It’s officially October, and that means only one thing: the holidays are coming.
Did that send chills down anyone else’s spine?
Because along with the joys of the holiday season comes the inevitable Christmas gift overload for my toddlers.
I’d love to say that our house is always overflowing with joy and sparkles and snowflakes and cheer during the holidays, but in reality, we’re overflowing with stress, commitments, pressure, and well, still sparkles (per usual, for us toddler moms).
If you’re looking for the ultimate list of the BEST Trader Joe’s favorites for toddlers – you’ve come to the right place. Oh Trader Joe’s, how could I live without you?! How would I keep my hangry toddlers filled to the brim with snacks, lest they whine at me all day? How would I get dinner …
I will admit that I held out way too long on making mac and cheese in the Instant Pot.
See, I’m a mac and cheese purist: I prefer Kraft Mac & Cheese over everything. Literally. I don’t care what gourmet bacon-truffle-lobster-garlic-whatever mac and cheese you’ve got, that blue box will always be better. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy other mac and cheeses, because, obvi. But that powder packet of cheese wins, hands down, every time.
So I’ve never had the motivation to homemake my own. If my favorite restaurant can’t do it better, why should I think *I* can?
I’ll be the first to admit that #MomLife is HARD. Like, way harder than I anticipated.
I mean, I obviously never expected it to be easy. But I didn’t know it would be this hard.
Like, dig-yourself-out-of-cement-with-a-plastic-fork hard.
But in my 18 months of experience (read: not very much), I’ve picked up a few essential tools for survival. The jackhammer to your plastic fork. These are the 10 items I actually couldn’t survive motherhood without:
Remember before you had kids, when your dinnertime was a cherished time to unwind with your spouse, catch up on each other’s days, discuss the latest world events, and just be connected?
Or – let’s be real – a time to eat on the couch, watch TV, and play on Facebook next to your spouse while you both zone out after an exhausting day of work?
Dinnertime with a toddler is basically the same as that, if you did all of those things while wrestling a rattlesnake. Not only is it physically exhausting you from its surprising strength for its size, but you’re actually afraid for your life because it could bite you at any moment. But at the same time, you and the snake both gotta eat, so you’re just powering through and trying to get at least half the plate of food into your mouths before one of you completely breaks (and we all know which one of you it’s going to be).
