House Rules: Close the Gate

I suppose there are two possible views of stairs. First there's the 'normal' view: a great convenience designed to take you to another level of your home. Then there's the view for those of us who have children of a certain age: a feature capable of inflicting untold horror on the limbs of our precious small people. 

Needless to say, I fall into the latter category. Baby M is of a certain age where stairs are her nemesis, but she doesn't know it yet. As a result I spend all day saving her life. At least that's what it feels like. Did I also mention that my stairs are tiled? The fear people! It is real. We haven't had stairs in her lifetime so far. Her first home was one level, her second on the 6th floor. This home has a two landing staircase. 

I've been on the case to get us some baby gates since before we got here to be honest. I asked GSO the size of the stairs and thought of shipping them ahead of us. GSO assured me you can buy them on the local economy here. I put the shipping plan aside. I don't know GSO personally but I'm going to go ahead and make some assumptions about this person. 

1. Male 

2. Childless? Or at least no children of a certain age. 

It's true that you can buy baby gates here in Riyadh. To be honest, you can buy most things you might need. However, the practicalities of just being able to go out and buy something.... I believe I have mentioned this before. I can't drive. Add to this that we have been adjusting to a new place, a new time zone and you've got a recipe for no baby gates. I don't know what I was thinking. I really should have gone with my gut and sent the baby gates ahead. 

Luckily for us, a kind soul here gave us a baby gate. Then Adam went out and bought a second one. Then it was on to installation. But we have no tools. And the gates weren't actually wide enough for the stairwell. So on to the creation of a special wooden piece to fill the void, cut to accommodate the baseboard. Then there appeared to be missing parts. So I read the instructions. No missing parts. Installation spread out over several days. People are busy. 

All this time, Baby M is repeatedly flirting with serious bodily injury. Bathroom trips are fraught with danger. Who knows what she could do to herself in those two minutes? 

The gates are complete and installed as of today. New experiences abound here in the KSA, and some of them aren't what you'd expect. 

Saubi Rules: Make a Fool of Yourself

Two weeks here in Saubi now and I have a list of foolish things I've done for your enjoyment and mine in two years when I look back.

-Getting in the wrong line.
There are separate lines for things here - going through security at the mall, ordering food, checking out at the grocery store. There's a line for 'family' and then a line for 'single men.' Anyone of, or accompanying someone of,  the female gender has to go through the family line. Sometimes, it's simply a male and female line and then I have to take myself and the girls through the female line.  I keep ending up in the 'single men' line and having to correct myself. I'm sure I look panicked when this happens, but I have to say, so do the Saudis around me.

-Forgetting to have my produce weighed
At the grocery store here, your produce is weighed and the price affixed in the produce department. Forgetting hasn't been a big deal yet, but I live in fear of doing it when there's a huge line behind me. So far it's just been a mild inconvenience. So far.

-Buying things I didn't mean to
(I am now realizing that a lot of my mishaps so far are purchase related. I don't spend all day every day shopping, I promise)
I wish I could blame this on everything being in Arabic but I really can't. I have yet to find or buy anything that doesn't have some labelling in English. I am sure that day will come, but for now my shopping experiences have made me feel like I'm cheating. Isn't this too easy? And then you realize that you've come home with a liter of laban and not milk. On the plus side of this, I subbed it in for buttermilk in pancakes one night, then blended it with mango the next night for a dessert, so not all was lost. Still, I think it was a bit of a shock to Adam when he poured himself a tall glass to go with his evening cookies.

-Not having every inch of Baby M covered/slathered in sunscreen
I live in great fear of the baby getting a sunburn. I remember having horrible sunburn as a kid when we visited Oman. On my bum no less. I couldn't sit down it hurt so badly. And then (maybe on a different trip?) another time when my forearms were so burnt I had huge blisters that burst when I jumped in the pool. Owwwwwww. As a consequence, I try to make sure the kids are covered or wearing ALL the sunscreen. Applying sunscreen while outside in 110 degrees is not my favorite. Mum fail.

