Marvelous Moments in Mothering

My Grandad tells the story of being just a few years old and having a bigger kid shove half of an acorn in his ear. When he came home and told Granny, my great grandmother, she made some comment about him needing to quit telling tall tales (she probably then gave him a dose of castor oil to clean the fibbing out of him - although I'm just guessing on that part.) He never mentioned that acorn again. A few years later, Grandad was seeing the doctor for a problem with his ear. As the doctor was flushing out his ear, something fell out into the metal bowl with a "clank". After careful inspection, it turned out to be a partially disintegrated half of an acorn. As a mother, I'd think that would leave you feeling a little guilty. But Granny and Papa had four kids and a big farm (that was tilled with mules), and I'm pretty sure they didn't have indoor plumbing yet. Granny probably didn't have time for such things as guilt.

The last week or so, every time I put Gabriela's new sneakers on her feet, she says (in her most dramatic tone), "Ooooooo, tiiiiiiight". It's one of her favorite words right now, and uses it every chance she gets, so every day I've told her, "Look kid, these shoes are a size bigger than you normally wear, they are NOT tight. They're fine." And that quiets her down and she never mentions it again. Until the next time I put her shoes on her.

Last night, after the girls were in bed, I was in the bathroom scrubbing Gabs' shoes. Scrubbing shoes is not normally part of my routine, but I was doing it yesterday. Partially because they were black and yucky from walking the streets of Belo Horizonte and just needed it. Partially because I didn't want to get scolded again while on the streets of Belo Horizonte by some random woman. But mostly because I was tired of getting my clothes dirty every time I picked her up.

So anyway, I was scrubbing her shoes in the bathroom sink and decided to pull out the insoles so they would dry faster. When I did, a sock fell out of each shoe. Apparently, Eric or I (let's blame it on Eric) stuffed her socks into her shoes, most likely after she kicked them off in the car on the way home from supper, and we ended up carrying her and her footwear into the hotel. And apparently, instead of taking the socks out before the next time she wore her shoes, one of us (let's blame it on Eric) just shoved her little foot in there, wading up the sock into the toe of her shoe.

Turns out, her shoes probably were feeling a little tight every time we put them on her. We should maybe listen to the kid sometimes.

And I did feel a little guilty about blowing off her comment and the fact that she has been walking around with her toes all crammed up due to socks being shoved into the end of her shoes.

But then I remembered Granny. And it's not like she had a sock shoved into an oriface or anything. So then I felt better.

We are taking off this evening to make the journey back to the US after a glorious 17 days in Brasil. Gabriela will have clean shoes for the voyage. And they will be significantly less tiiiiiight.