We had been planning a trip to Ikea this weekend for awhile, and then I had the brilliant idea that the best time ever for an Ikea trip would be during the Superbowl. The plan worked beautifully. I have never seen Ikea so empty–at least not on a weekend. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve managed to leave there not feeling completely exhausted (although it’s the first time in a long time I’ve been there and not been pregnant so perhaps some causality there). Dave even managed to return stuff without waiting for a hundred years. Although the lines to check out were still long because, apparently, Ikea will always keep exactly enough registers open to make the lines look sufficiently overwhelming to make you sad without quite making you abandon your cart and leave without buying anything.

We needed to return a few things and buy a few more things….like a million Ribba frames, curtains for our bedroom, and something for a super secret project that I’m hoping to finish and post about before next weekend. It’s not really so super secret, but I might as well keep it a surprise because that’s way fun.

First I took the kids up to the kid section while Dave returned stuff.

I had not noticed this interesting collection of hats before. I think it’s new.

Then we spent some time with the sofas, drooling over the Karlstad sectional. I’m working a plan to justify buying one soon. It’s a good plan. It almost makes sense.

Abe mostly slept in his sling the whole time we were there. But I dragged him out when we got to the sofas to take pictures and prove he was with us:

I don’t know where Gus’ shoes are in that picture. He did wear shoes to Ikea.

Maybe it had to do with the lack of crowds, but the kids had way more fun at Ikea this trip than they usually do. It seems like there are more of the “Look how much fun it would be to live in 37 square feet!” fake apartments than there were last time we were there. My perception is that there used to be tons of them, then they took away all except for, like, one sad one for awhile, but now they’re all back! And that’s everyone’s favorite part, right?

I mean except for the beds:

And the elephants:

Then we finally made it downstairs to get the main things we came for: a gazillion Ribba frames and curtains for our bedroom:

Then we picked up the stuff we needed for our super secret project:

…and then Dave and the big kids waited in the disconcertingly long line while I took Abe to the car. The guy in the elevator with me on the way to the parking garage asked how old Abe was. When I told him, he mumbled something in response and then said, “He actually looks like a baby instead of like something crazy.” I thought that this was “something crazy” to say, but I smiled and tried to look like I thought it was perfectly normal.

I have a list of smallish and thus, I hope, doable with a baby projects to work on/post about this week. I tell you this in hopes of keeping myself accountable and actually doing some of them.

And, finally, someone was nice enough to nominate me for the Best Home Project and DIY Blog over at Apartment Therapy’s Homies.

It’s a great place to find new blogs to read, and if you felt like voting for me while you were there, I would think that was awesome of you. You can vote for as many blogs as you want, so you can be awesome to other people, too. You have to register to vote, but it’s just putting in an e-mail address and password. Thanks!