Supermum strikes again!

The girls and I haven't been out for a few days, so I thought I'd take them for a trip to Ikea on my own today with the double pram and I thought it might be nice for us to have lunch there.  I had already checked the website and knew that they didn't have the main thing I was heading out there for in stock, but I thought it would be a nice outing anyway.  Normally during the week, Ikea is generally pretty quite and you have room to move around, look at everything you want to without being in anybody's way and I normally really like it.  The girls generally do too.

I didn't factor in school holidays and the fact that many working Mums and Dads are also on holidays at the moment.  It was so ridiculously busy with prams, wheelchairs, kids, elderly, everyone and anyone you can think of!!  I thought I'd share with the world how my little.... lets call it an adventure.....  went.

Got there not long after it opened, but it was already packed.....  managed to get around the top and bottom levels, get everything I wanted and through the checkouts without too much drama, although it did take a lot of weaving, 'excuse me's' and waiting 'patiently' behind slow people and browsers....  I know where everything is at Ikea, so I knew where I needed to go and I HATE being held up and being stuck in crowds unnecessarily!

We headed back upstairs to the cafe for lunch.  Lunch was interesting.  I've already got 2 huge plastic things that I can barely carry on the pram as it is, going through the lunch queues trying to balance a tray with a plate of chips and schnitzel and a plate of meatballs (gravy, sauce and all ffs..!) on the top of the pram ....  so many people around.....  got a glass for a drink, but couldn't steer the pram over to the drink stand to get a drink (so add empty glass to previously mentioned tray) and then I completely forgot about getting cutlery for myself (I had some in my handbag for Mackenna and Piper.)  Finally found a free table that I could get into without being in the way, which by that time Piper was screaming from boredom and hunger.....  only one highchair in close reach (but thank god there was at least one with the amount of prams around!!) Got Mackenna settled in the highchair with her plate in front of her....  whinge about not having cutlery to Mackenna, to which a VERY KIND stranger offered to go and get me some (should have asked her to grab me a Pepsi while she was going... now that would have been a bit cheeky LOL!)

Got some pieces of schnitzel cut up for Mackenna with Piper on my lap screaming for her food (water cup or rusk wasn't sufficient by this stage!) Throw as many spoonfuls into Piper's mouth as I can to stop her from screaming, while Mackenna devours the few pieces of schnitzel I managed to cut up.  She starts sticking the fork into the big piece and is going looking for a knife to cut some off for herself (...must have been good, she wasn't interested in the chips, which is very strange for her!) so everyone in the vicinity has to deal with Piper screaming for a bit longer while I stop Mackenna from sending her plate flying across the room trying to cut up the schnitzel on her own.

Finally get lunch with Piper done and she is happy, but has turned into this wriggly little worm..... similar to what it would be like to try and contain a 9 month old Labrador in a similar situation.  I won't put her back in the pram yet cause she'll crack it..... all while trying to eat my meatballs.  Get through most of my meal (thankfully) before she gets bored and starts whinging so I have to start properly entertaining her, right around the same time Mackenna realises the strap isn't done up on the highchair and she can stand up in it.  (Another one for the Mother of the Year people!)

Breathe......  it's finally time to go after Mackenna is told like 5 times to sit down.  I like to respect the 'clean you own table' idea Ikea has and as a rule, I don't leave things on Food Court tables for other people to clean up, so I push the pram (overloaded with plastic boxes, as previously mentioned) and the food trolley across the Food Court, stopping past the drink stand to get a drink (being INCREDIBLY rude to the people already there and pushing my way through... in my defence... the kids and our stuff were in the pram that I had to let go of and leave 5m away.... not cool in a crowded area!!!)  I must have looked like the biggest moron....  seriously!!  I'm sure so many people were thinking to themselves "WTF is this woman seriously trying to do?" (If I were watching, that's what I would have been thinking!!)  Another very kind stranger helped me organise the tray on the conveyor belt (otherwise it surely would have been on the floor!) and we make our way to the lift to exit (along with 6 other prams and a heap of lazy people who couldn't have been bothered walking down the stairs!)

We've already paid for the things we have, but the only way out is back through the whole downstairs section of the store..... at lunchtime!!  By this stage, the store is even busier and harder to get through quickly and EVERY register is like 8 deep.  I've got to try and find a way out where the double pram won't be too much of an issue.  Thankfully find a register at the end that has a huge gap for me to walk through, but as no Ikea staff is around to check my receipt, I'm sure all the customers waiting in line thought I wasn't paying for the things I had!!!  (I am SO glad that no one chased after me or made a scene though....  I had the receipt for everything right on top, but you know what some do-gooders can be like!)

Get outside and away from the hoards of people.....  breathe again.....   get to the car, get home and all will be good.....  well, that's the plan anyways.

On the way to the car getting onto the travelator, I misjudged the entrance (the pram fits perfectly onto them!) and the thing holding Mackenna's snacks got knocked off.....  right at the top of the travelator, I have to stop, pick up her stuff and decide whether or not to completely get off the travelator, park the pram up out of the way and clean up the bits of strawberry, grapes, cheese and chips that are now all over the floor!!  I'm so ashamed to say that I left them there....  I should have picked them up,  grapes are really dangerous if you slip on them the wrong way....  but after that whole Ikea experience, all I wanted to do was get out of that place.  I was so embarrassed that I had hit the pram into the travelator that I didn't even look to see if anyone was around or saw me!

Oh.....  and I did all of this with flat tyres on the pram!!  Try pushing an oversized shopping trolley with about 25kgs in it with flat tyres....  if you're ever looking for a good all over workout, that's your activity!!

Thankfully I got us all in the car and home without any problems!!  Now I think I need a nap!!