lace-up shoes

I took my 4 year old shopping today.  Before we went, I quickly checked his old shoe size.  I was going to have his feet measured, and if they had grown, he was going to get new shoes.  But if his feet were the same size, he could keep wearing his old ones, they were still in good shape.

Bad mommy moment #1: His feet were two sizes bigger.  I’ve been stuffing his feet in those shoes all summer.  ouch!

We get to the store and all Luke can talk about are lace-up shoes.  His buddy Luke Marshall has new lace-up shoes, and he wanted lace-up shoes too.

Hmm let me think about this….

No - I sorely regretted buying lace-ups for Zach before he learned to tie, and I cursed every time I had to tie them. 

Luke countered that he would tie his own shoes.  Now mind you Zach still needs help tying his shoes and he is 3 years older than Luke.  I explained this to a disappointed Luke.

Well the shoe gods weren’t working with me.  The only shoes that had velcro on them were the wrong size, so it was Luke’s lucky day.  

Luke was thrilled and wanted me to teach him to tie his shoes right away.  I kept putting him off, remembering how frustrating it was to instruct Zach.

Finally, after Luke asked me for the 100th time, I had Bella, a 9 year old I watch after school, work with him.

After 10 minutes Bella came to me with a gigantic grin.  

Are you kidding me??

Luke had already figured it out!!  

This morning I had to work at the church for 2 hours, and Luke kept himself occupied by tying and untying his shoes.  

Sometimes I forget that my boys are two very different kids.  They have different likes, different personalities and learn at different rates.  

Today was a good reminder.

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