Unanswerable questions.

We've all been hit by a stomach bug so the TV has been on more than normal this week. As well as leaving me irrational angry at times, kids TV always leaves me asking so many questions. Most of which don't seem to have an answer. Yes. I have googled most of them.

We started the morning with Bing:

• Why are the children bigger than the adults? 
• Who is flop? 
• Why does Pando take his trousers off so often? 

Peppa Pig is always a favourite with B2:

• Why is Miss Rabbit in charge of the Mummy's fire engine service?
• If Miss Rabbit has children will she become Mummy Rabbit too or has she lost out because her sister got there first?
• What is so special about George Pig that he's not called Phillip, Peter, Paul, Percy or some other name beginning with P?
• Where are Daddy Pigs parents? 
• What is this good cause everyone is raising money for? A £10 dinosaur balloon, a £1 ride on the helter skelter, it's all raising money for some sort of good cause, but no one ever says what the good cause is!

Postman Pat came next:

• Why hasn't Postman Pat been fired for being an idiot? Sure he always comes out the other side of it smelling of roses, but he caused the trouble in the first place by being completely incompetent. 
• Why does he need a Helicopter? 

We're currently on to Paw Patrol:

• Why do all the adults call for help from a child?
• Where are Ryder's parents? He's running around Adventure Bay doing all sorts of dangerous things and no one is keeping an eye on him. This seems to be a common thing in children's TV programmes, Sarah and Duck, Ruby and Max, Abney and Teal. Where have all the parents gone? 
• Why hasn't someone turned Chickaletta into chicken nuggets? Contemplating this one hopefully means I'm starting to feel a little better.

B2 on the other hand is currently watching episodes of Pokemon on her tablet. Again, where are the parents? Apparently he is 10 years, 10 months and 10 days old when he begins his adventures, B1 is still 3 years and 9 months off that age, but I don't imagine that between now and then I'm suddenly going to decide it's ok for her to wander off to distant lands to fight birds and other random creatures. 

Ikea Live Lagom project - our shopping trip!

After a bit of toing and froing trying to sort out a date and time that worked for everyone, we finally settled on the 21st December. Shopping a few days before Christmas, especially in a shop that is always busy was a rather daunting thought, but having plied the children with Ikea hotdogs and chocolate doughnuts before heading off to meet our Live Lagom leader Nadine it was actually a really enjoyable visit.

Maybe it's because we're a bit geeky, or maybe it's because we've two small children and spare time is rather limited, but we turned up to the store with a rather (too) organised list and knew exactly what we were looking for.

Whilst sorting out our list (putting together this list caused such a debate over sizes, colours, quantity, etc, that we lost complete track of time and it was suddenly 2:30am) we decided we decided that instead of purchasing a lot of the same time of storage jars and containers, we were going to buy one or two of a few, bring them home and try them to see what worked best for us. Once we've decided which ones suit our needs, fit into our cupboards and drawers, etc, we plan on returning to store and purchasing more of them.

Nadine was fantastic, helped find the items on the list, roped in colleagues in a couple of departments to hunt down some of the items we couldn't find, tolerated our rather giddy four year old very well and took the time to go through some of the projects and practices Ikea have in place to not only make the stores more sustainable, but to make a difference to the day to day lives of people around the world. One of the things we'd not heard of prior to the shopping trip was the Play to Change project, it's not only been responsible for a number of thought provoking conversations with our children recently (which was one of the reasons we were so interested in taking part in the Live Lagom project in the first place), but we found out about it in time to go back into store and take a few soft toys home with us.

We were also really surprised to discover how much of the food Ikea sells in it's Swedish food market is classed as sustainable. We now have chicken and vegetable meatballs in our freezer (they are both absolutely delicious) and the Korken jar we purchased during our shopping trip is full of PATAR coffee beans.

All in all it was a fantastic visit, we learned a lot, not just about the items we'd chosen to purchse, but about other items that at some point will be working their way into our home. We're really looking forward to using the things we bought and seeing what difference they make to our home or way of thinking.