IKEA, Signs, and Date!

Yesterday we got to visit the new Portland IKEA store. My parent's best friends got special passes to preview and shop at the store before it opened to the general public. That was so cool! I hadn't planned to go for at least 2 months after it opened to avoid the crowds. It was still crowded, but not as crazy as it will be. Anyway, we had a great time. The store is huge, but the set-up is very cool. They have rooms all set up and decorated so you can see how furniture looks together. They also have entire "apartments" set up and tell you how many square feet of living space that is, like 375 square feet, to show you everything that you can fit into that space and how to make it work. We didn't end up getting anything big, but we did get a stool for children to stand on to use the bathroom sink (something we'd been needing for awhile for our friend's children who come visit our house) and a cool red ice cream scooper for all the coconut crack ice cream we eat.

My favorite section was the children's -- and Jake loved it, too! You can see him playing in the children's rooms.
This chair was cool. The white cover went all the way down to form a "cocoon" of sorts.
These holes went through 3 rooms! Jake discovered it on his own and the adults were all having to run from room to room to keep an eye on him. Luckily there were 6 of us adults there.
He loved this rocking moose (hey, it's a Swedish store and they do moose instead of horses) :) Grandma and Grandpa got this for him.

Jake is signing more and more now. Yesterday he started signing "cat" and is now doing it whenever he sees a cat, either a real one or a picture of one (or the ceramic cat that my mom has in her house). He also signed "Daddy" for the first time this morning. So sweet! Also he was playing with Mike's pager/cellphone and he picked it up, put it to his ear, and said "hello, hello?" We have never play acted with the phone like that with him, he picked that up from other people! Too funny.

Last night Mike and I had our first date post-baby. It was wonderful!! We left Jake with my parents and then went home, parked the car, and then walked into the village. A new establishment called Journeys had opened up 4 months ago, and we had been wanting to check it out (no children allowed). They serve beer, wine, and appetizers, and we loved sitting outside, drinking, sharing an appetizer, and talking. It was lovely to focus entirely on each other, and know that Jake was happy elsewhere. Then we walked back home and had a bit more time together before my parents brought Jake back home. The evening made me feel like a giggly 20 year old again. :)