Two for One Coupon

Yesterday went grocery shopping which is usually like this:

"If you don't stop whining, I'm going to send you to wait in the car!"
"Stop wandering away from the cart!"
"We are not buying any pudding in cups we can make pudding at home!"
"We do not need 6 even though they're on sale, just get one!"
"Ok, we can get muffins but then we have to put the cookies back, which one?"
"Marshmallow fluff is not a healthy snack even if you put it on wheat bread!"
"Stop poking your fingers through the plastic on the grapes!"

So this time I left Dan at home and brought Ella and her new picture grocery list instead. She loved it. Not everything we bought was on the list but it was a nice break to have her shopping with me instead of against me and reminding me of items we needed while crossing them off as we went. She even drew a picture of cookies on the list (how could I resist) and then we picked some out and she crossed them off too.

Our local grocer has these tiny carts that essentially are a hand-basket on wheels with a push handle and so the kids get a huge kick out of shopping with these little things. They look like a perfect mini version of the bigger carts. So here was Ella with her list and her pen and her tiny cart walking around muttering "Hmmm, where's the broccoli?" and "Mom, stay close by me so I know where you are!" I was really tempted to throw a bunch of things in her cart just to hear her say "Those aren't on the list!" or I could've said "Ella! Ella! Ella! Can I have some ---fill in whatever we are walking by that is bright and shiny here---?!" while simultaneously pulling on her arm until she threatened to make me ride in her cart, but instead I just followed along with my bigger cart and threw all the junk food into it.