Chez IKEA

It's been about a month since we've been to IKEA. So we went today. The purpose of the trip was to meet Michele and her daughters, and Gina, two Internet friends, but we squeezed in a little shopping as well. The Girl was quite taken with Michele's daughters; she wanted to bring them home with us!

I was hoping that The Girl and The Boy would go into Smalland, but for the first time ever, they didn't want to go in. It was totally fine, though, as the kids watched Robots while eating their mac & cheese, leaving the moms to chat (and The Baby to eat his meatballs and mashed potatoes, and then demand my coffee). Afterward, we went to play in "the berries" area on the third floor, which they've expanded with a bigger floor area, additional seating, and more kids' IKEA play furniture. The Tot had great fun throwing balls out of the pit, while The Boy and Michele's daughters threw them back in. Then I had a surreal "urban legend" experience: I found a pair of scissors (ornate, small, looked like they were sewing scissors) in the bottom of the ball pit. So I was quite relieved when The Boy, The Girl, and the other girls decided to go down to the touch-screen kiosk in the couch section (I had direct-line view of them from my bench).

It was getting late, and with the Air Show set to start at 3 p.m. by the lake, we said our good-byes to our friends, did a quick cruise through the store (rug pad, lamps), and skedaddled. The Girl did not want to say good-bye to the girls and had a little meltdown. Not surprisingly, she fell asleep within a few minutes of climbing into the stroller. I put The Tot in the sling and he fell asleep, too. I was pretty annoyed when a PYT cut in front of me at the registers. Of course, I said something -- hello? I am waiting for the next register with two sleeping kids, a stroller full of crap, and another kid -- and she apologized and explained (but not really).

The Boy was pretty patient with me and helped me at check-out, so I got him an ice cream cone at the end. It took us about an hour to get home.