Last Sunday we went native, gave into the allure of Northern Europe, and immersed ourselves in Swedish culture for a few hours. Of course this meant that we went to IKEA. We’re struggling to configure our home in such a way that accommodates the boys without leading to an excess of fractured skulls. Anything more than two trips to the emergency shift in any one 10-hours shift just smacks of half-hearted parenting. Specifically, after our Swedish friends endowed our children with a ball pit, we had the slight problem that there was no longer quite enough room to walk around our living room. Sadly, this means that it’s time for the pool table to go.

Well, in order for that to happen, we need to replace it with some form of table. You know, kind of like the one in our kitchen. But in order to do that, we need a new, larger kitchen table – preferably one that can seat more than 4 people. And in order to do that, we need to go to a furniture store. And since the last table came from IKEA, well, off we went.

We started the day by going to the MS Walk in support of the ever-lovely Dawnn (we’ll write that post shortly, and get the pictures up – just have to download them first).  The boys were very good about it all, though not so keen on walking themselves, the lazy buggers.  We fit in a lunch at the picnic table, and then drove off.  We had intended to go home, but Katie said, "what the hell, why not go to IKEA?"  I was a little worried about the boys nap, and said that if they’re still awake by the time we get to our exit, we’ll just go home – but if they fall asleep, we’ll head on to IKEA.  The boys passed out about 2 minutes before our exit, and slept the whole way. In fact, traffic was so light that we got there after only 45 minutes, so we kept driving down to the super mall, before looping back up and giving them both an hour and 20 minutes to sleep. Nicholas has magical abilities, though. Every time our speed fell below 45 mph, his eyes popped open. It really made me anxious, trying to keep my driving seamless enough so he’d stay unconscious.

When we got to IKEA, it rocked. Katie and I had planned on finding a cart, heading to the dining room tables, leaving quickly, and perhaps finding a park for the boys to run around in and burn off some energy. Then it dawned on us – we were in an enormous playground. All the furniture we normally yell at the boys for climbing on – suddenly they could be set free. And so we spent the next 2 and a half hours chasing them from bedding, through living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, childrens furniture, lighting, until we were ready for a nap ourselves.

The boys kept looking back at us, like, "are you sure you’re not going to yell at me for climbing onto this chair???"  We had a great time, until Dexter fell out of a chair in the dining room section, and all our nerves gave way in the ensuing bout of tears.  We stopped for Swedish meatballs (the boys weren’t a fan – maybe if Malin makes them some REAL meatballs???), and headed home.  I didn’t have a *real* camera with me, just my old crappy cell phone, and here are the three hardly-recognizable pictures I got:

This last one is the hardest to see, but it’s also one of the cutest.  Nicholas is turning into quite the big brother.  Dexter really doesn’t listen very well – he ignores us when we call to him, and runs off wherever he likes.  While we were eating, he tried to run off, and after calling him 3 times, Nic went after him, grabbed him by the hand and towed him back to our table.  Nic rocks.  Dexter seemed surprised and bemused, kind of like he was thinking, "seriously, this chum is going to drag me back to Mom and Dad?  Seriously?"