Blue Strayed Shoes

A couple of months ago, Mommadrool got StickiBun Scotti a pair of blue clogs, and the boy loved those shoes. He wore them everywhere, and he would have worn them to bed if she hadn't taken them off his feet and put them away so he couldn't see them at nap time and bedtime.

Lately, he had taken to hiding them. The little shoes would disappear, only to be found in the bottom of a laundry hamper or in some other unlikely spot.

Last weekend, DH and I went up for a brief visit. We had SBS all to ourselves for a while, and we thought we'd take him to the store with us. He was shoeless, but when we looked for his favorite blue clogs, they were nowhere to be found. They weren't in their drawer, they weren't under the crib, and they weren't in his mom's room.

This was terribly sad, so we took him to buy more clogs--except we couldn't find any clogs in his size. Finally, at Wal-Mart, we stumbled upon some black Spiderman shoes, and his eyes lit up when we put them on his feet, so off we went with SBS wearing the new Spiderman shoes.

Back at SBS's house, he was proudly walking around in the new shoes when we noticed that his eyes weren't the only things that were lighting up. To the little man's delight, when he walked around, some festive red lights glowed on the shoes. DH, being a Real Man, had his misgivings, but the boy was quite taken with them. At first he'd stop walking to look down at the lights, and they would go out. It didn't take long for him to figure it out.

We'll miss the ubiquitous clogs, but SBS has moved on. The world is such a delightful place when viewed through the eyes of an 18-month old child.

The Blonde Leading the Blonde

It’s almost time for the annual beach trip with KayZee! We are really excited, and it looks as if we’re not having a hurricane. I have my laptop, my 95 SPF sunscreen, and my snacks, along with my trashy mystery/romance novel (we're downgrading from last year's Pulitzer-prize-winning tome).

Now all we have to worry about is getting there and getting back. Last year, I drove, and I appointed KayZee the Chief Navigator. Maybe we should both be Chiefs, since both of our dads were in the Navy. Anyway, last summer I had the Bond Girl going and KayZee had four or five helpful documents, including Mapquest directions and Google directions.

Well, the Bond Girl, as she is wont to do when she’s not in a major city, went a little berserk and started giving us wrong turns. We didn’t really get lost, but we had to turn around a couple of times before I realized that I shouldn’t be listening to the Bond Girl on this particular trip. (She’s very sharp in Atlanta and Birmingham, but rural areas are not her forté.) KayZee was very supportive, but I think we may have had too many helpful documents. The result was what DH calls “The Blonde Leading the Blonde.”

The other day, KayZee suggested, “I think we maybe should use a map.” So this year, KayZee is driving, and she has one map, so we are very optimistic about our chances for a successful road trip. Maybe we’ll take our journals so we can pen our thoughts about the beach and any wrong turns along the way.