My babies are so smart!!!

With pretty limited watching of the My First Sign's DVD from the Baby Einstein series, Hayden and Lily are really picking it up. They both can sign 'eat' and can sort of sign 'mother', Bug can sign 'milk' and 'more', and then just tonight Hayden started signing 'baby' and 'ball'. I am going to try to get them on video doing it because it is sooo cute, especially Hayden signing 'baby'. Xander is not really as in to it as the girls, he would much rather throw things around. The trio have been having more fun with each other...they have this little mosh pit time where they "run" all around almost running into each other only to laugh then back off and do it again, it is so funny to watch and listen to their giggles. They are all doing little running in place bits so I think once the jail comes down, which Jason wants to do this weekend YIKES, they are going to really start flying.

Now that we are getting rid of the jail we are getting some baby proofing done and we need to try and get some furniture lashed down. There are so many child accidents and deaths every year from pulling furniture onto themselves. Here is a little statistical info to serve as a reminder...

It could be a TV set, bookcase or dresser. Every day, about 40 young children are taken to hospital emergency rooms with injuries suffered when a heavy piece of furniture fell on them. A new study by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, has compiled 18 years worth of statistics about child injuries caused by furniture tipping over. Looking at data from 1990 to 2007, researchers found that:

• Furniture tip-over injuries increased 41 percent;

• 264,200 children received emergency care for those injuries;

• An average of 14,700 furniture tip-over related injuries occurred each year;

• Most of the injuries occurred at home and involved children under age 7;

• Furniture tip-over accidents killed 300 children from 1990-2007, and nearly all the deaths resulted from falling dressers and TV sets.

About half the tip-over injuries to children under age 4 resulted from a television falling on them. The researchers say the accidents often occur when large TV sets are placed on on tables, cabinets or other structures that aren’t stable or strong enough to support them. TV sets were the most common item associated with tip-over injuries to kids under age 9, while desks, cabinets and bookshelves were the most common source of injury for kids ages 10-17, the study found.
What Parents Can Do
Nationwide Hospital researchers offer this advice for minimizing the risk of furniture tip-overs and injuries to children:

• Strap TV sets to a stable stand or wall.

• Attach large furniture, such as dressers or bookshelves to the wall with safety straps, L-brackets or other strong attachment devices.

• Remove objects attractive to children – such as toys, remote controls, etc. – from the top of a TV set, bookshelf or other large furniture structure to dissuade kids from trying to climb up to get what they want.

• Install stops on dresser or other large furniture drawers to prevent kids from pulling them more than two-thirds of the way out. Sometimes, pulled-out drawers can shift the weight of a large structure and cause it to fall over.