Yep ... can you guess what it is?  A 1 1/2 year old kid.  I just got out of bed to get a glass of water, and just about killed myself 3 times! Including stepping on a plastic ball on the stairs!  I'm sure my wife heard each time loud and clear.  No way anybody is going to sneak through this house at night.  It's like walking through a fricken mine field.  Toys that play music when you bump them, balls, trucks, cars, etc.  If anyone dares break in I'll either hear them , or I'll find them the next morning at the bottom of the stairs in a heap.

[img]http://www.snedegar.net/images/dogs/4-15-2002/daboys.jpg[/img]

Left is the watchdog, right is the guard dog.  A very complimentary pair.

a big dog to eat intruders, and a little yappy dog to wake the big one.

A dog, any dog makes an excellent early warning system.
The childs stuff on the floor probably would work as a early warning system, when I was in the service doing M.O.U.T training the enemy would put all sorts of obstacles in our way which helped to impede our movement in the dark and give them time to hear and find us.

I think our babysitter used to be VC.  Ever since she started watching the kids, sharp plastic toys are appearing EVERYWHERE.

I've noticed that little Sophie (2.5 years) has started squatting down the eat her snacks?

Waahahahaha!!!  That's great!  I can really relate too.  Missus LWilde and I are raising our  grandkids...a darling five year old girl and three year holy-TERROR-testosterone-poisoned BOY.  Shame on us if we forget to do a FOD walkdown before taps.  Step on a ball...you roll your foot and twist an ankle.  Step on a sharp toy and invariably, its always in the softest part of the arch...

OWWWW!!!  DAMNDIRTYSTINKINGRATAFRATZTOYWHATTHEHELLISITDOINGHERE???  [BD]

Babygates in the doorways, across both the bottom and the top of the stairs, toys on the floor, etc. all provide early warning defense against your average home invader.

And while it is always smarter to overestimate your enemy rather than underestimate them, I think it highly likely that the average burglar is going to make a hell of a racket trying to get through all the crap in our house before reaching teh top of the stairs.  By that time, I'll be locked, loaded, the wife will have the kids under control and be on the phone with the police.   If the bad guys have ANY sense, after tripping over the first pile of stuff, they will just turn around and get out.

Now that junior has hit the teen years I had to find a replacement. My new early warning system is a four year old Airedale Boxer mix.
She's harmless but sounds like Cujo when she yaps.
Scares the crap out of me every time someone knocks. It's worth it knowing nothing moves near the house without me knowing.

I have Bubba the chihuahua 4 lbs of pure terror!