ikea trip

Hello blogosphere! I hope everyone had as restful of a holiday as we did! I loved having my little family together for Christmas, and we even had some snow!

We took Jaina on her first Ikea run the other day. She seemed to enjoy it.

 She looks like she's getting ready to go skydiving.

She's just starting to sit up, so I got her cart cover out for the first time since it has extra straps to help keep her steady.

The trip was for my Christmas present; the Stenstorp.

 Stenstorp from Ikea

I've been looking at this baby for a long time. It's been a childhood dream of mine to have a kitchen island (seriously. i had very practical dreams.), and now I've got this cute little island/cart.

Ikea is probably the most family-friendly store there is. Did you know that if you're buying an adult meal in the restaurant they have jars of baby food for free?!? They have stools for kiddos in the bathrooms and even "emergency diaper kits" in case you forget. It's one of the few stores my hubby actually enjoys going to, so I see many family trips to Ikea in our future.

Here's the Stenstorp at home in our kitchen!

Isn't she sweet? I love the stainless shelves. There's already waaay too much wood in this kitchen, and all in shades I never would have picked myself (except for the antique pie safe. that was my great-grandma's, and i love, love, love it!). The butcher block top is great, and we can always stain it darker if we want.

Relatively baby-proof items on the shelves 

since we're anticipating her independence pretty soon. 

(I love having my Le Creuset on there. 

Hopefully it'll be too heavy for her to move.)

Adorable pitcher and glasses from my grandma's collection.

I've already put my island to good use. We used it to roll out samosas with the aunties the other night. And since then I've dished out no-bake cookies on it and used it to make meringues in honor of Downton Abbey's return. I'm finding it so much nicer to use it for kitchen tasks like chopping and such; rather than facing a wall at the counter. It gets way better light, and I can face Jaina while she's in her bouncy chair.

Speaking of which, I'll leave you with a video of this crazy chick.