New Shoes (Also Why We Can Never Have A Hamster)

Caedmon and I went on a little lunch date/shopping trip the other day.

We hit Chick-fil-A for lunch…

…before heading to shop for some new flip flops.

Here’s the deal. Caedmon’s worn the same pair of flip flops for two years. I bought them a bit large because I wanted him to be able to wear them all summer. I must’ve gotten them at the exact right time, because his feet didn’t grow much from one summer to the next and he wore them again this past summer.

But now? His toes are hanging off the end. And he has worn those things all winter, causing people in Walmart to have serious doubts about my skills as a Mother. Or the availability of closed-toed shoes.

When I cleaned out Caedmon’s closet a couple of weeks ago and got some new things out for him (including a new pair of rubber flip flops), I tried to get him to toss the old flip flops. Little did I know he’d developed an emotional attachment to those little flip flops. He cried.

Good grief. If the kid is this attached to a pair of cheap flip flops, it’s a good indication of what would happen if he ever had to bury a small rodent in a shoebox in the back yard. (Yet another reason I have a “no rodents, no reptiles” rule.)

So I caved and told him he could keep them until we bought new (“nice”) flip flops. But I made him promise that he’d happily throw them away as soon as we brought the new flip flops home. He agreed.

Caedmon was so happy to choose his new flip flops. We got home with new ones and before I’d let him take them to his room, the old ones had to go. We had a moment to say goodbye.

And in they went.

Guess what Caedmon’s new flip flops look like. Yep, almost identical to the old ones.

He’s already breaking them in. And I’m sure we’ll see a lot of these this summer.