Ikea Trip

Last month we took a trip down to Ikea to buy another area rug for the living room, since we took our old rug and placed it in little dude's room, since there's no floor in his room...

After a couple of days of not having a rug and cold toes, we headed down to replace it!

Knowing we wanted to go after work, we made a plan, got off work on time and fed little dude his dinner and headed out the door.

Half way there, he says he's hungry and wants a pbj sandwich.

We don't have said item with us, cause we just FED him... like the food left his fork and went into his belly not more than 15 minutes ago.

and this is after we all shared a bag on peanut m&ms in the car as a treat.

I haven't mentioned this much on the blog, but i'm trying to see how long I can go without hitting a drive through. I made it all of January so far. Even when hubs was hangry and needed Sonic on a Saturday after running errands, we just ordered him something, and little dude and I ate the snacks we brought and had lunch at home. When hubs was ripping out tile and grabbed a burger, I was at a toddler birthday party.

Now this isn't to say we haven't eaten out. We went to Chipotle once with a giftcard, and we had a nice family dinner out at my favorite place, California Fish Grill, but I've decided that if it has a drive thru, I'm going to try to avoid it for 2019. (Except kneaders if we make it out to utah... cause that's like a bagels and brew with a drive thru only 1,000 times better and you have to have reasonable limits). The boys might end up grabbing a pizza from time to time if i'm working, but i've just decided its not really food and I don't need to eat it if i can avoid it.

Anyway, so, here we are, with a hungry kid in the car... and because Ikea is near Fountain Valley Aldi's is like 3 exits away...

I know this because I used to drive up after work once a week to shop there before OUR much closer Aldi's opened....

So we pulled in, I grabbed bread, jelly, peanut butter, and nutella...  and made said requested PB&J with hubs pocket knife.

I'm not saying this was healthier than the cafe at Ikea...

Or that it was cheaper then there $3 or $4 kids meals...

But I'm trying to break the habit that leaving the house means going out to a restaurant or a fast-food place.

He hasn't had a fast food nugget all year, and I feel like i'm winning the battle.

He's eating more of the foods we make in our house. I don't normally do toddler meals, but if we are having something I know he won't eat, I offer an alternative after he eats a bite and tries it... But for the past few weeks, he's been eating what we have been eating and no alternative has been provided. He ate Fish for dinner with rice and veggies... homemade meat balls.... a cheese burger from our BBQ (which he used to refuse them and eat the bun and just the sweet potatoes)... he ate spaghetti sauce on his noodles instead of me having to make them with just butter and cheese.... a homemade bean and cheese burrito and he saw me put the beans in it, asked what they were, and then declared YUMMY... He also ate CALAMARI when we went to the restaurant AFTER we told him it was squid.

He's also trying new veggies like Jicama... and eating the cucumbers in his lunch.

Little dude also gets PB&J a couple times a week in his school lunches, so its not like the jelly and peanut butter I bought will go to waste any time soon... and considering he ended up eating a whole sandwich by the time all was said and done, he was hungry.

But I'm calling it a win.

A nugget free, toyless meal, and a happy toddler.