the adlards

Having procured Odin’s banqueting table yesterday evening (just another piece of trans-dimensional bric-a-brac) we came back to earth today with a trip to our favourite furniture emporium. We needed a chest of drawers for Sophie’s room as there was still a small part of carpet you could stand on, and when you need any piece of furniture and only have a day to get it there is – regardless of what your personal feelings toward it are – only one place to go. We got to Ikea at 10 and were out at about 13.30, so I still maintain it’s impossible to get through any meaningful visit in under three hours. We got a great little chest of drawers. And another of those cool hanging storage things I finally put up in Soph’s room yesterday. And a set of bigger plastic cutlery for Jo. And a swing, some spare handles for the kitchen cupboards and some dish towels. Oh, and overcountable bent ply shelf brackets because those are always useful. We narrowly missed getting a kids seat in blow-molded plastic that when turned upside down doubles as a cross between a coracle and a bright orange lead balloon. It was reduced …

Despite having three new molars coming through and a stinking cold, Josie had fun wandering around the shop. There’s a well-positioned slide and play area at the midpoint. Trouble only really started when Michelle took out a sling to carry Sophie in, who had begun to fuss a little. Josie definitely wanted to get in too. Michelle was pretty sure it wouldn’t be safe for anyone concerned to carry them both stacked up in a sling around her neck. Half an hour later we were out and they were both asleep in the car. There is something immensely satisfying about sudden silence in a car that a second before was full of kiddy yowlings. They do sometimes just click to “off” and they’re asleep in an instant; tension gradually eases out of your kneck and shoulders and you start discussing whether to just keep driving for a couple of hours to try to keep them asleep.

We opted for drive-thru. We haven’t been to McDonalds for six years or so but thought we’d grab a coffee to extend likely sleep times a bit. Turns out they’ve got a lot healthier (or cleverly appear to have) and we got food too. Toasted deli sandwiches would you believe. I bet the coffee was half-caff. Both kids woke up, we tore home and they went to sleep again in their own beds.

The Three went to the park in the afternoon while I sorted the loft, which is now ready for us to move our bedroom back up there. Looking forward to that – it’s a nice space.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 7th, 2005 at 10:55 pm by james and is filed under Food, House, Josie, Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.