Luckily I haven't forgotten my abaya yet. There's plenty of time for that though. Plenty of time.

Saubi Rules: Stay off the Road

There are some really unique things about Saubi. The most noteworthy of these, for our purposes today: women can't drive.
As you'd imagine, this can be quite the obstacle. I imagine it will be for me in the not so distant future. If I'm honest, with 10 days in country now, it has been a pain, but only slightly. The current ameliorating factor being that we don't have our car yet, so it's not as though there's a perfectly good vehicle sitting in my front yard.  Thank goodness for the embassy provided rides because it is hot as all get out here so I'd never go anywhere without. Even the embassy, which is less than a couple of miles, is impossible to walk to at this point.
To elaborate further - the embassy has a motorpool of vehicles with a well-staffed office of drivers and I can call them to schedule a ride. They will come and pick me up and take me where I need to go (usually the embassy). For longer trips there are also pre-scheduled shuttles to grocery stores, souks, some restaurants and even IKEA. The biggest kink in the works at the moment is Baby M and her naps, because there are still two of them and so our window to leave the house is miniscule.
I can imagine when the weather is cooler and my bike gets here we may have more freedom of movement. I am hoping that is true at least.
I must confess though, that I've been watching the roads while I'm being chauffeured around and I have no interest in driving here anyway! The roads are pretty busy, the drivers are interesting, and there seems to be a LOT of construction going on at all times and in all places. It's been alarming to watch some of the close calls and some of the decisions other drivers make. I'm sure there will be more to report on this matter. Possible swear words for sure.

Maggie Rules: Eat food. Only some of it.

Baby M shows signs of being opinionated about her food. When Jo was little, she would eat almost anything. Except meat. Meat was definitely a battle. I have a list of food Jo would eat at this age - blueberries, apples, clementines, raisins, oatmeal, peaches etc. etc etc.
Baby M, on the other hand, has strict rules about her food. Did it grow on a tree? Not going to eat that. Did it come from a bush? No thank you. Does it have more than one texture? Unacceptable. Was it fried? Yes please and I'll have Mum's too. Cheese? Give it all to me, every last crumb. Carbs? Hmmmm. Probably acceptable. Especially if you add cheese. Pureed fruit from a pouch? I'll do that unless I've eaten something else first. And meat? Yep, I'll steal your pot roast for sure.
Anyway, all this is to say that I've had a devil of a time trying to get Baby M to eat healthy things. Specifically I was stumped by her refusal to eat oatmeal. Jo ate oatmeal every single morning for the longest time. Oatmeal and fruit. M was having none of that nonsense. I did finally convince her to eat Weetabix, which, when soaked in milk, turn to mush so they're baby suitable.
Then we moved to Saubi. And I haven't bought a single box of cereal (I know it's only been a week but I have been to the grocery store twice!) Maggie eats oatmeal all of a sudden. With raisins (almost a fruit, right?) and she will now eat bananas. Pears have become pleasing (as long as they are peeled). My breakfast problems are evaporating before my eyes. Plus, we now have a huge container of laban to use up. And I know for sure she'll eat pancakes.

Saudi Rules: Nickname

My friends, we are here! I am sitting in my bedroom in the KSA! (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, also known as Saubi because that's what Jo calls it and I love it) There are adventures to tell along the way - including The Story of the Worst Flight of my Life - but let's commence with our current situation.

Side bar:  You know I like to go back and fill in/backdate posts so watch out for that if you really need to hear about Maggie's natural ability to torture a person through sleep deprivation. I'm going to tell that girl to join the CIA. Too soon?
Or maybe you didn't know that in which case, consider yourself now warned!

Moving on.

