Have you ever been shopping with my daughter? In general, Kate is a girl who knows what she wants, whether it's the purple panda instead of the Kai-Lan doll at bedtime or the chocolate cupcake instead of the vanilla for dessert. There's never a question, and she usually won't take no for an answer. We certainly don't set out to spoil her, but as the youngest child she has made it clear to all who live in her kingdom that she should not be disappointed.
Never is this more apparent than when we take her shopping. With school only two weeks away, Alison and Henry were in desperate need of new shoes. Note that I say Alison and Henry. Kate has more shoes than Alison, Henry, and I do -- combined. As Leslie noted yesterday, she is the Imelda Marcos of our home. But the idea of buying shoes for her siblings while ignoring Kate? Impossible.
We split up when we got to the store, Leslie and Alison going one way, Henry, Kate, and I the other. Henry is easy to please. He selected, tried on, and decided on his shoes in about three minutes. Seriously. Kate was a different story. Her eye first settled on a pair of plaid mary janes featuring the smiling face of Dora the Explorer on the buckle. She liked them, but they just didn't fit right. From there she moved to a white pair of tennis shoes with the Disney princesses on the side. She loved them, but since I just knew they'd be grey and dingy within weeks, I nudged her towards a pair of pink and brown tennies, again with Dora on the side. She showed her distaste by crinkling up her nose as if I were handing her a pair of dead fish, but she tried them on, probably just to pacify me. She stood up after putting both of them on and somehow looked about six inches shorter, as if her dislike of the shoes was shrinking her entire body. Even so, I was sure I could convince her.
"Ohhhh, those are so cute! And I bet you can run fast in those shoes... why don't you show me how fast you can run???"
And so she ran, but only half-heartedly so. She reported that they were too big; her heel was slipping out. "Hmm. Let me see. Wiggle your toes for me." As I was feeling for her big toe, she updated her previous assessment. "I think they're too small now. They hurt my feet." Fine.
She turned back to the racks and recognized the face of one of her sister's favorites, Miranda Cosgrove from iCarly. These shoes were hideous in pink and neon green, so I breathed a sigh of relief when these didn't make the cut either.
Alison had chosen her shoes by this point, so Leslie popped over to suggest a cute pair of plaid lace-ups. I dreaded the idea of tying her shoes over and over, but at this point I would have happily bought her a pair of 18-hole Doc Martens if it would've gotten us out of the store. Kate tried them on only to discard them just as quickly. She sat on the carpet amid piles of shoes and boxes, the debris of her indecision clogging the aisle, and her eyes slowly fell on her first love.
"Alright, why don't you try on the princess shoes again."
Her mood lifted at once as she slid her feet into the shoes and bounced up to her feet. Without being asked she raced from one end of the store to the other, smiling in triumph. She had won, the shoes were hers.
I sank to my knees to gather the other four pairs of shoes and sort them into their boxes, and I felt I had seen the future. As much as we're told to live in the moment, I think all parents are guilty of giving in and looking ahead, wondering what will become of our children. We love our children, so we see only the greatest successes awaiting them: a seat on the Supreme Court, an Olympic gold medal, President of the United States.
Even though I can't be completely sure of who Kate will be when she grows up, I know she won't be shy about what she wants, and I know her husband will spend lots of time in shoe stores.
As I put the boxes back on the shelves, a scene from a certain movie started playing in my head. Can you guess which one?
I go for the princess shoes every time myself -- she has great taste! This was a wonderful story, and you have such a great perspective on things.
Posted by: cryitout! | August 24, 2009 at 07:31 AM