Taking a four-year-old to the grocery store does not rank high on my list of fun things to do. A few weeks ago, Hayden was {this close} to having a meltdown in the grocery store because I refused to buy him the fun five dollar toothbrush he grabbed off the rack. Never mind that we were there to buy ammo for the marshmallow shooter I was making for him.

So when he and I needed to pick up a few items at the grocery store before heading out of town the other weekend, I decided to try a creative approach. Before we went to the store, I wrote up a five-item grocery list — and since he can’t read yet, I illustrated it.

He figured out everything but the bottled water.

When we got to the store, I handed Hayden the list and put him in charge of making sure we got everything. I told him that we were only going to buy the items that were on our list, so every time he saw something else he wanted, we admired it and talked about it for a moment, and then I asked him if it was on the list.

“No…”

“Sorry. Then I guess we can’t get it.” I added just a slight twinge of disappointment to my voice, as if the person prohibiting us from buying these things was someone other than me.

I had written the list in the order that we would find the items in the store, and with only five items on the list, the little shopping adventure was over pretty quickly. But we had fun while we were there, and it might have been my favorite grocery shopping trip ever… because I left the store with a smile on my face and a proud, happy little boy by my side.