Just in time, but a little too late?

(Don't you love her outfit? It was about her fifth clothing change of the day.)

Today, New Daddy took a break from his last day at home to hang the gate in front of the stairs. Precious proved to be an invaluable help-- grabbing, ahem, stabilizing the drill while Daddy drilled holes, sticking screws into random holes, and, of course, expanding the audience to include her bear. We were barely ahead of Bubby's motor skills; he enjoyed pulling up on the new gate and giving it the rattle test.

When Precious went mobile, I put up a mesh gate in front of the hallway that we big folks could just hop over when we needed to. But, with a preschooler around, the stair gate was the best option. I'm wondering if it would have helped Precious stay upstairs and perhaps let New Daddy work a little more while he was working from home. Oh, well, I guess we won't know for a while!