Thursday, April 17, 2008

Where Are Your Shoes?

Every single time that I leave the house with one or more of my children, we are suddenly missing a shoe. And it's always one that belongs to the child, sometimes children, who are accompanying me. I am a firm believer in giving a 7 minute warning, "Get your shoes on, it's about time to go!" but for some reason they don't believe me until I'm walking out the door. Then the panic ensues. "I can't find my other shoe..." We have a "shoe basket" by our back door. That is where shoes are supposed to go, if not in the closets where they really belong. But of course, that is generally only the home of half of the pair. Maybe it's outside...did I leave it at Gram's?...is it up in your room?...look under the couch... My sweet children all possess more than one pair of shoes, but just try to get them to swap for the pair that has both feet accounted for. This only works with Odie..."Let's wear your soccer shoes, instead" and he is happily singing "socco, socco, socco" as I put them on, or I say "Let's wear these shoes, the same-same as Buddy's instead" and he replies "weew, weew" which in Odie language means Will(..and is about the cutest thing in the world, by the way...) On the other hand, each of the other 4 have their own way of dealing with the offered solution of swapping for another pair. For Abby, it's blaming everyone in the household for losing her shoe, or maybe even hiding it from her? It's never her responsibility. Phoebe? alot of face pulling, eye rolling, and stomping of the feet. She knows which shoes she wants to wear, and is not about to sacrifice her outfit to wearing the Wrong pair of shoes. Willie does a whole lot of whining about it, right down to when the second pair is tied onto his feet, and Lucy, of course, wails. Unless she's in a good mood, then she says "I'll just wear a mismatch, then!" She thinks that looks cute. A giraffe rain boot with a sparkly red "dorothy" shoe. How many times has our poor bus driver waited for Will to find his shoe? She seriously sits in front of our house while we run around frantically. Lucy's most recent solution is "Let's just say a prayer" before she puts too much effort into looking. I swear I tell them every time we're searching "next time just put them in the basket as soon as we walk in the door" and of course "I did!" I don't believe it...sometimes we find the missing mate in the van when we get in to go! That really ticks me off! I swear, someday they'll be grown and I'll leave the house when I'm ready, all by myself, with both shoes on my feet, and no other little piggies to cover. That will truly be a sad day, won't it?

14 comments:

Tiffany said...

That sounds just like my house... I think we should all just go bare foot!!!!
Maybe I would be on time for something. Chris says no I would still be late...

Ellie McFreaken said...

Our problem here is with tap shoes! I swear Mrs. Peek is going to kick the girls out of dance if we show up one more time with mismatched tap shoes. Ellie brings Molly's , Molly brings Ellie's and then this past Monday Molly brought one of ELlie's and one that doesn't even belong to us. Today Mrs. Peek said maybe we should have a "special place" for their shoes.....WE DO ,it's called their lockers that we still can't keep track of! Ahhhh, I am so sick of diggin for matching shoes..I feel your pain!

Becky A said...

Mrs. Peek is funny. She's seen it all, I bet!

Ellie McFreaken said...

I am just glad she is patient with my girls! I love her!

Stacy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeni said...

Hee Hee..I loved your shoe photo! I'm gonna have to post a picture of our shoe/laundry room on one of it's glorious days! You are an inpiration! Too funny becky.

Stacy said...

Thanks for the laugh this morning. I feel your pain. I only have one and it is her coat and shoes. (and she is the shoe queen!)

Shaury said...

Just be glad you don't have a dog like Roxy that loves to eat shoes (especially flip flops). I always have to have Jonah go on an exploration under the beds to find missing shoes cause that's were Roxy hides them.
:) Shaury

Becky A said...

Shaury i'm so honored to get a comment from you!

Anonymous said...

Yes, you will all be very sad when you have no little feet at home to worry about!
XO Gram

Anonymous said...

Okay, that was hillarious! Mostly because I can totally relate. With everything from the basket to the cohersing to wear different pairs, to the one special child who is fine wearing mis-matched. (guess who?) Thanks for the laugh. I loved the "Let's just say a prayer." That girl's gonna lose her testimony that way!

Diana said...

Today I crawled into the back of the van only to discover five pairs of Maggie's shoes. She is notorious for taking her shoes off in the car, by the time I haul in all the groceries and the car seat I do not even notice - I'm just glad she unbuckled herself and went into the house. But then I start missing the shoes. Poor McKay, after my shoe discovery I asked him to bring them all in. Of course I paid him a quarter since it wasn't even his mess. He is such the big helper.

Angie said...

I can only say "dido" to all of this. There's only one good thing about winter and that is at least I know the kids' shoes are scattered throughout the interior of the house. When summer comes, I have to start searching 3 yards and an empty horse pasture. Aaaahhhh!!! We'll call each other when we're sad that these days of shoe searching are gone though. No nevermind, you don't like to call. We'll blog to each other about our empty nests.

Angie said...

btw, I'm glad you talked Phoebe's into softball and thanks to whoever put them on the same softball team!