Silly Mom Thoughts

Shh, listen.

Squeak.

Is it a mouse?

Squeak. Squeak.

A dog toy?

Squeeeeeeeeak!

Nope, it’s those damn squeaky shoes. You know, those shoes that parents put their newly-mobile toddlers in, as if to say, “Hey, look at my kid! Not only is she absolutely adorable, but she makes cute noises with her feet too!” I told myself never ever in a million years would I buy those obnoxious things. I mean, seriously, do you need to hear where your child is?

No sir, squeaky shoes are not for me or my kids.

Bean (despite my attempts to stunt her physical milestones by duct-taping her to the ground all day long), recently started walking. At the same time, she experienced a huge growth spurt which left me no choice but to go shoe shopping for her.

Sigh, it’s a rough life, I tell ya.

Since we all know how fast kid’s feet grow, I was not about to fork out $30 for a stinkin’ pair of shoes for my mini-walker. So, I headed straight for the consignment store. As Bean half-crawled, half-walked around the store playing with toys, I scoured the shoe shelf and picked out a couple of hardly worn shoes, (minus that annoying squeaker, thank you very much).

A store employee came over and we chatted. I mentioned that I was buying Bean’s first pair of shoes.

“I have just the thing,” she said, and  headed to the backroom.

She emerged with, yep, you guessed it… squeaky shoes.

“These are really cute shoes and they’re made of canvas so they are easy to get baby’s feet in and out of. Plus, they have this really cute squeaker thing, but you can always take that out if you want.”

Since she went to all that work finding these shoes for Bean, I decided I’d just try them on her. You know, just to be nice.

Besides, I thought, they’re probably too expensive anyway.

I wrangled Bean into my lap (who was pissed that I took her away from the toys and therefore wanted nothing to do with shoes) and tied the shoes on her feet.

Despite my prejudice against squeaky shoes, I couldn’t help but think to myself: Damn, these are really cute.

I stood Bean up and watched her take a step.

Squeak.

She looked at me, stunned, and grabbed my leg to steady herself. Tentatively, she placed another foot on the ground.

Squeak.

Now this was getting entertaining to her. She scrunched her nose, squinted her eyes, smiled up at me with her 4 teeth, and proceeded to stomp on the ground.

Squeeeeak!

Squeak, squeak.

Squeeeeeeak!

As if she was reading my mind, the employee said, “These are only $10 and they’re brand new, not consigned.”

Alas, I overcame my prejudice and succumbed to the squeaky shoes. The whole way home I listened as Bean happily kicked the back of the seat, shoes squeaking away.

When we got home, I placed her on the floor to show her new shoes off to Daddy.

Bean took two squeaky steps.

“Wow, those are annoying,” was Turk’s response.

But they’re so damn cute!