Suggestions?

Today Liam climbed the stairs–and no, I don’t mean in my arms–he climbed the stairs of his own accord.  Matt and I were both standing there just sort of waiting to see what he would do and if we hadn’t been there he would have gone backwards off the stairs onto his head.  The problem is that the stairs to our family room don’t have a railing or balustrades on the side from which you enter the room so there’s no place to put a gate.  What should we do so that we can still enjoy our family room with Liam sans playpen?

I have to stop writing now because Liam is trying to eat the cord that goes from the telephone to the wall.  I guess you’ll need to use our cells if you need to contact us because I’m going to have to unplug that, too–at least our electricity bills will eventually go down as we gradually unplug everything in our house and put a child-safety stopper in the outlets…