Mari & Ilna: What can I say? I'm enjoying this adventure every bit as much as I was on day one. Maybe more. Special thanks to Ilna for the story suggestion.
REAL Worlders-thanks for all the enthusiastic support. You guys are the best. For those of you who asked-yes there will be more to the storyline introduced last week with Carrie. Also, Esther's book storyline will be completed and most likely posted as bonus weekend postings.
Baby's Eve View (1/1)
"Apparently Daddy and Uncle Danny got out of work early today too," Catherine said in a sing-song voice as she removed a smiling Angie from her car seat. After wrapping up her afternoon meeting earlier than expected Lea had insisted the entire staff head home and get an early start on the 3-day weekend. Taking note of the other car in the driveway she added, "And by the look of it they invited Grandpa to come over."
"Bah aaah eee!"
"Whatever they're up to I know they'll be happy to see you." Catherine made her way down the walk towards the house holding the baby securely in one arm as she juggled her purse, briefcase, and the diaper bag in the other.
When she reached the door she was a little surprised Steve wasn't there waiting as he often was when he managed to beat them home from work.
She tried the knob.
Locked.
She dug in her purse for her key and opened the door only to be met by her father's voice.
"No, no, no." Joseph looked up from his position on his hands and knees near the far end of the room. "I'm polishing the floor. Can you go around back, please?"
Catherine's brows knit in confusion. "Dad?"
"Hi, sweetheart. Hello my gorgeous granddaughter." He smiled brightly but remained where he was. "I'm not sure that part over there is dry yet so can you just … " He indicated the back door with his head.
Catherine shook her head as she and Angie rounded the house towards the back door. "What are they up to?"
"Bah aah iiiieeeee!" Angie squealed and reached her arms out as soon as she saw Steve waiting for them on the deck.
"Hello there." He took the baby from Catherine and gave her a big smacking kiss. He repeated the gesture on his wife, hoping to distract her. "You're home a little earlier than expected," he said, using his body to block her from entering the house.
"I could say the same for you," Catherine smiled. "What are you guys up to?"
Steve scoffed. "What makes you think we're up to something?" He tickled Angie's tummy. "Your mommy is very suspicious today."
"For one thing, I don't normally come home and find my father polishing our living room floor," Catherine pointed out.
"Well he … we … I …" He realized the jig was up and sighed resignedly. "It was supposed to be a surprise."
"What was supposed to be a surprise?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.
"Come see." He opened the door and stepped back allowing her to enter first.
As she stepped into the kitchen Catherine saw Danny carefully sliding the stove back into place. Her eyes did a quick sweep of the room and didn't notice anything else out of place. "Did something happen with the stove?"
"We installed an anti-tip bracket," Steve said proudly as he stepped up behind her. "Now that Angie is mobile we need to make sure all our baby proofing bases are covered."
"I think calling her mobile might be getting a little ahead of ourselves," Catherine grinned.
"As much as it pains me to say it, your husband is right." Danny opened the stove door and pressed on it as hard as he could, smiling when it didn't budge. "Life comes at you fast. Your daughter will be up on her feet and getting into everything before you know it. Better to have precautions in place before that happens."
"That still doesn't explain why my father is polishing the living room floor," Catherine said.
"I stripped off the finish that was on there and replaced it with a natural beeswax and linseed oil finish," Joseph explained as he entered the kitchen wiping his hands on a rag. "Much better for Angie to crawl around on. It just needs another few minutes to dry."
Catherine smiled. "Thanks, Dad."
"My pleasure. Can't have my granddaughter crawling around on anything unhealthy for her." He made a face at Angie and smiled when she flailed her arms excitedly. "Speaking of which, your mother and Grandma Ang and I were kind of hoping maybe we'd get to see our girl in action sometime soon."
"I have a few cherry cordials left," Catherine chuckled. "Why don't you guys come over for dinner and afterwards we'll see what we can do." Truth be told she was excited for everyone to see Angie's newly acquired skill.
"Perfect." Joseph beamed. "If you'll excuse me now I'll run home and shower. Do you need us to bring anything for dinner?"
"Just yourselves," Catherine replied as he headed out the back door.
