Children's ikea

I love Ikea for so many reasons but since becoming a parent I love and appreciate them even more. Each year I anxiously wait for the new catalogue to come out, usually checking it out online before I even receive my copy in the mail. I affectionately refer to it as my "bible" and within a day or two I've got it and any new products memorized! anyone that knows me that I recognize most product by name. I never used to pay much attention to the children's section though, besides for admiring their styling.

A couple months ago when our wee one starting getting mobile and into EVERYTHING we decided it was time to up the level of our baby proofing. We were going to need a baby gate for the upstairs. Many places we looked to offered pressure gates... which were definitely not an option for the top of the stairs or plastic, ick! never mind that we were planning on putting it about a meter away from the stairs in the hallway which although not especially wide was still wider than most gates can accommodate. Finally I stumbled onto the Ikea Patrull line of safety items. We got the wooden Patrull Fast safety gate, problem solved on all counts. Gate is wooden and drills into the wall (comes with a dummy proof wall stencil so you know EXACTLY where to drill), it's adjustable and the whole gate swings open, we affixed it so that when it's not in use it can be up against the wall in the hall.

It's really hard to babyproof your kitchen so besides for locking the cabinets under the sink with all the poisonous stuff and keeping knives/sharp objects out of reach, we pretty much figured that we wouldn't be letting our little one hang out in the kitchen very often. While flipping through the latest kitchen catologue I spied yet another ingenious Patrull product, the stainless steel stove top guard. This fits beautifully in our kitchen and the stainless steel is really nice, most importantly it protects our little one and makes our kitchen a more child friendly place.

Ikea Patrull stovetop guard.

While I was supposed to be shopping babyproofing I couldn't help but notice some awesome toys. In my defense I had to walk halfway through the toy zone to get the gate...

I just love this little Fabler mouse, sort of reminds me of Angelina Ballerina.

The Duktig line is great! this pots and pans set is just what we needed for our play kitchen!

The Mula walking/rattling push toy is a wooden version of the classic popcorn push toy, with a much less irritating sound.... now if they only had it in stock...

My toddler is obsessed with Old MacDonald and animals in general. The soft Ikea minnen toy farm set would be perfect for totting around and setting up impromptu barn yard dances!

On the way to the checkout I couldn't help myself and had to swing by the "As is" section (old habits are hard to break!) and I found the most awesome find... can't spill the beans yet but another Ikea hack is on it's way! stay tuned...