The Elmo Shoes

So, after the failed attempt at school pictures I thought I'd introduce my emotionally overwhelmed daughter to the tradition with which most self-respecting women deal with such a stressful situation...shopping.

The truth is, Ella needed new shoes but after the incident at school I knew the perfect time for shoe-shopping had arrived. Her little toes popping out of her sandals, I loaded her in the buggy and we were off to the shoe aisle at Kohl's. I found some sneakers like cousin Emma's with the flashy lights on the souls. She liked them. But then I found an Elmo sneaker for girls on the display shelf. I looked for its match in the boxes below -- nothing. I made the mistake of asking Ella which one she liked, she promptly tossed the first pair and with a big grin, grabbed the Elmo shoe. By this time, I had "befriended" another Mommy who was trying to find shoes for her little girl, maybe 18 months. She had a pair of size 6 Elmo shoes she thought she'd be returning. Perfect, we both agreed. Ella needed a size 6. She wasn't sure what size her little girl needed so I, being helpful, pointed out the little shoe sizing mat around the corner. I helped her plop her little girl's foot into the different outlines and sure enough, she indeed needed a size 6. So much for her helpful return.

At this point I went to the front counter and asked if an associate could be paged to shoes. A nervous looking man showed up, all shaky. I asked if he could check the back for a size 6 Elmo shoe. The other mom then asked, since he was already checking, could he see if there was a boy Sesame street shoe in size 8.

A few minutes later he returned and said, "you're both in luck, the last ones in each size! Would you buy me a lottery ticket?" We all laughed that stupid polite laugh, but something tells me he was serious.

Anyway, I was so excited I showed them to Ella. She was delighted. We made our way around to toddler clothing just to browse. I stopped along the way to look at their seasonal decor and then realized, I didn't need anything. We picked up a few new pairs of pants and shirts and went to check out.

As I loaded our purchases onto the counter I noticed something was missing -- one of the shoes. Of course! After I showed them to her I chucked the box into the back of the buggy, failing to notice she was still admiring one of them. Jimminy crickets. She must have tossed it somewhere in the store. The lady clerk was nice and said she'd watch Ella while I retraced my steps.

I got back to shoes and asked another man to check in the back just to make sure. Nothing, "you got the last pair, lady." I came around again to the front of the store where Ella was now crying, "Elmo shoes!" This time I took her around with me, the clerk had moved to another register, leaving my transaction open, clearly surmising I might be a while in my shoe search. At this point, we were quickly approaching nap time and Ella was verrry grumpy. So I started to pray. I carefully made may way through the shoe section, then around the corner to the porcelain pumpkins, nothing, then through the bath department, then back to toddler clothing, and there, behind a stack of neatly folded shirts, was the matching shoe. Someone had picked it up and put it out of harms way.

I said a quick thank you to the Man upstairs and got the heck out of Dodge.