Better Than A Baby Gate

I hate baby gates. But alas, they are needed in my house. seeing as we have a baby and all, and places/steps to keep the baby out of. I have a funky short stair case in our basement, that is impossible to gate off because there is no wall on one side. J LOVES to run to these steps and climb them as soon has his little knees and hands hit the floor. Its an exhausting game he likes to play and I was putting up barricades made out of the toy box and ottoman's to keep him from them. But he usually finds a way to get around even my best attempts. What is a mama to do?
Enter the Zhu Zhu Pet


My big boys love Zhu Zhu pets. They are mechanical little hamster rodents things. J has somehow developed a huge fear of the things. I'm not sure how. They big boys were playing with theirs one day, and J got panicked and scooted quickly away from the Zhu Zhu, screaming and with general fear/panic written across his face. This happened sometime ago, and I forgot about it. Until, last week, as the toy box was barricading the steps and J was standing next to it, the Zhu Zhu started making noise from the depths of the box. J freaked and made a bee line to my side. Hmm. An idea struck me and I experimented. I placed the zhu zhu pet on the second step, and J refused to go near the steps at all. I enjoyed 20 minutes of bliss sitting in the basement without having to get up a thousand times to get him off the steps. He just stayed away from the steps. (I'm wondering if it is wrong for me to capitalize on my baby's fear of a mechanical toy). But anyway, I tried it on the upstairs stairs and it worked as well.

So for now, my zhu zhu pet (named Rocky), is my new, very effective baby gate. I'm thinking about purchasing a couple more to make Christmas tree barricade.