Who do THOSE kids belong to??

I have escaped out of the tin trailer on the prairie to enlighten you on a story that happened a couple of weeks ago when we were in Calgary. I couldn't blog about it at the time because I was decidedly NOT amused by what happened that day. Yet in hindsight it is definitely blog worthy and something to record for history.

It all started as quite an innocent day. I was in Calgary and wanted to do some REAL shopping. So Mom, the kids, and I headed down to IKEA. It was pretty obvious before we even got there though that the three children were not as thrilled with the idea of shopping as I was. I sacrificed for their sake, instead of a leisurely stroll through the whole store we would head right for the bed section to check out what bunk beds they had and how much they cost.

Through the toy section we headed picking up a stuffed puppy dog to make Judah happy on our way. Then on to the bunk beds we went. They have a couple there and the munchkins decided they needed to try them out. Next thing I new all three kids were shoes off, laying down on the beds. I decided they were being pretty good, and my mom was there watching to so I started to write down the name and cost of the beds so that I could talk with Mark about it later. Then it's as if some weird curse occurred in those IKEA beds, something magically turned my children from the little angels they usually are into Fire-breathing monkeys.

Don't get me wrong. I read my own blog. I'm VERY aware that angels are not being raised in my house. But this ...... this may have been beyond even my kids. I wish I could have ignored what happened next and let some other mother deal with them.

Aslynn climbed into the bunk bed with the pink blanket and the only way she was getting out was if we went back to play with the tea set she had seen. Judah somehow scaled up to the top of one of the bunk beds and then climbed across they gap to the even higher bed next to it. As I was up the ladder trying to reach that monkey I missed what the oldest angel was doing. Judah was across at the back of the bed taunting me with his little grin. I was reaching for him and he was starting to cry when a movement caught my eye.

Micah had decided the bunk beds were boring. Something apparently snapped in his six year old brain. As he stood in the IKEA show room he eyed the dozen or so beds lined up from one wall to the other. Then he proceeded to climb up on them and run and jump from one bed to the other all the way across the room. As his horrified mother saw him from across the room she yelled. He turned and smiled at her. And although she had very clearly said to get down and come back he started jumping from one bed to the other again on the return trip. It was only when the yelling increased and he probably noticed the red faced anger that he got off the beds and innocently walked back to her.

This shopping trip was bad enough. So what were we thinking when we took those same monkeys to SUPERSTORE later that day. It didn't occur to us at all that Aslynn and Micah would thing that a game of tag would sound like fun. Or that after being restricted to having to hold onto the shopping cart that they would let go and decide a game of hide-and-seek was a good idea. And then they wondered later why after disappearing from view, being called 4 times to return, and then popping out from BEHIND the groceries on the bottom shelf, that I was mad at them.

- Faith