The saga of the baby gate...

Amelia has been challenging me with her mobility. She figured out how to climb stairs a few weeks ago but we've always been able to keep her away from them and distracted with toys fairly easily. Until yesterday. (side note -- don't know why this is underlined!!!)
First I tried to block the stairs with a laundry basket. She got over that in about 1 minute...

Not pictured, but after the laundry basket, I attempted to block the stairs with four cans of paint. She also got through those. Having mastered the laundry basket, she was able to scoot right over that and then challenge herself with the paint can Olympics.

So, last night before yoga I went to Toys R Us and bought one of those nice gates that have a foot pedal so you can swing it open hands-free. After several attempts at installation, it was 1" too long to fit in our strange old house doorway. The picture shows this but not that well...
I then attempted to use the 3rd side of our fireplace gate to just block the whole area. She figured out how to move that faster than she managed to get through the laundry basket/paint can obstacle course.
Success! This was the cheap gate that was re-gifted to us by Grammie. Funny how those things work better than the expensive kind! Amelia spent the morning crawling over to this gate and then screaming because she couldn't get through... I win!