ACE is the Place for My Little Toddler Man or Popcorn is a Great Distraction

I really needed to get to the post office and the bank on Saturday morning. I had a deposit I needed to make and a giveaway to put in the mail. It was 10:30 a.m. and both locations close early on Saturday. I was in a rush to get out the door. JDaniel decided he didn’t want to run errands he wanted to stay home with his dad. “I am not coming,” he pronounced. Pronouncements don’t get him very far, but lately he has been making them more often. Well, Dad was in the middle of paperwork that needed to be done and since JDaniel couldn’t be counted on to play quietly the whole time I needed to be gone he needed to come with me. “Let’s go,” I said gently shoving his arms into his winter coat. “This will be fun!” I said as cheerfully as I could muster hoping that God would grace with us with a miracle as we ran errands.

The bank stop was quick. We were able to get through the drive thru without a wait. The teller sent a lollipop out with my copy of the deposit slip. “Did we get one?” I was asked from the backseat. “Yes, we did and it will be perfect to have after lunch.” I replied. JDaniel didn’t care about when he got to eat it just that a lollipop was given to us.

We then headed to the ACE Hardware store right down the street. It houses a small outpost of the post office. It usually has a long line and tons of little items little fingers can pick up and move to a new location, but it was right down the street. The parking lot was crowded and people were streaming in and out of the store. This looked like this stop might turn into a nightmare. I was so anxious about JDaniel losing it and having to come back on Monday that I walked in the door farthest away from the post office instead of the one right next to it.

Entering through the door we did led to a miracle. Right before our eyes was a popcorn machine filled with freshly popped corn. Beside the popcorn machine should an angel wearing ACE Hardware apparel handing out bags of free popcorn. JDaniel and I waited hand in hand for his turn to get a bag of popcorn. Once it was procured we walked slowly to the post office area and waited in line to send the giveaway package. When I say slowly, I mean slowly. A toddler with one hand holding a bag of popcorn and one hand reaching in to pick up the next puff of corn has trouble walking quickly. He had to move very slowly through a store.

There was only one lady in front of us when we got in the post office line. I was a little relieved. It should have taken no time at all but, she couldn’t decide on the design she wanted for her Christmas stamp. It would seem like she made a decision and then she would change to a different stamp. She changed her mind three or four times. I started wishing for my own bag of popcorn. I didn’t dare take a handful of JDaniel’s. If we finished the bag before we paid the postage for the package, the nuts and bolt in small drawers beside us could become the focus of a toddler with busy fingers.

Thankfully the bag held out! There was even popcorn to spare. JDaniel and I headed to the grocery store next store to get milk. It took a long time to get to the milk section at the bag of the story due to serious concentration required to reach to the bottom of the bag and get the final puffs of corn, but we made it without needing a cart or getting distracted by the selection of fruit chews displayed on the aisle we walked down.

That makes ACE the place for my little toddler man! We may need to start every shopping trip there.