About a week ago Leo started complaining that his old shoes were too tight on his feet. Leo has short, wide feet a lot like Chris’ feet which strongly resemble those of Fred Flintstone. This means that Leo’s shoes always start to hurt him on the sides rather than the end when they become too small. It also makes the right kind of shoes somewhat hard to find. They have to be loose and stretchable and reasonably priced so I won’t lose my mind when they don’t fit again in a few months. Naturally, I heard “shoes too tight” and automatically thought: Target! and Shopping! I immediately ran out and found these super cute shoes:

To me they say: loose and easy to get on, yet hip and fun! And initially Leo felt the same. He wore them to school for a few days, then he came home complaining that a little girl in his class kept stepping on his feet because of these shoes. Being as wise in the ways of women as I am, I know that a little girl stepping on a little boy’s feet= love. However to Leo getting his feet stepped on = pain. Not so much different from grown up love Leo! Learn your lesson now. Surprisingly this lesson is lost on him though, and his solution is to never wear the shoes again.

While at Target I also found this really cute shoes for Sunny, even though she hadn’t asked for new shoes, I saw these and I thought: how punk rock in a cute and sassy way!

But Sunny was immediately skeptical, saying she wasn’t sure if it was OK to wear these kinds of shoes to school because she had never seen anyone else wearing them. I pointed out that Leo had worn this very kind of shoe to school without any repercussions, other than being stepped on. He was not sent to the Principal, or asked to not wear that kind of shoes for any reason. This made no difference to her because he is only in first grade, and she is in third, so maybe the rules are different? So now I am somewhat worried about the implications of having a child who will not do anything unless she has seen someone else do it first. But I suppose I am mostly worried because that behavior really mirrors the way I was as a child, only I had way less personality and spunk than Sunny has. I am hopeful she will get past the fear of being different or wrong. It’s a hard way to live, wanting to be right for everybody else and not thinking about what is right for you. It’s something I didn’t learn until I was like 30.

This morning when Sunny got ready for school she put on her clogs, similar to these ones of Badgers (only hers are pink):

and as she headed out the door she said: “I’ve seen lots of people wear these kind of shoes to school, so I know it’s alright.”

I know Sunny is strong, and will be a leader. I’m sure of it. Just not when it comes to shoes.