15. Make cables in lounge baby-safe

I don't have photos of this, so you're going to have to take my word for it.

We had two sections of wires/cables which were worrying: those attached to the laptops which generally hang around the sofa, leading to J-cub's grab-and-pull move which I always worry is going to result in a laptop on his head; and those behind the TV table. Those aren't so much of a problem, because he can't really get to them, but they're just a bit annoying and tangly.

We discovered that the laptops sit nicely on one of the shelves of the new Billy bookcase. The cables, however, do not. They tend to slide off, or get tangled, or get yanked out when you remove a laptop. We moved the sofa a little closer to the Billy bookcase, and placed a litter bin (which we'd had to remove when J-cub started crawling) sandwiched between the sofa and the Billy. This effectively blocked off the small area between the sofa and the Billy, and there the cables live, allowing the laptops to be removed and used without trailing cables all over the place. Success.

The cables behind the TV unit have been dusted, detangled, organised and minimised. Those small enough to fit have been covered with that cable-covering stuff. The 4-way extension cable that runs from plug socket to behind the TV unit is tucked away out of any small reaching hands.

And I think that's the best we can do! It's certainly safer in here, and I almost feel like I could leave him for 5 seconds without him causing himself too much damage.

Day 47: Mission complete.

38. Clean radiator and below in lounge

This area has been completely inaccessible since I cleverly made a 'cage' for behind the TV table, in order to prevent the kittens from getting to the cables (our previously-mentioned Poppy once chewed through our speaker cables). I boxed it in with shelves from an old fridge, which I tied together and to the radiator with cable ties. All well and good - but there was no chance of getting a hoover in there.

All this had to be removed to make way for New TV Table (at last!). We were sad to see Old TV Table go, as it was one of the first pieces of furniture we ever bought, and to have lasted nearly 8 years is not bad for a cheap bit of Argos tat.

Once it was moved, the resulting dust, debris and cat hair (they spend a lot of their time climbing over the cage on their way to the windowsill, shedding along the way) was quite astonishing.

I hoovered (well, Dysoned), cleaned the radiator and skirting board, and tidied up the cables.

The resulting cleanliness was very satisfying.

Before:

After:

Day 45: Mission complete

2. Replace TV table with something that has doors

At last! I never thought it would take so long to get this done, and I think we've been to Ikea 3 times between me writing the list and actually getting this done. Our problem was that we couldn't find a TV table that a) had doors, b) didn't cost the earth, and c) would look nice with all our white furniture.

Having trawled through Ikea and the Ikea catalogue several hundred times, we realised why what we'd seen in the catalogue and what we'd seen in the shop didn't match up - the one we liked is not in fact a TV table, but instead it's a height extension unit for a shelving unit, with tempered glass doors (for the remote to work through).

We had ordered it from Ikea, but it got delayed by the snow, then was going to be the end of the month before they could deliver. We gave up, got in the car, and drove to Cardiff to get it once and for all.

It was easy to put together, but a nightmare to hang the doors, and we had to do a bit of an Ikea hack to cut the back down so that we could get the cables out. But the result is beautiful - it matches the Billy bookcases, it has gently curved edges to stop any nasty head injuries, and best of all it fits the Sky box, DVD player, Wii, all the Wii games, and the Wii fit board.

I'm starting to feel like everything has its place - rather than everything's place being under chairs/in corners/on the floor. It's a good feeling.

Before (I found this photo while trawling through the archives, J-cub is 3 months old here. I am slightly ashamed to see him plonked in front of the TV like this, but I'm sure I had a good reason):

When he got round to crawling, nothing was safe, and he frequently cleared all the DVDs out, then had a go at getting the Sky box and DVD player out. Over the last week, he's had the speakers off the ends, which is what made us get our arses in gear and get to Ikea:

After (although J-cub can now get a little too close to the TV for my liking):

Day 46: Mission complete.

Not MIA...

...just busy. Very, very busy, doing list items and general house- and baby-upkeep. I've not had time to blog, but I am faithfully photographing everything, and will update as soon as I have time.

Which may be tonight, or it may not (my reluctance to blog in the evenings may have something to do with our new The Office: An American Workplace season 5 DVD boxset which arrived on Thursday) but will be soon, I promise!

Anyway, just wanted to keep in touch ;)

23. Sell outgrown baby clothes on ebay

Blimey, listing stuff on ebay is tedious. It took me a good couple of hours to photograph and catalogue everything, and now it's taken me 3 hours and I've only done 18 items.

I have realised though, that the list item doesn't specifically state that I have to sell all the outgrown items in one day, so I'm going to keep doing a few each day, and not kill myself trying to do it tonight.

I'll try and update this post a bit more tomorrow, I'm just a bit computered out.

