Thoughts on Shoes

Even though they make me feel like a bad mommy (doesn't everything?), my boys had Cr0cs for their summer shoes this year. Traumatized by Jellies in my formative years, I didn't want to get them for the boys. I had visions of blisters and crunched toes. But then they tried them on and, bless their little triple-E wide soles, loved them. Even the little one, with his smushed up toes, was willing to keep them on his feet--nothing short of a miracle. The shoes I hated to buy turned out to be a great investment; the boys loved them and wore them all summer without fail. And they are young enough that they got away with it in any kind of dress, too, from the beach to church. We got them for the boys at the shoe store with the fancy foot-measuring machine, and after trying on multiple other pairs for each of them, with no success at all. But they both were positively joyful from the first moment of choosing the little size 6 and 10 shoes, in two different shades of blue, both of which thrilled my older blue-loving boy. Their joy was so contagious, they wanted me to get a pair. (R is very, very tribal; he loves it when we all wear the same or similar color or design shirts. Apparently the same goes for footwear.) Again, remembering the Jellies, I wasn't thrilled. But one slow day, we were walking past the Hallmark store and I tried some on. They weren't bad, and I needed beach shoes. So I got my own pair of light blues to join R's aqua and J's royal ones. They were great at the ocean and are easy to slip on and off, and really served me well for the end of the summer after I couldn't wear flip-flops anymore. (I lost a toenail to a gym injury....eeeeuw. Hard enough to read, I know, so I felt compelled to wear closed-toed shoes for the end of the summer so no one would have to see it but me.)

So, they served a purpose, and I am glad to have them, though I think this will be my only pair, ever. But I will always lovingly remember them for the comment from R, when I wore them with the strap flipped up: "Mama! You're clogging your Cr0cs!"