It was 5:00pm. We had just left swimming lessons and were heading home for dinner that was ready to eat in the slow cooker. I realized I had to stop at Walmart on the way for rice to go with the delicous Honey Garlic Chicken waiting for us at home. It would just be a five minute stop, I said. The kids will be fine, I said. (When has a grocery stop ever taken 5 minutes?)
When you have three small children, you need to make sure you enter the grocery store with an arsenal of weapons. Every grocery store trip must include a few basic things: snacks, diapers, snacks. water, and more snacks. Did you catch the most important part of that list? That's right. Snacks. Walking down the aisles in the grocery store without snacks is like walking through a minefield.
On this specific trip, we run into the store for one item: the rice. We quickly grab it and head to the tills to pay. Apparently, everyone else in the store had the same idea. Every line up is long. Even the "quick" line ups are long. And the kids are starting to lose it. It's close to dinner, remember? Luckily, I don't leave home without my trusty tool kit (ahem, I mean diaper bag). I pull out the grapes for the older ones, but the baby can't eat grapes yet! Cue the panic. He's screaming watching his big brothers eat. I remembered the package of Parent's Choice Little Puffs in my diaper bag! I received a pack to review from Today's Parent and was saving them for an occasion such as this.
It worked! The older kids were happily eating their grapes and the baby was happily eating his Little Puffs when I finally got to the front of the line to make my purchase. As we walked out to the car, everyone was happy. Another meltdown averted!
What I love most about the puffs was that I didn't want to spoil dinner. It was just enough food to tide him over until we could get home to eat. I love that he can pick them up himself (baby led weaning for the win!) and they taste great. I may have grabbed a handful for myself. Don't judge! It was almost supper time!