O' what to do with a mobile baby?

Good luck.
If you have one, you may need it.

My model is nearly one year old, can rev her engine and get moving
pretty fast for mere hands-and-knees motation.
I've been trying to work on her scrapbook and to do that I spread everything
out on the living room floor.  Yeah.  Not a "safe" option (for my paper and supplies)
 for sure, but it's the biggest clear surface I have.
Add to that a seasonal outbreak of flying ants IN the house, and you have a
recipe for, well... for confining baby to... to something confining.
In most cases that would be my arms.  Today once again, I don't know what
to do with the girl to keep her out of trouble (and from eating winged carpenter ants)
so I sit in the rocker and we visit.  She sips a bottle of milk, and I daydream.

In my daydreaming, I look over and see a laundry basket.  It gets me thinking
of the old days when Zachary, my firstborn, was a curious toddler, and how stumped
I was on how to confine him while I took a bath (no shower in that house).  Probably there
was a baby in this story -  there usually is.  Clayton would have been a sensibly immobile
baby several months in age.  At that time the safety of 2 was at stake and baths were a kind
of laughable dream!

Somewhere in my desperate ingenuity I dragged the laundry basket into the bathroom
with me and plopped my toddler in it. Handed him a bag of Cherrios, and kept him
within reach.
That's how I got clean in the early years.

Normally naps are the hot ticket, but lately the various naps overlap so there is a ready
supply curious fingers no matter what time of day.
Big brothers and sisters - they are the real unsung hero's!  As I sat daydreaming today,
I concluded the laundry basket not the right option for this toddling baby in this season.
I have a feeling it would have been an upside-down basket with crying-baby in no time flat.

So the formula for this day is: 2 big sis's, one big brother, bedroom, and baby gate.
Big brothers and sisters were something I didn't start right off with (for my children),
but I find they are real life savers!  I highly recommend getting some.

It's been a creative hour or so.
Now:  rescue of the babysitters, bright praise doled out, kisses, and food.
Life is good.