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.