Gus and I decided to try our hands at building Max a new bed. We were quite sad to say goodbye to the tent, but Max is quickly becoming too long for it. Add to this that Max will soon be joined by a sibling and we had the perfect excuse to make a cool bed structure, complete with puppet theater. Gus's parents offered to buy us something off the shelf, but I absolutely had to have a custom (and likely much uglier) bed. So Gus and I set to work building a bed out of scraps of lumber we had lying around...most of which Gus pilfered out of a garbage bin.
Needless to say it took us a very long time to complete this relatively simple project, but Max was extremely excited by the whole process. He loved "helping" dad (see pictures below). The hardest part was convincing him that he shouldn't play on top of the bed when it was (a) half build and thus not sturdy and (b) had no railing or protection from falling whatsoever. I learned how to make nets online and when we had finally put a net around the bed to protect him from falling, he could barely contain himself. For some reason he has decided the upper bed (which he will not be allowed to sleep in for a year or two yet) is a bus and makes Gus and I sit up there for long periods of time singing wheels on the bus and bouncing up and down on pillows. I prefer to play "sleeping".
We are still finishing off some of the details. I may paint the structure sometime this summer...but all and all we are very happy with our handy work. Everyone else looks at it with a pained expression. They don't seem the least bit surprised when we proudly declare that much of the wood was salvaged from a dumpster.
I think it looks awesome. Your net looks way nicer than mine ever did. Let's here it for research :)
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a very fun bed. The advantage of home made is you can remake it in various versions over the years. Leo still sleeps in hers, it just looks a little different.
ReplyDeleteAs DIY, I'm not sure you two would be our most critical audience, but I appreciate all the positive comments nonetheless!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments on the net Mike. I guess I should have made the holes a little smaller though. Right now I am trying to convince relatives that Max is unlikely to choke on the net as they seem convinced that his entire body will accidentally slip through the net except his head which will become caught. Then rather than reach up and grab the net with his arms, he will hang there and strangle.... I think it is more likely he will die in a car accident on the way to the store to by the rope to fix the net, but this argument doesn't seem to be convincing anyone :)
Pretty sure you couldn't get someone to choke with that setup if you tried. I think smaller would only increase the odds of some neck-sized body part becoming entangled.
ReplyDeleteI would have Gus play a game (with supervision) where the object is to try and strangle himself on your net. Record it and put it on Youtube.
Joking aside, one of the best ways of baby-proofing is to put someone on the job of trying to get into trouble. I've crawled around on my knees many times pulling everything in sight and banging my head into things to prepare a room for toddlers. Apply the same methodology (which you likely already have). If it turns out there is a problem, just apply hockey logic -- Increase the armour rating. Perhaps you could fashion a neck brace and just have him wear it to bed ;)
That sounds like fun. I wonder what Gus's family would think of me posting videos where he tries to strangle himself?
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, the top step is much more dangerous. You will note it is almost as high as the bed and has no railing. To date, though, Max has always been very careful on it.
We definitely have tried to get into trouble when baby proofing. My experience is Max is better at it then we are, but trouble rarely leads to anything serious. As an amusing little anecdote to that effect: we went to a bunch of work to put those plug protectors in all the outlets in the house. Max promptly went through the house and removed them all, which he thought was great fun. As soon as they were gone, however, he had no interest in the outlets and hasn't looked at them since. So much for our protection efforts.....