Ikea Road Trip!

I should be:

• Knitting/crocheting/sewing gifts
• Cleaning
• Organizing
• Menu planning
• Changing diapers
• Writing Christmas cards
• Paying bills

Instead - I went to Ikea today with a friend!  It was quite spur of the moment - as another friend had to postpone the trip to Ikea with her family and van - and with the holidays being in 4 days - I had to replace some cracked dining room chairs soon.

So the lovely Lise (of Lise Richardson Art)- graciously offered her driving skills to Tampere Ikea and off we went!  (I'll be interviewing her again for this blog soon...I've previously interviewed her for my old blog - but anyways!  I'm working on it!)
Please remember - last time we went to Ikea - I became a Highway Warrior Princess!

And we even packed up two kids.

I opted for M-Girl and A-Man.  Mostly because if the shopping carts aren't big enough for V-Man (without wearing a one-piece snow suit) - he won't walk the full hour we planned to be there for.  SO - as much as I would have loved to bring V-Man, especially with his odd temper at the taxi ride last Friday - it was just easier and gave everyone better peace of mind to bring the other two kids.

I have heard of the Ikea day-care for customers and wasn't sure how A-Man would feel - so we had a big lunch of meatballs and fries (the Ikea class meatballs) and dropped him off.
I had a paper to fill out, which asked the following things:

• Child's name
• Child's age (Child must be 3-7 years old I believe.)
• Child's clothing being worn
• Adult allowed to pick him up
• A box number (keep reading)
• Their phone number
• A signature from the adult promising to be available at all times (aka be in the store and have your phone on and the volume at a reasonable level to hear them calling in case of emergency)

A-Man was given a big plastic tub with a number on it and we filled it with his snow pants and coat, boots, hat, scarf and his favourite bus toy.  He was given a sticky label on his shirt with name on it and the box number.
Both of us got our hands stamped with a matching number - so they can confirm the parent's identity when the child is being picked up - and he was asked to disinfect his hands and then he was allowed inside.

I had 1 hour to shop without a running child.  (I've never used this service before - and yes, it is free to customers.)
I waited and he waited and stared at me.  Then he ran off and we bolted around the corner to ensure no screams came from the day-care - and there weren't any.

I repeat - I had 1 hour to shop without a running child.
SH asked if in future I could consider bringing V-Man and dropping him off there - but I'm not sure how they'd do with an autistic child...they did ask me what language A-Man speaks and understands...

So off we went.  We by-passed most of the furniture - as I really just needed those 3 or 4 dining room chairs (found one different than my current black Ikea chairs for half the price and just as comfortable) - and little bits and bobs.

The funniest thing was this stuffed wolf - that's well, a plush toy and you can stuff him with Grandma.
The coolest thing - probably this crank-yourself-flashlight.  A-Man hates falling asleep in the dark but hopefully this will help and thanks to little human energy - no batteries are needed.
(Links are to the Canadian Ikea site...)

I got some Christmas gifts for some of the guests coming - as I really don't have time to knit or crochet everyone something...may have to dig into my fabric stash to sew some other things I think!

Anyways, I'll try to be more productive (almost wrote "reproductive"...oh dear!) on this blog and I do have some posts lined up - they just need to be tweaked...

And I'm proud to announce that A-Man was the one that did the falling this trip - as the parking lot was quite icy!  Nobody was hurt seriously.

BIMU