'Ends & Pieces' Fruit Leather No More?

I actually had an "oh my all that's holy nooooo" moment standing in the middle of a Trader Joes aisle last weekend: They no longer stock their bagged "Ends & Pieces" all natural fruit leather (and the sobbing ensues).

Honestly, I do not know what I'm gunna do without it! My baby girlie LOVES the stuff! And because it's ALL NATURAL --absolutely nothing but real, unadulterated fruit, with no other ingredients added-- I have zero guilt letting her eating every day for her heading-for-home snack in the car, and whenever else she pipes up, "Fruit leather please?"

It will cost 5-6 times more to buy the real fruit leather in individual or boxed strips, rather than a nice bulk bag of mixed odd 'ends and pieces'. And our girlie goes through an entire bag of this stuff nearly every week!?! So yeah, a $4 bag of all natural fruit leather (and that's with tax included) versus strips costing $0.50 to $0.75 each, when she eats what amounts to two or more strips in just ONE SITTING nearly EVERY DAY!

We're talking the difference between spending $16 per month or, now, possibly $70 per month in fruit leather to maintain her typical intake?!? I think we're going to have to discover a new favorite snack. *sigh*

P.S. I will never consider 'Fruit Roll Ups', nor any day-glow selection of 'fruit chews' a solution to my new found dilemma here. None of them come near the real food quality of TJ's natural fruit leathers. Instead, they're all loaded with added sugars and artificial colors and whatever else; they're more like a food experiment or a desert at best. Fine for a treat, but not a daily snack in my book. My mum would roll over in her grave otherwise.

Mmmmm, Cranberry Fluff

Just sneaked my 1st spoonful of Cranberry Fluff!

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"Holy Crap!"

The day has finally come: She now repeats the things we say, word for word. Um, yeah, this means the time has come finally to keep it all reeally squeaky clean!

This week we had a few 'oh no, oh no, no, no' moments when one of us had said something we shouldn't have said within earshot of the girlie, and we'd immediately hear her precise echo response. She repeated each of the following gems this past week alone:

God dammit

Oh Shit

F*** - - That came outta her dear father, of course, and he dropped that bomb while holding her in his arms, no less - - However, this was an exceptional moment in that not only is that not something he has ever done while holding his own daughter, or any other child for that matter, but it also happened in the moment we'd discovered we had just hit an enormous wall with something we had underway this week (buying a new car).

Holy Crap -this is my favorite so far because not only did she repeat it perfectly, she mimicked the exact way it had been spoken.

Friggin'

Oh Hell -and she said this one with 100% sunshine in her lil' voice and with a gargantuan smile spread across her bright lil' mug.

My Honey-Man's Gorgeous Chicky

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How Can It Be?!

My daughter does not like Mac n' Cheese (notice I used proper noun capitalization there).

First of all, what kind of toddler doesn't like Mac n' Cheese?! Tell me! Tel me, please!!! Secondly, and in our case most importantly, how can I have a child of Nielson family lineage who doesn't like Mac n' Cheese? And everyone knows Mac n' Cheese is MY FAVORITE --and my own daughter, a toddler, she REFUSES to even touch Mac n' Cheese -???

I'm all flummoxed. *sigh*

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Proud Mommie

Tonight during a BBQ at a friend's home, our lil' sweet potato did a complete somersault for her 1st time... And another '1st' tonight --she had her 1st margarita. :(

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The McRib is Back!

Driving home on the hwy, my honey-man sees a billboard: "Ah the McRib is coming back... its just disgusting, why does it keep coming back?"

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Lights On, Lights Off

I'm working on my laptop in my bedroom, sitting atop my bed beside the baby monitor -which we still use, yes- and I can hear our sweet potato talking to herself, clearly playing with her crib's nightlight: "Light on (click sound), light off (click sound). Light on (click sound), light off (click sound)."