Girl in the North Country

We crossed into Canada with Violet, her first trip out of the country. We learned two things before we crossed back into the United States. One, Linda loves IKEA even more than she did before. Are you familiar with the store? Think of a store that sells housewares and furniture. Now, imagine it bigger. Bigger. Imagine that most of the stuff is cheap, both in price and construction, but it’s not so cheaply made that you wouldn’t buy a shopping cart-full of it if you went. I’m still trying to figure out if I love the place or hate it, but Linda has always enjoyed going whenever we went to Canada. Now, she (me, too, I think) loves it even more because today we discovered that IKEA stores have a “baby care” room – a quiet room (with a door that locks!) containing a comfy chair for nursing, a changing table and diapers, as well as a private bathroom. It is a fortress of solitude in the middle of a crowded mass of frenzied shoppers. These are now the things I look for and appreciate out in the world.

The other thing we learned was that sometimes a guard at the border crossing will make you lower the back window so he can get a look into the back seat, and sometimes, the sudden appearance of their stern face peering into that window will cause the baby in the back seat to start crying. And sometimes, this will noticeably upset the border guard, making him hastily wrap things up and send you on your way.

275 days old