"Good thing Esther agreed to take Cammie out to the dog park so we didn't end with paw prints all over the house." Danny reached his arms out for Angie. "Why don't you come to Uncle Danno so your daddy can show your mommy all the things we did this afternoon"
"Bah bah aaaah."
"I can't wait to see," Catherine responded sincerely.
"To start with we got these." Steve pointed at two wood shelves sitting on the kitchen table, each about two feet long and nine inches wide. "I'm gonna install one inside the front door and one here by the back door. That way anyone with a purse can put it on here and keep it out of Angie's reach. People keep all kinds of things in their purses we wouldn't want her to get ahold of."
"That's an excellent idea," Catherine nodded. "I don't think I ever would have thought of that."
"I got a new kitchen garbage can with a locking lid." Steve opened the bottom cupboard in the island to show her. "I know we already have a baby lock on the cabinet door, but I read where babies can learn to defeat those, so I figured a backup lock couldn't hurt."
"And considering who her parents are ..." Danny kissed Angie's cheek, "outsmarting the baby locks in fairly short order isn't outside the realm of possibility."
"I also got locking trash cans for both bathrooms," Steve continued. "Though I read that until she gets to the point where she can open doors the best thing to do is to always keep the bathroom door closed. But just in case she's in there with one of us while we're getting ready I got locks for the toilet seat too and non-slip pads for the rugs."
Catherine squeezed his forearm. "This is amazing. You really thought of everything."
"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet," Danny smiled. "We spent a full hour with superSEAL belly crawling through the entire house looking for anything that might be at all dangerous. That's not me being dramatic. He really did that."
"You have to see things from Angie's eye level," Steve explained. "Some things are obvious like making sure there's nothing harmful in the bottom drawers. We already did that. But still there are little things that are easy to miss unless you get down and check." Steve dropped down to the floor. "Like this for example."
Danny shook his head good naturedly as he watched Catherine drop right down beside her husband. "Your parents are something else," he whispered to Angie, making her giggle.
"If I hadn't gotten all the way down here I never would have realized that the corners of the base of this island could really do some damage." Steve reached out and pressed his finger into one of the soft silicone corner guards he'd purchased earlier on a trip to Lowes. "I not only put these here I put them on all the base cabinets and the legs of all the furniture both down here and upstairs."
"These are perfect." Catherine leaned in and kissed him.
She was sure Danny would have a field day telling people about Steve's obsessiveness when it came to this task but it warmed her heart that he was so determined to remove any possible hazard from his daughter's world.
"Wait until you see what I got for the electrical cords," Steve said excitedly as he stood and reached out a hand to help Catherine then headed for the living room.
"The flat outlet covers we have work fine for the ones for we aren't using." He checked to make sure the floor was dry before proceeding. "But I got these great lucite boxes to cover the ones where we have things plugged in. That way Angie can't pull on the plugs and accidentally get shocked."
"Unplugging cords was one of Grace's favorite tricks when she was a baby," Danny laughed. "Everything with a digital clock, including the VCR, was always blinking 12:00." He pointed at the boxes Steve had installed over ever outlet in the house that was in use. "I wish we would have had these things then."
Catherine smiled. "I see you also secured all the cords to the baseboards so Angie can't pull anything off on her head."
Steve nodded. "A lamp falling from even the height of the side tables can do a lot of damage. And on that note, we double checked all the furniture straps to make sure anything that could tip is still tightly secured."
He pulled on the edge of the television to demonstrate.
"I thought maybe tomorrow we could go shopping for a few new baby gates," he suggested. "The ones we have are a few years old and when I looked online I saw a few newer models that I think might be a little safer and work a little better for us."
"Sounds like a plan," Catherine nodded.
Steve looked around the room. "Danny said that no matter how well prepared you think you are kids always find ways to get into things you didn't expect, but I think we covered most of the obvious bases."
"And quite a few of the not so obvious ones too," Catherine said. "Seriously, this looks great. I appreciate it and I know Angie does too."
Steve beamed as he took his daughter from his best friend. "Daddy would do anything to keep you safe." He smiled as Angie grabbed a fistful of his shirt. "Always."
THE END
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