A Reason Not to Buy Food at the Target Snack Bar

The fam took a little walk to our neighborhood Target this afternoon to pick up a couple of things that we needed and as a way to get in a little exercise (though it’s more exercise for Mom and Dad than Danica, since we push her in her stroller to the store, then have to chase her around the aisles when we let her out). I’ll mention that one of the things we needed was Kleenex™, or more accurately, Puffs™, since the Little One’s got a bit of a cold. Don’t worry, it’s just a runny nose, not anything crazy (*cross fingers*), and she probably picked it up from one of the kids at daycare (inevitable).

When we got to Target, Kindra wanted a little snack and I wanted a drink, so we ended up getting some popcorn and a drink (for a buck!). I’ll preface the rest of this story by saying that yes, we know that you shouldn’t give popcorn to kids under the age of two. Okay, so that pretty much tips off the fact that we let Danica have some popcorn as we wheeled her around the store. Everything went well until we stopped off at the returns and exchanges counter to return some stuff we’d bought last week.

Danica was standing by her stroller as Kindra and I got our returns out from the basket when I was called up to the counter. Just at that moment (naturally), she started coughing because she was choking on some popcorn. Kindra knelt down beside her and started patting her back, and I saw a little popcorn and some spit-up come out of Danica’s mouth, so I figured things were probably okay. I tossed some napkins to Kindra and went to quickly finish our return, since I’d held up the small line a bit anyway.

Of course, as I’m handing the receipts over to the clerk, I hear Kindra say, “Oh, boy.” Danica had spit up a bit more than we’d anticipated and got some of it on her shirt and stroller. It wasn’t a full-blown vomiting episode, but it was a bit more than a couple of napkins’ worth. Kindra ended up having to change Danica’s shirt and got a little bit of it on herself, but all in all it was okay. It’s just the first time the Girl’s pulled anything like that in a store. I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Obviously, the moral of the story is to not buy any snacks for Danica at Target. That, and to never tell this story again because I look like an ass for returning merchandise while my daughter is coughing up her lunch. From now on, the story is that Kindra was at Target with Danica feeding her popcorn and Danica threw up.

Kindra finds this story amusing because her friend Martha’s son, Gavin, threw up at a Target once after ingesting his first French fries from In-N-Out a few years back. It’s either a coincidence that it was at a Target, or we go to Target way too much.