I received the VTech Baby Monitor for review, and all opinions are 100% my own.

As many of you know my girls are extremely busy children, meaning this mama is non-stop chasing after one or the other.  My girls are one and four and half years old so we are extremely mobile and have opinions about what we should get into, which tends to be just about everything.  Since the girls are three and half years apart I had forgotten some of the things that the baby would enjoy playing with, which are definitely not safe items or places.  In order to ease your worries about the safety of your busy toddler, I've put together Five Toddler Safety Tips that'll have you breathing easy.

Toddler Safety Tips

I'm extremely fortunate that I've learned a thing or two from an amazing woman that watches all of these five children plus a newborn who is not pictured, my mom!  Yes you read that right.  During the day she watches six children all under the age of five while my sister, sister-in-law and I head off to work as teachers.  There's Riley {4.5}, Aidan {almost 4}, Kylie {2}, Connor {2}, Avery {1} and Kaitlyn {5 months}.  She manages to not only keep all of them safe, but they're all on an amazing schedule as well.  We honestly are just so blessed.  So I've definitely learned a thing or two from her along the way.

1.  Safety Gates on all stairs.  I know this might seem like a no-brainer, but you'll want to get these gates up the second that child is mobile.  Even a little bit of crawling means it's time to put a gate up.  You'll be shocked at how quick those little buggers can get around once they figure it out.  The gate is also extremely important because as you can see it's extremely likely that they'll try to crawl up to find their mama.

2.  Video Monitor with Two Way Communication.  Since we have both girls it became absolutely essential that we have a monitor with video as well as two way communication.  The VTech Baby Monitor can pan around the room and follow those itty bitties.  Right now Avery is in her crib, but Riley shares the room with her so it has been a total lifesaver with knowing what Riley is up to while still keeping an eye on Avery.  Once Avery is out of her crib I'm absolutely positive that the two way communication feature is going to come in handy when she attempts to skid-daddle on out of her bed the way that Riley did.  The VTech Monitor also allows you to have up to four cameras that can scan through each room, which in the case of my mom is absolutely essential.  She uses the monitor in the playroom when she's feeding the newborn in the living room so that she can still keep an eye on and referee any arguments from a different room with the two way communication.  For more information about VTech and their products be sure to check out their Facebook, Google+, Twitter & Pinterest accounts.

3.  Cover those Outlets.  No matter what type of covers you use just know that it's essential to have them covered.  Little fingers are drawn to them and it's so easy and inexpensive to get them covered.

4.  Bolt down and organize bookshelves with breakable items put away.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to bolt a bookshelf to the wall.  My girls walked relatively early {9.5 months & 10 months} and they started climbing shortly after.  Avery thinks that everything is a stair including the lower shelf on the stove, which was the scariest thing I have ever seen a one year old do.  She literally used the handle on the shelf under the stove as a step and reached up to the stove top.  This entire kitchen shelf was replaced with a pantry to keep all the glass items and this shelf now holds the girls' art supplies.

5.  Remove choke-able items from toy baskets.  Avery puts everything in her mouth.  I don't remember my oldest doing this as a  one year old, but she'll shove it right on in.  There are so many little toys that come in preschool and school age children toys that it's easy for items to go unnoticed.  I try to comb through the toy box at least every other week in case one of Riley's "little things" has ended up in there.