Oh yeah. Ikea has become my new favorite store. No, not because it has all sorts of funky furniture that I want for my home. In fact, there is very little at Ikea that I would consider buying. No, it's because of an entirely different reason.

Earlier, Tai said, "Let's go to Ikea!" I gave him one of those looks that says, Why did you just say that?! What on Earth is there at Ikea that we could possibly want/need/afford at the moment? We're not broke, but we certainly don't have the money to be spending on silly furniture! I cautiously asked, "Why?"

It turns out that Ikea has a play-place for kids. One that doesn't require that parents stay with them. Parents fill out a little slip of paper, and as long as the children are between 37 and 54 inches tall, and are potty trained, the children can stay in this play area for up to an hour, while their parents shop - no charge! Well, today, they were busy, so it was a half hour. But...WOW!

We dropped the kids off and went up to their little cafe. We had lunch (the kids had eaten at home), a little conversation, and a little time to ourselves. We had ourselves our official 3rd date since this all started back in October. I think it was fabulous. The kids had a great time, and we had a chance to sit down to a meal without having to cut anyone's meat, ask anyone to stop screaming, or clean up spilled milk. Tai is full of great ideas.