A “New” Place to Play

Last week the Irishman and I got fed up with the living room. We’d set up the playpen (AKA the prison) for Sean when he started getting more mobile so we would have a safe place to put him. The problem was our living room just isn’t that big. With the play space set up in the middle of the room Caitlin couldn’t get to her kitchen and things were taken out but you couldn’t get to the baskets to put them away. It wasn’t working.

We’d had enough, but with the downstairs floor plan we couldn’t figure out how to change it. After two very late nights we have the room partitioned with the wall-mounted walls of the playpen (which was really two extra long gates we had connected into a pen) and a giant rug down to prevent falls on the tile. I’m not sure if it is the way we are describing it or what, but we have gotten negative reviews from several people we’ve told. I guess it doesn’t matter in the end. We now have a baby-safe for the kids to play with their toys and we are happy with how it looks.



We found the giant rug on clearance for $84. It was actually cheaper than foam blocks. We got a carpet pad to put under it for added fall protection. Caitlin walked across it for the first time and announced that it was “comfy.” We tend to agree!



It has really opened up the room and given them great place to play. As an added bonus they both have had no problems finding ways to entertain themselves with the toys and books that had previously been hard to reach.



It makes it a lot easier to cook and get ready for work in the morning when the kids are happily playing without you! I’ll take a picture from the other room soon. I didn’t have one of those on my camera from the weekend.



I have suspicions that this little guy is going to be a climber. We made sure the rug and padding went around the edges of the couch!



We love that they are interacting more and more with each other.



I’m sure they will be getting into trouble together in no time! ; )