mommy's little helper

one thing that i think i'm pretty good at is grocery shopping with both kids. or at least grocery shopping at our kroger with both kids. i have it down to an art. meal planning and grocery list ahead of time, car carts for the kids, i know where to find everything, cookies are in the middle which serve as a bribe till we get to them and a treat till the end, self check-out. it's pretty great.

but now, i think i'm switching to wal-mart. not because i really want to, but because it will save us money. i really don't like shopping at wal-mart. it is just so big and takes forever and the kids' carts are so huge and i always hit stuff with them and my kids (and i, for that matter) are on the verge of a meltdown by the time we get to the check-out.

so last week, i tried a new approach. i told hiba that if we could just get a regular cart for only matthias to ride in that she could help me shop. she loved this idea way more than i anticipated. she was so excited about being my helper. especially since matthias was not. she told him that, once or twice.

and it really worked well. it took a little longer, because hiba got to "pick out" the things and put them in the cart, but she didn't run away, she and matthias weren't fighting the whole time, it didn't take nearly as long as i thought it would, and no one melted down in front of our cashier. pretty successful trip if you ask me.

so now anytime that we run errands, hiba asks if she can help me and i'll help her and matthias will just ride in the cart and not be a helper.