I had been trying to convince Ian for a few days to let me take him to get new shoes. His main pair of sneakers he always wears were falling apart. It took until Jeff noticed the condition of his shoes last Saturday at Popes Head Park, that immediate action was about to take place and new shoes would be purchased within the next hour.
As a family we headed to Kohl's and invaded the boy's shoe aisle. Have you seen just how wide these aisles are? Not very. There was an Asian woman (sans kids) already in the same section we wanted. Even though she was on the petite side, she seemed to take up a lot of space, directly where I wanted to be. I realize she had every right to be there, but it was incredibly annoying and after 3 hours at Popes Head Park running around, the kids (and Jeff) were starting to meltdown. It got even more absurd when this woman crouched down and took up even more space not allowing me to pass by her or check out the section of shoes directly behind her.
We kept giving Ian shoes to try on and each pair he said, they were too tight. He went in wearing a size 11 and we were now up to a size 2 trying to find a pair that felt good to him. There was no way Ian went up 3 shoes sizes in the last 5 months. Finally, I had enough and was ready to stop the madness. My Toppall team and I needed to get outside, breathe in some fresh air and take up more space than the 2x2 square we were confined in. Jeff was ready to try Target, but I insisted that Ian needed to have his foot properly measured and we should go to Stride Rite.
We decided we would stop at the Stride Rite at Tyson's Mall on our way to Baltimore the next day. You do the math...Sunday, Stride Rite, Tyson's, Sale..... yep, there was a long wait and we were on the 2nd page of the sign-in sheet waiting to be called. It was buy one, get one 1/2 off. Since these shoes are on the pricey side to begin with, we decided Sam could pick out a pair of sandals and take advantage of getting them at 50% off. No need to even tell this to Sam. She immediately made a beeline for the little girl's section and started looking at her choices. Ian and Sam each decide which shoes they would like to try on, now all we have to do is wait. Sam says she is hungry and goes to my big mommy bag to find herself a snack. I am distracted by something or other and don't really pay attention to Sam when she says the first time, "Mommy, what is this?" No, I make her wait and find the need to repeat it again to get my attention. What is Sam holding up high in the air wanting to know what it is, you ask? A tampon. Talk about embarrassing.
Meanwhile, I notice the strange Asian woman that bugged me at Kohl's has now shown up at Stride Rite. Really. Pretty unbelievable, especially given that the Fair Oaks Mall and Springfield Mall Stride Rite locations would be much closer and easier to get to from where Kohl's is located. She is still without kids and still taking up too much space. Sooooo incredibly bizarre. I asked Jeff if he thought we were being followed, he said, "No, only you are."
It is finally our time to be helped. Ian measured in at an 11.5 (makes much more sense!) and Sam felt the need to sleep in her new shoes the whole night when we got back from Baltimore. As Sam proclaimed, "I LOVE my new shoes." Can't really argue with her. At least we are getting our money's worth by Sam wearing them 24 hours a day.
And from now on, I keep looking over my shoulder to see if anyone freaky is behind me.
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