Ada's New Shoes

Yesterday I noticed that Ada was outgrowing her size nine shoes. Yes. My two-and-three-quarters-year-old is already into a size ten shoe! No, that isn't typical. Contrary to popular belief, I am not feeding her protein shakes. She eats the same stuff as a "normal" kid. I may give her a few more cookies and chocolate chips than some moms, but that's only because I'm setting a good example of how to share. One for me, one for Ada. And I strongly believe that chocolate and chocolate chip cookies are the missing food group in the government's food pyramid. But I digress.

After noticing the proximity of her big toe to the tips of her current shoes, I contacted the grandmas to send them on a mission to acquire bigger, Velcro-closing shoes. Grandma Ba correctly reminded me that she had already purchased a new pair of sneakers for Ada in a size ten back when she couldn't find them in a size nine. I conducted a brief search of Ada's extensive shoe collection and quickly located them. A perfect fit. And they even matched her outfit. And they were made out of recycled materials. Sweet.

Today was the day for their trial run. I always worry that new shoes will trip Ada up and cause her all sorts of bumps and bruises. On the way to daycare I cautioned her to pick up her feet as she was shuffling a bit more than usual. Otherwise, she seemed to be doing fine. Fast forward to six in the evening when it was time to pick her up from daycare.

Me: Hey Ada!

Ada: Moooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: What happened to your pants? Those aren't the ones you came to school in.

She was wearing the backup brown skirt we kept in her cubby in case of accidents. It was two sizes too big and three inches of her diaper was showing in back as it was falling off her butt. Apparently we never tried it on her before making it her backup outfit. Whoops.

Her daycare instructor: Yeah, well... I've been pulling up her skirt all day. We went to the park this morning and Ada had a bit of a blow out.

Me: Really? Oh, that's too bad.

Inside I'm laughing my butt off and thinking, "Thank God it wasn't on my watch! How embarrassing!"

Her daycare instructor: It wouldn't have been so bad, but she didn't seem to mind that she was covered in poo and kept playing instead of coming to tell us there was something wrong. So the slide got covered in poo and then the other kids in her class started coming up to us and complaining that they had poo on their pants from going down the slide after Ada.

At this point, I might just die of laughter. I'm trying not to be rude since this poor woman had to deal with my kid's poop all over the park and the other kids in her daycare class, but she's laughing at this point too.

Me: Oh no!

Her daycare instructor: We had to come back and scrub her down. She was a mess.

Me: Oh I can imagine. What a mess.

And then it dawned on me.

Me: So that's why she isn't wearing her brand new shoes anymore, huh.

Her daycare instructor: Yup.

Assuming they left for the park around ten, like they always do, and I put her shoes on just before nine this morning, Ada might have worn them for three hours at the most before annihilating them with poo. And while she was in the park, obliviously sliding down the slide with poop all over her, I was sending Grandma DD an email saying that Grandma Ba had previously given Ada size ten shoes and we were going to try them today but a backup pair would be a good idea eventually. No rush. Little did I know that the backup pair would be a necessity within hours of her putting the new pair on. At least Ada's daycare was resourceful enough to have backup clothes and shoes of all sizes available so they didn't have to call me or leave her to run barefoot for the rest of the day. I hope to be able to retrieve her "new" shoes from daycare tomorrow and put them through a sanitary cycle in the wash machine to salvage them.

Moral of the story: You can't control when your child will have an accident, but you can hope for it to happen on someone else's watch. And knowing that accidents happen, think twice before spending a fortune on kid's clothes and shoes, leave that for someone else too.