Nothing like IKEA. Today seemed a perfect opportunity for the boy’s first trip to the Seattle IKEA Commerce Center. Strangely enough it’s out in Renton and nowhere near Seattle and it’s a ‘commerce center’ which to say it’s probably a pretty big deal in Renton. Seriously, the place is huge though. It took us all afternoon to wander through the suggested IKEA lifestyle show and finally get to the checkout. It was also a great opportunity for us to get to know our boy’s just a bit better.
It turns out that Alex may be even more stubborn and opinionated then his brother! When he started to get bored sitting in the cart he started gnawing on the metal crossbeam on the cart. Steph, already accustomed to this ritual gently pried his head back to which Alex strongly retorted with something like a growl and a yell all together at a fairly loud volume in the crowded store. My reaction upon seeing this was to assume this was a technique issue so I bravely stepped in and placed a burp rag over the metal bar and took over pushing the cart. Twenty seconds later Alex, who by this time had forcibly removed the burp rag, again had his teeth firmly around the bar. I tried a slightly similar technique to Steph which elicited a rather louder and strong bark, growl, and yell simultaneously. However, I replaced the burp rag and firmly held my hands over it to prevent any further removal. That didn’t deter Alex. He continued his staccato yell, bark, growl but increased the volume and glared at me all the while. Fortunately for Alex he has a built in cheering section. His brother, sitting in the cart right behind him was only too happy to see the exciting action in the front-section of the cart and immediately started mimicking Alex at precisely the same volume and tenor.
As people hurried by they shot us disapproving glances and a few mouthed ‘Wow!’ while we cowered in the corner of the designer closet section trying to attract our boys attention and silence. After 3 minutes everything stopped and both Alex and Cole resumed their normal happy affable selves as if nothing at all had happened. It took another 30 minutes for Steph and I to resume normalcy.
The rest of the time the boys were amazing and fun. Alex started to fall asleep towards the end (not strange as we had started many hours before) so we filled them up with special $1.00 IKEA frozen yogurt – definitely something not to be missed!
Fun day – but I think we’ve just found out the fun is just starting…
