Every few months a fad sweeps through my weekly playgroup. A new product appears and suddenly every mom has to have it. First there was the JJ Cole Essentials Blanket, which caught on because it really is fabulous. It's water resistant, folds up nicely into a little bag and is machine washable. Then there was the prickly purple ball from Gymboree and the Little Tykes stroller car. The latest trend is the Snack Trap, a small cup with a unique slitted lid that allows babies to retrieve snacks but prevents them from spilling Cheerios all over the floor. Additionally, the Snack Trap allows a baby to carry around his snack and feed himself whenever he gets hungry. At this point I am the only mom in the group still feeding her kid out of a tiny Tupperware bowl with a snap on lid. Meanwhile, Baby M has turned into a little scavenger, wandering from blanket to blanket, picking up abandoned Snack Traps and gorging himself on Cheerios. So I decided it was about time we got our own Snack Trap, if for no other reason than to give the other tots equal opportunity to pilfer Baby M's snack stash.
After failed trips to Target and Babies R Us, I finally tracked down Snack Traps at the Right Start in Westside Pavilion. I rinsed out the little green cup, filled it with Baby M's favorite mix of Cheerios and Gerber Puffs and headed out to lunch with some old co-workers. I settled Baby M into the restaurant high chair and gave him his cup of treats. He happily thrust his little hand through the lid and started pulling out Cheerios. However, he did not eat the cereal, he just threw it on the floor. Then it became a game to get every last treat out of the cup, with no interest at all in eating the snacks. After a few minutes he learned how to use the flaps on the lid to flick the Cheerios at my friends and our extremely patient waiter (who was given an excellent tip and many apologies). Depending on where he ends up falling on the nerd-jock spectrum Baby M is going to be really good at either Tiddlywinks or Quarters. Needless to say, for now we'll confine our Snack Trap use to the park where no one will be bothered by flying Cheerios and where there are plenty of birds and squirrels to clean up after us.
