We usually don’t shop much when lugging the 3 little ones out. But this week, I’m updating our homeschool furniture, so a long trip to IKEA over the weekend was inevitable. Mega headache.
#3 El (1yo): by default, he is back-carried using our beloved Boba Carrier (reviewed here). After some walking, he dozed off. Great, one down.
Vee (5.5 yo) and Jae (3yo) are the challenging ones. No one agrees to sit on the stroller for long. We’ve our second beloved item — Peg Perego Pliko P3 stroller — on which one sits while the other stands on the small buggy board.
We decided that Jae was to sit first. Of course, he protested. Upon hearing that I’d be buying the deep fried salmon balls as snacks, he cooperated.
So I bought some peace with RM4.50.
Vee was getting bored and whiny during his turn to sit in the stroller. Jae had brought along a toy car to entertain himself while Vee didn’t have anything to do. Obviously, he wasn’t interested in looking around.
I quickly grabbed a survey form that sat above the paper measuring tapes. Oh yes, and a pencil too.
Hubby kept his eyes out for the items on our shopping list (love the IKEA app!) while I explained each item on the survey form to Vee.
“Poor, Satisfactory, Good, Excellent”
“Layout”
“Choices”
“Staff friendliness”
“Efficiency”
…
He must be having a darn lousy time because he marked “poor” for nearly all the items.
Interestingly, he rated “Excellent” for “Restaurant” even though we just sat down at the table.
As for suggestions, he wrote “Be excellent in all areas.”
Just then, a girl about 6 years old ran frantically past our table and cried for her family. There were loads of shoppers during the lunch peak. A group of diners asked her to stay put while hubby went to get the security guard. Even before help arrived, the girl’s family found her. Lucky girl.
Vee and Jae witnessed the entire episode and understood the importance of staying close to us at crowded places. A true case is worth more than a thousand nagging words.
After lunch and some more walking, Jae fell asleep for his nap. Great, another one down. (By now, El has woken up, taken his lunch, and still happy to be back carried, watching what everyone’s doing.)
At 3p.m., we finally ended our 3.5-hour high-tension shopping trip at IKEA. I’m glad we aren’t going to repeat such a long shopping trip anytime soon. Super looking forward to the furniture being installed on Christmas Eve.
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones and have the best year ever in 2015!
Cheers,
MieVee
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P.S. Check out our homeschooling updates at MummysHomeschool.com
I salute you and those who have 2 or more young kids. I’ve 2 years old daughter and I’m almost giving up going shopping with her because I couldn’t buy anything but ended up exhausted following her around.
Happy New Year.. 🙂
Ha… Thandar… We only shop with the kids when absolutely necessary. I love online shopping! 🙂