Jonathan and I went on Black Friday. And although we paraphrase Ikea as:

long on style, short on soul   (me)

long on clever, short on substance   (Jonathan),

it’s a delightful and fun place to walk through. They always have interesting kids stuff – wooden toys and textiles with cute designs (notice that the animals’ faces are tilted downward on the mobile to the right – Ikea must share my No Animal Butts mobile policy).

We found a bunk bed for the boys once they can climb out of their cribs – judging from their rapidly developing climbing skills this will sadly be sooner rather than later. By an impressive act of willpower we forced ourselves not to buy the boys a tunnel and a miniature set of metal cookware (including a mini-whisk! And a mini-strainer!).

It was also difficult not to buy the mini Annette chair (which I think Ikea calls the Poang chair, but Jonathan and I refer to it by my former roommate’s name since she literally spent 72% of her life in it).

We did, however, get a dish drainer to hold the boys’ trays and cups in a tidy way. And a magnetic knife-holder to mount on the wall (goodbye knife block, hello precious counter space).

Julia from AT Nursery sent me one of these magnetic bars a few months ago before I even know an Ikea was being built here. I got several more to display mypostcard collection on a rotating basis.  As I piled them into Jonathan’s arms he made veto-ing noises, but I pointed out that they were just a dollar! Then he started making noises about his aching feet.

“But we just got here!” I said.

“I don’t know how you people do it,” he muttered. (we can only assume that “you people” are females and “it” is shopping)

So we stood in a 20 minute line at the café for some food. The meatballs, mashed potatoes, and Swedish coffee was quite good (“what exactly is Swedish coffee?” asked Jonathan.)

We decided that the unique thing about Ikea is that it makes living in small quarters seem cozy and appealing. But then you realize that if you and your two kids actually lived in 672 square feet, you’d all kill each other before a week was up and wouldn’t be around to enjoy all your cool new Ikea things.