These are the pieces I got:
You can buy them new at Ikea but I'll be damned if I have to drive all the way down there so I lucked out and found the set on Craigslist for $25...located right on the way to Anna's daycare from work. Of course there is a catch - the kid before "decorated" the table with some black permanent marker on top. I scrubbed away at it last night and I think I've worn it down a bit and today I'm going to try a little sand paper. DH asks why I even bought the table if the marker bothers me so much but at first it didn't and now it does. Also I didn't want to spend more on a table/chair set and find out Anna wasn't into it.
I saw this one on Amazon and MIGHT get it if the marker won't stop bothering me:
But I don't know. It's an awful lot more money even if it is made of wood, has one more chair, and isn't pre-decorated. The thing is, the table is probably going to take some abuse anyway so maybe I should be fine that it's already ruined a little bit.
DH shared a story with me that his mom told from her travels; a monk walked right up to her and ripped her shirt. The message is that you shouldn't be too attached to material things or too proud of them and such. Both DH and I adhere to this theory with lots of our things. We are always buying floor sample furniture that might have a few dings or whatnot and we don't care. And I've scored some pretty great finds on Craigslist. Because life happens and stuff is going to get dinged up anyhow. So the table is just an extension of that I guess. So yeah, whatever, marker.
The important part of this rambling mess is that Anna LOVES eating at her table. She was very interested in it from first sight when it was crammed into the back seat of the car next to her on the way home from school. As soon as I put it down in the house she was sitting in the chair and very thrilled about it. And she does enjoy eating there very much. I can tell that it's much better for her to be in a chair that she can get in and out of herself instead of being lifted into the high chair and strapped in. She is definitely an independent child who likes to do things on her own.
Gosh, she is getting SO BIG!
We have a kid size table Meg plays with all the time. She plays with play doh on it, colors on it (I mean colors ON PAPER which is on the table), and sometimes just sits there and looks out the window. She still eats in her high chair, though. Maybe I'll start doing snack time at the table.
ReplyDeleteI like to have dinner together as a family, literally all together. But we have an old wooden high chair that we've taken the tray off of that works the same way for The Boy. He's able to climb up into it alone and then just needs to be pushed into the table. He's happy. I'm happy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm with you on the material things. Or at least, I try to be. : )
I have eyeballed that table and chair on Ikea's website before--super cute.
ReplyDeleteI am trying my darndest to use the approach with material things. By the time I'm truly zen about it all, we'll probably need to redecorate the house when all the children leave the home/hovel.
We have a little Ikea table and chairs that my 3 y.o. uses as an art table. Don't worry about the marker. Let Anna use it for art, and she will add all her own marker marks to it in time!
ReplyDeleteI like having all of us at the dinner table. I think the Truck has been sitting in his high chair at the table with us since he was 3 mos. old. He loves it. There's also a really good Fisher Price booster seat that fits on a regular kitchen chair that we have, and you can use it with babies as soon as they can sit up. We'll probably be switching to that soon!
Awesome! I'm glad she likes it. Our IKEA find seems a little too big for Carter still - he can't get in and out of the chair himself, and I think that bothers him. PLUS I have to break him of the bad habit that we've accidentally instilled of letting him grab food and then run around the apartment with it - ARGH - which he is still doing when we put him at the table. Baby steps! (literally - ha! god, I'm a nerd)
ReplyDeleteI try to have the same approach about material things - it helps that I never have time to go shopping anymore, so I don't have anything nice or new to be particularly attached to! Except that doesn't explain the near-nervous breakdown that I had two days ago when Carter started sucking on my fancypants $400 iPhone 4 (a present from Max - I would NEVER spend that much on a phone!) and the sound stopped working! I eventually fixed it, but GAAAAH it was horrifying. So yeah, I TRY not to be too attached to my worldly possessions...
We bought the Ikea table and chairs for Peter from the store, and while I love them, the trip there & back and experience at the store almost ended our marriage. :-) Good call on not making the trip.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser? I don't know what's in those things but it melts crayons and markers away. Thea likes to "decorate" her table and chair set, but the Magic Eraser always cleans it up :)
ReplyDeleteGood!!!
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