As I said, I'm sitting in my bedroom. Let me paint a picture for you. The girls are napping, there's a pot of black beans on the stove for dinner, laundry going in the machine and sunlight dancing around the room courtesy of the leaves on the tree outside.  A gorgeous leafy green tree folks. Blowing in the slight wind and making the sunlight dance. How lucky am I? Here I find myself in the middle of a vast desert and there's a tree outside my house. I have moved a nice wing-back chair over to this corner so I can sit and enjoy the green view and while I was engaged in moving the furniture, I discovered the chair is a recliner. I am winning all the things!

Seriously, though, so far so good in Saubi. We've got a nickname for where we live. We've got a green tree and the girls have transitioned time zones like absolute pros. I, on the other hand, keep waking up after falling asleep at unhelpful times. 10am naps anyone? Thanks jet lag!

(Not our current tree)

Flying Rules: Don't take Baby M

Baby M has never been the best sleeper. The first four months of her life were grindingly slow on account of it. I enjoyed them but it sure was rough. For everyone.

Our June trip to Reno, NV was a test run of sorts for our big international move.  We left BWI at 6 or 7 in the morning. This necessitated a 3 am wake up call and an hour drive to Baltimore. You'd think she'd sleep on that flight. Nope.  She slept for maybe 20 minutes on that first flight to Salt Lake. It was painful. I hadn't slept myself the night before - packing, packing, all the packing. I kept dozing off and being awoken by Baby M wriggling out of my lap. Over and over.  Luckily we were seated next to a little girl flying as an unaccompanied minor who thought Maggie was a hoot. The flight from Salt Lake to Reno was a dream. She slept pretty much from wheels up to wheels down. Sadly it's a short flight - think barely time for the drinks service. On the way home, we flew to Salt Lake again and it was dinner time so everyone was awake. Short flight so not a big deal. Next we flew back to Baltimore. The girls slept. I thought we were golden. No such luck - Baby M woke up halfway through and just couldn't get comfy. After showing a distinct preference during her first year for sleeping while held by, or curled around me she is OVER IT. She wants to sleep laying flat and when you are a lap infant, that's not a thing you can do. She kept digging her toes into the poor girl sitting next to me while trying to stretch out. Luckily she was quiet and willing to sit in my lap. Some of the time at least. I didn't think it was too bad but I figured it couldn't get too much worse either. Wrong.


Our flight from DC took us through Frankfurt. When the government flies you everyone gets a seat. I was hoping that this would be the magic ticket - Maggie would have her own seat so she'd sleep in her car seat. In hindsight I have no idea why I thought this would work. We had just finished a road trip to Syracuse, NY which proved (again) that Maggie just isn't a fan of sleeping in her car seat. I'm talking screaming bloody murder for over an hour during a driving rainstorm. Wild times man. Luckily the trip to NY was totally worth it.



The flight to Frankfurt was, how to say it? The worst flight of my life. We were on a plane with a 3-3-3 layout and we had the stage left three and one across the aisle. We had Jo at the window, me in the middle, Baby M on the aisle and Adam across the aisle. Before we took off, a nice flight attendant informed us that car seats are a no-go on the aisle. What to do? Luckily Adam was sitting next to two empty seats so we traded Jo over to the middle one next to him and put Baby M at the window next to me. We effectively now had 6 seats. Score. Even better, Maggie went to sleep. In her car seat. However, 40 minutes later she was awake and would not go back to sleep for more than 7 or eight minutes at a time. It's an 8 hour flight folks. It started at 10pm. She was like worst snooze button of my life. By the time we got close to the end of our flight, I literally couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I sat her down on the floor in front of me and blocked the aisle. Then I kept jolting awake thinking she had made it into the aisle and off down the plane. It was brutal. I can't wait until she's interested enough in a screen/movie to make travel reasonable again. The countdown is on. Nemo will save us all.

(Frankfurt to Riyadh was a cakewalk by comparison and I have no idea what was different about it. Nonplussed folks. Totally nonplussed)