Roche Brothers Can Be an Adventure

Hey Pete!
Its Thursday afternoon, and you just fell asleep after a pretty long morning of burning energy. We went to the grocery store around 11, and today you decided to be even more trouble than you usually are (even though everyone that you met absolutely adored you and would say how well behaved and cute you are). Usually, when we go to the grocery store together, I bring a toy with you so that it keeps you occupied when you start getting fidgety; nine times out of ten it works, but then there are times like today where all you wanted to do was reach back for items in the shopping car, maybe look at them for a second or two, and then immediately try to throw them out of the cart.

We went to Roche Brothers to do our shopping today, and that fact produced an inherent problem with your love of tossing things out of the cart. I love Roche Brothers, but they have very unique shopping carts that are wildly different than the usual cart you find at most grocery stores. Where locations such as Stop and Shop or Shaws have a cart with a deep basket and an elevated seat for children to sit in (which by design distances a child from the groceries so that they can't easily grab, say, a mango, and throw it on the floor), at Roche Brothers, they decided to go with a cart where the main basket to place your groceries is exactly level with the seated position of your little buddy. This allows you, Pete, and other troublemaking kids, to easily grab at anything within arms length in the car and cause as much chaos as you can before I notice that you are holding a glass jar of salsa looking like you want to throw it on the floor.

To be fair, their carts do have a bottom storage section; theres a small platter-sized grate directly below where you seat your child, as well as a larger grate below the main top basket; usually these are meant for larger, heavy items like birdseed or cat litter, but in my case, a majority of breakable and fragile goods found their way below deck. My cart looked pretty silly once I had made my way through the store, having a few items pushed as far away from you as possible at the top of the cart, and everything else below the cart.

Honestly, it was a bit frustrating because you were absolutely relentless and laser-focused on grabbing things and throwing them, and were getting upset because I wasn't letting you. A few times I had to stop and take a deep breath and find the humor in the situation, but in the moment it can often be hard to step back like that as my first instinct. Usually, I start off by calling you a ding dong and taking groceries away from you, and trying to distract you with other things. It can be exhausting on the nerves.
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After the grocery store, you mom came home and the bunch of us hung out and played and talked about stuff that was going on in the day. I spent a while looking for these darned dress pants I liked but have somehow lost, and your mom was sleepy after a bunch of long days and early mornings at work, so around 3 she took an hour nap while you and I hung out and played some more, and then I cooked some dinner. You are too small and picky to eat the steak tacos and Mexican grilled corn that I made, but we made you a nice cheese quesadilla and some eggs for dinner, and I grilled you mom a cheeseburger because steak isn't really her thing. Oooh man though, once you are a bigger boy, I'm sure you're going to love these steak tacos.

Now, Game 1 of the NBA finals is on, and I have to work in about 7 hours so I will be going to bed soon. I've been watching a lot of basketball this season, and my favorite team the Celtics had a really great season that ended because once again, Lebron James is an unstoppable player continuing to add to his legacy. I was hoping that the Houston Rockets would beat the Golden State Warriors, but the Warriors have also been a dominant team in the western conference, so once again the Finals are the same two teams playing against each other. Next year should be a different story; we got through to the eastern conference finals without the two best people on our team, and I am so excited to see how the next season turns out when we get Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward back.

Bedtime for dad, I'll write again soon!
Love, Dad