Our house is becoming a fortress

As if outlet plugs, cabinet locks, and baby gates weren't enough, I'm about to embark on yet another child-proofing shopping trip.

Amelia can now unlock the doors.

And she can open the fridge.

As if I don't supervise her wistful gazing into the pantry enough, she can now stare into the fridge hoping for some special snack to tempt her taste buds. If she understood the concept of look (briefly!), choose, and eat, I may not be too concerned. But she likes to climb IN the fridge. She likes to step up and hang off the shelves. And her skinny little toddler body can probably fit in there even if the door closes. Not so safe. She is never alone in the kitchen long enough for this to actually happen, but the mommy worry in me can't stop with the "what ifs". I may or may not buy a fridge lock... gotta think it over some more and check out the new-fangled gadgets that are out there. I keep thinking that she will eventually understand and heed my "no-nos".... but I know I'm still in denial of her awesome 'I-can-do-whatever-I-want-I'm-almost-two' attitude.

The doors scare me even more than the fridge. We have an alarm system that beeps if a door is opened, but I never, ever want her to be able to go outside without a responsible adult watching her every move. We have neighborhood dogs that are occasionally blood-thirsty. And cars. And who knows... maybe (but hopefully not) an occasional stranger up to no good. My girl is not going out there on her own, nope. No way. My parents have simple little latches installed up high on their outer doors, and I will for sure be visiting the giant chain home improvement store for some of those this weekend.

Welcome to Fort Toddler. Visitors need an instruction manual to open anything around here.