Entertainment Center Redone

WARNING: You are about to read about my obsessive baby proofing habbit. The one I am not proud of but I haven't figured out how to handle the trouble that these little kids get into. I am always thinking up new ways to limit their freedom of exploration. This time it was their access to the Entertainment Center which has been driving me crazy for months and I finally had enough and did something about it.

But First a small story: I went to try and find an old picture of our entertainment center and this is the first one I found. I took this picture because the scene was so pathetic that I thought we'd have fun looking back on it in a few years. It was only a month ago though (or whenever superbowl sunday was) so I'm still a little embarrassed by it and therefore will have to explain the white trashness that is present. We don't have cable and never have had any sort of TV service since we've been married but for some reason John decided he wanted to watch the superbowl. So we borrowed his brother Kenney's bunny ears and hooked them up. Then to make things worse, he decided that chips and dip was a good enough dinner and that we should let the kids eat it in the living room. I don't think I was feeling good that day so I just let it be. The saddest part of this scene is the part you can't see... Vivian's not wearing pants or a diaper. I think it had to do with a rash or something but totally white trash.

Anyways... This has been our entertainment center for most of our marraige. On the bottom is two cupboards on either die of a drawer that has a little shelf above it and to the side of the TV is a little cubby that used to have a couple shelves in it and before we got Michael, we had the stereo and VCR there.

We got it from Walmart when we moved to Stockton 4 months after we got married. At first we stored stuff in the bottom then when we got Michael a few months later we emptied them and let him climb in and out of the cupboards. At one point we decided we wanted to put stuff in it again so we just added childproof locks to the doors and the drawer. (As mentioned above: I baby proof anything I can [to the extreme] to avoid unecesary messes or struggles.) That lasted for quite awhile.

But a few months ago, He got through those so we took everything out including the drawer itself because he's a lot bigger now and we don't want him or Vivian getting hurt. Once again, they had access to the cupboards (I was quite surprised that he still fit inside them). Vivian learned soon enough how to climb in by herself. This made me a little uneasy fearing that Michael would try and shut her in there or that there would be smashed fingers and lots of crying. But I was able to handle it.

Michael has also always climbed in the cubby on the side of the TV. Now he's even tall enough to where if he stands on that shelf he can reach over the top and play with whatever is up there, expecially pushing videos and DVDs into the VCR. But I was able to handle it... mostly

One thing Michael loves to do now is to sit there while he's watching a movie and alternate banging the doors shut. This was kind of a problem because it would wake Vivian up from her naps, and that brings on a cranky and sick child. But I was able to handle it... somewhat.

Also by climbing in the cubby he could reach through the holes in the back and play with the cords. Often times it would mess up the system which meant no TV for the rest of the day. I tried to handle it. (but it's really annoying when he gets ahold of the sensor bar for the Wii and wraps it thru the cupboard handle like 50 times.)

Michael has always been allowed to turn on/off the TV. It gives him a small amount of responsibility and I didn't mind it. He used to turn it on and off durring play time when he was younger but I didn't mind, because it was never when we were watching anything. At the begining of the year when we started watching Malacai, he learned pretty quick where that power button was and by him doing it (being not much older than her) gave Vivian enough strength to do it too (she had tried several times but her fingers were just too small and petite). So then began the whole game of turning it on and off. But these two little ones thought it was the funniest thing to do it while we were watching a movie. It was rarely both of them at the same time. It was usually when 2 kids were intent on the screen, the other one would turn it off and then the 2 that were watching it would scream and yell and cry because they couldn't watch their movie. This one I could NOT handle.

So I did this....

We turned the entertanment center around and nailed cardboard to the back so that it would be smooth and they wouldn't try to sit in the shelves or play with the handles anymore. Then I made a fitted cover out of a huge piece of fabric I had laying around. There is like 10 inches tucked under the bottom of it. And then of course we put the TV, DVD/VCD, and the Wii on top of it all. We also switched TV's and the power button is on the top now. I can reach it perfectly without tip toes just by reaching all the way up. John did not want to do this but he does prefer TV's that are higher up so now that it's done, he doesn't mind at all. I love it because...

No more cupboards banging or smashing fingers. No more climbing. No more cords and No more access to the power button! They can still get to the VCR player if they pull up something to stand on, but it's pretty much left alone now. The only thing I didn't accomplish at the same time was blocking the fireplace off. Which now that they don't have access to the entertainment center has been their new focus of trouble. However I found out how to block that off too finally. (I just put 6 strips of packing tape accross the glass doors and tucked the edges of the tape into the crack so they can't just grab them and pull it off.)

Since I was taking pictures of our new TV Stand I thought I would take the opportunity to snap a few pictures of our Living room decorations. Here is our Mantel with John's Lighthouses, a wooden model of the Oakland Temple that my mom designed for all the YW to make when I was a laurel, and one of the corsages from our wedding on the far left. The blocks behind the temple say "families are forever" and I just made those a couple months ago at our wards Super Saturday. Then the pictures of Jesus and the Temple are always nice to look at.

Here is one of the arrangments of Random frames I have up. Yes I know one of them is Empty. I figured I would at least get it up there and then I could put something in it later. (It's been 9 or more months and it's still not done, oh well)
Here is the other arrangement I have except this one isn't semetrical and there is one that was already knocked off.
Here is the oldest thing I own. I should get more kistory on it but this is the only thing I wanted after my grandma passed away in February. I remember it being on my Great Grandma's coffee table when I was a little girl. We loved putting marbles or whatever in the scale to watch it tip. Plus I now have a personal interest in scales but I'll save that for another post. (And yes, I know I should put candle sticks in the candle holders.)
Here is the big family picture of us that is on my main blog.

I need to take more pictures of the actual rooms before we move but I'm waiting for a time when it's clean, lol. Anyways, I hope you've endured my detailed description of my TV troubles.