We lost a shoe. Just 1. I cannot find it anywhere. And, I am about to lose “it”.

We had it 3 hours ago in the church parking lot. It was sitting nice & quietly beside its other half. Andy asked me what shoes to put N in for church when we arrived (I’ll explain this exercise in a moment) & I said the church shoes. Not the school shoes. As I type this perhaps I’m realizing I might have hurt the school shoe’s feelings so 1 just got up and stomped off in full temper tantrum (I’ll show her!) mode.

Socks are a whole other ballgame. Socks & I have fought epic battles since the beginning of baby time in the Szapacs household. 1st, I couldn’t find socks small enough to fit N’s feet. (Hey, you try finding socks for a 2 pound kiddo – trust me, there’s a market there.). The smallest socks I could find came up over his knees. He was 6 months old before newborn socks actually looked like socks on him. Then, socks started to walk off. First, it was sneak attacks: leaving during laundry time. Or in the dead of night. Then, they started disappearing during the day. One time Nicholas was sleeping in his boppy. He went down for a nap with 2 socks. He woke up with 1. I still haven’t found that blue & white striped sock.

Nicholas takes after me in that he doesn’t like wearing shoes. Or socks. We’ve learned the hard way do not put shoes & socks on before leaving the house. Its futile – they will not last. Not even 5 minutes. As soon as Nicholas gets in the car he is pulling them off himself (& throwing them I do not know where) or he sticks his foot out & says “mama.mama.mama.mama….” until you take the socks & shoes off his feet. So, we’ve learned to carry the footwear to the car & put it on once you get to where you’re going.

That’s what our well-laid plan was today. Get to church, put socks & church shoes on & head on in. As we were putting shoes & socks on I saw the school shoes. So did Andy. They were (I’d like to think) relaxing comfortably on the seat. Resting for their next big adventure. And now, 1 shoe is gone. Vanished. Poof! Disappeared.

I’ve taken the car apart. Pulled everything out of the diaper bag. Made Andy go look (thinking it would be like when you lose your car keys – laying right where they should be you just can’t see them sitting there in plain sight because you’re convinced they aren’t where they are supposed to be). Nothing. Nada. Only 1 lonely shoe. Missing its mate.

The mere mention of shoe shopping made Andy launch into one of his “how much with that cost?!” episdoes. It will cost what it costs, dear. Do you expect our child to toddle into school with no shoes? Thats the only option I see at this point if we don’t go buy school shoes. Let me remind you that I am from the South – you don’t wear your church shoes to school for goodness sake! (MEN.)

So, off to the shoe store Nicholas & I went. (side note: it takes a special person to work in a toddler’s shoe store. I am not nor will I ever pretend to be one of those people. God bless them.) We bought a new pair of school shoes. The blue & bright green. They’re so bright I can see them in the dark (which is important when I’m fairly certain they, like their sock friends, will try & escape in the dead of night).

We may have also bought 6 more pairs of socks – I am betting the 6 pairs will disappear by Friday.