I couldn't quite resist the opportunity to cheer ebay up by adding a touch of comedy to the item descriptions, so if you'd care to, dear reader, read on:

Three sleepsuits

Three sleepsuits from Next, sized up to 3 months, brand new with tags.

Left to right: a yellowy-orange colour with a 'z is for zebra' (handily illustrated with a picture of a zebra, although it's not black and white which may cause confusion) on the left and 'l is for lion' (almost appropriately coloured) on the right. Next, a blue base with various jungle type animals (and, inexplicably, mice) cavorting around. Some of the animals are upside-down, which may worry you, but just think how nice it will be for your baby to see those animals the right way up to him (or her) when he (or she) kicks his (or her) legs in the air. Lastly, we have some nice thick stripes in some colours.

Now, listen up, ebayers. I am also listing a further 2 sleepsuits (see separate auction), which are THE SAME! Another stripey one, and another yellowy-orange, zebra-liony one. So if you are lucky enough to be shopping for quintuplets, now's your chance to get them co-ordinating sleepwear! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, arising from people, once again, buying us the same things.

Bearsuit

Every baby should have a bearsuit - discover what it would be like to hold a real live teddy bear.

Greyish shiny winter coat

Warm padded coat, perfect for this cold weather.

This coat was bought from Next for the princely sum of £24. Unfortunately, I received many winter coats for my baby, and this was the unlucky one never to have been worn. It still has those tags intact, if you want to feel extra good about how much of a bargain you're getting.

The coat is very thick and padded, with lovely fur (which I'm presuming is fake) around the edge of hood to keep wayward snowflakes out of your baby's eyelashes (you could always put the hood down if you wanted to get a nice photo of baby with snowy-eyelashes).

It has elasticated wrist-cuffs, to stop your baby pushing his sleeves up and getting cold forearms.

All in all - this is a lovely coat, and it would be sad if it didn't fulfil its coatly dream of keeping some child warm during this particularly cold winter.

Panda Grobag

Beautiful Panda design to the front (awwww), safe poppers to shoulders and under arms to prevent newborns slipping down inside.

Grobags can be used from birth and make your life a hell of a lot easier, as you don't spend all your time worrying if the baby is too hot or cold. It comes with a handy room thermometer to tell you a) what temperature the room is and b) what your baby should be wearing (it only gives you a rough guide, you'll have to go to his or her drawers and select which vest and which sleepsuit you fancy for that particular day. I find a baby always looks nice if their vest and whatever goes on top match. But then, I like my eyeshadow to match my outfit. I am a Virgo).

I know, I know. I'm hilarious.

Day 44: Mission complete.

60. Make hearth baby-safe

My Cushiony Fireplace Guard (best product name ever) arrived unexpectedly today, so it wasn't such a struggle to pick out a list item. As with much of the interior decor in our house (why do we live here again?), we don't like the fireplace: it's electric and therefore expensive, the plug doesn't reach the plug socket; and it doesn't even produce heat properly, it just has a small fan heater underneath it which blows hot air out, and a light behind the fake coals which glows. We've used it maybe twice in the 8 years we've lived here; but have been reluctant to remove it in case it damages the resale value of the house, and because the carpet is cut around it.

Anyway, it doesn't really warrant a full-on fire guard, as there's no heat to be protected from. We were mostly worried about delicate heads meeting concrete-bases or cast-iron (imitation, probably) edges. This cushiony thing seemed to be the answer, it's cut-to-sizeable and comes with handy 3M sticky pads to stick it on. We cut, and we stuck (stack?), and now its hopefully a little safer. Sure, there's still the sides that he could whack his head on, but we can't protect him from everything, and there's a world of worry ahead next summer when a toddler-shaped J-cub meets the garden and all its concrete/brick/stoney delights.

Before:

After:

Now that we've done it, I bet he never, ever falls anywhere near it. Or, if he does, he manages to hit his head on an uncovered bit.

Day 43: Mission complete.

Passing the buck

I'm not doing so well this week, although it's only Monday so I probably shouldn't be too hard on myself. Today was Jamie's first day back in work after a snowed-in, flu-ridden week, and I seem to have struggled a bit trying to do everything on my own.

Rather than beating myself up about it too much, I am having a Day Off, and will catch up ASAP. Because really, it's not the end of the world, and it's not worth tying myself in knots about.

Instead, allow me to point you in the direction of the lovely Lizzie, who is doing Ten Weeks of Plagiarism, and this week is doing me the honour of plagiarising me. I hope she manages to get everything done, and to blog about it daily too. She also has the pleasure of rewarding herself with a trip to Barcelona next week ... maybe if she fails at keeping up with her list then I can go in her stead ;)

Good luck Lizzie!