they went to bed
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/lgrazia/IMG_4157.jpg

 

Thank you everyone!!! I think I'm going to have to put my foot down on this one since DH seems to think his sisters will all step up and help. No doubt that they will, but you know how toddlers are. They want to explore and have a place to play alone. So I think that the bare minimum will be a play yard and outlet covers. Oh and we finally got portable high chairs (my mom found a great sale at BRU last week- $16 for FP!) so that will be necessary at meal times.

I don't want to be the overprotective mom, but this trip will definitely test my limits. There is just NOTHING safe about this area, but I want all of us (including me!) to have fun. I think the only way that will happen will be to get a big play yard (so I can relax for a couple of minutes). Thanks again (and thanks for posting the adorable pictures of Mason and Abby 'hot2trot..').

 

Leighann,
We traveled at Christmas for a week to MA, staying in a hotel suite. It was a combined work/family trip, DH had to go into work half a day (his company's home office is there) and we also visited his side of the family. Let me tell you, being in the hotel with the girls by myself was very nerve wracking. Granted, they were older than yours will be for your trip (27 months), but I really didn't know how un-babyproofed a hotel is until I was in one.

The doors were those lever-style handles, so VERY easy for them to open. They were constantly in the bathroom, unrolling the toilet paper and flushing the toilet. Opening drawers and pulling everything out, you get the idea. I would have brought door handle thingies if I had realized what it would be like. I spent as little time as possible in the hotel room. After the first day, DH arranged to get a ride to the office, and I took the kids out right after breakfast. I tried to find things to do just like at home, like the library, an indoor play area, went to the mall, etc. You may want to do the same, if possible.

If you can, try clearing out one room of the cabin as sort of a playroom, if that's at all possible. I don't know that I would necessarily take the Superyard. When mine were 14 months, Bea was still semi-afraid of the grass and wouldn't run away from me. Ainsley was just starting to crawl. So at that stage, spending a lot of time outside wasn't all that enjoyable. I was still doing the big blanket on the grass with some toys thing.

For sleeping, I highly recommend the Peapod. They take up much less space than PNP's, are much more portable, and if you have climbers, they can't get out. I fasten the zippers together with zip-ties so they can't unzip themselves. We used them on the trip, and also when they spend the night at my parents' house.

Anyway, I didn't mean to make that so long! Hope the trip goes well.