Security Items 2, Mommy 0

So, according to those parenting books, it is relatively normal for children to have security items.  You know the type - teddy bears, fuzzy blankets, a dog with one eye that you aren't allowed to wash but you can smell from 10 feet away.  My son has a full sized quilt that he drags around the house with him.  How he has not killed himself going down the stairs with the thing, I will never know.  Lowly has now decided to one-up him in the weirdness factor, and is demanding a pair of shoes.

When we were on vacation, Daddy picked out a cute little pair of denim shoes for Lowly.  The other day she wore them for the first time for about 20 minutes.  She spent the whole time running back and forth from the dining room to the kitchen, staring at her feet.  When she inevitably fell, she would sit for a few moments and poke at the bows on top of the shoes, then hop up and keep running.

That evening I noticed she had little blisters on her feet.  Nothing terrible, and nothing a pair of socks wouldn't prevent, but still, I felt bad.  One year olds should not have blisters, even if they clearly aren't bothered by them.  I put the shoes away under her bed, made a mental note to make sure she wore socks with them, even if she's just puttering around the house, and I decided to continue letting her run barefoot for a few days.

Last night, Lowly noticed the shoes under the bed, dragged them out and brought them to me.  I informed her that it was bedtime, and handed them back.  She then threw them at my feet, and for the next five minutes stood there yelling at me and stabbing her little feet into the shoes.  (She couldn't quite figure out how to get them past the elastic strap on top.)  I tried picking her up to rock her, but she arched her back, went all rigid, and screamed all the louder.  All this coming from the child who will not wear sandals and likes to fling her socks around the car.

Finally, I gave in.  It was late, I still had to get her brother to bed, and it sounded like he was trying to sneak himself a bowl of Cheerios downstairs.  Figuring that she wouldn't get blisters from just wearing them (as opposed to walking in them) I put the shoes on her, picked her up, and rocked her again.  This time, all was well.  She absentmindedly played with the bows, and within 10 minutes, she was asleep.  I'm not sure how I got the shoes back off without waking her up.

Yes, I know, I know I've created a monster.  But she can scream until she's blue in the face - she's never walking out of the house with shorts with "juicy" written across the back.