Shoe shopping isn't for everyone

The girls both needed some new shoes so we headed out to Stride Rite this morning in hopes of making a quick purchase and moving on to some Saturday family fun.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it past step one.

Total mommy failure today.  

Dariya does not like her feet being messed with AT.ALL and I know this.  I didn't think before going out about how stressful this would be for her.  I forget that she hasn't been with us forever and that some new things (even though it is few and far between these days) still are hard for her to handle.

The clerk measured both girl's feet and Dariya's stress level started to rise.  Without thinking I then tried shoes on Alayna first and walked down the aisle with Alayna and Dariya lost it.  She completely went berserk!  We saw her Tasmanian devil come out like we hadn't seen since she first arrived home.  Within minutes she was having a major.melt.down, crying uncontrollably.

The store clerk disappeared, never really to be seen again.  Aidan asked if he could go outside and Jason was getting frustrated.  Oh, we were making quite a scene.

I should have known that Dariya would have done much better had I measured her foot and not let someone she doesn't know do it.  Why didn't I think?

Thankfully, we pulled it together long enough to stop crying, get a couple pairs of shoes and get the heck out of dodge.

We still had to buy Dariya a new pair of shoes for church so we tried another shop.    Being the parents who try to learn from their mistakes (at least the ones we JUST made) we decided the split and conquer technique was needed.

I went into the store and scoped out the shoes I wanted Dariya to try on while Jason entertained the troops with signing time in the van.  I politely explained to this clerk that I was ok to run on my own without any help.
Those college years selling Naturalizers comes in handy every now and then.

I went and got Dariya out of the car and just she and I went in and found her a perfect pair of black mary janes.  No fussing, no fighting, no melt downs.

Now if I was only so well prepared all the time.

Sorry baby girl, you just fit in so darn well 99.9% of the time we forget that your life hasn't been the same as what Aidan and Alayna are used to.    We forget that we can't just forge ahead with our own plans all the time.

Thanks for making us slow down and think.

We will do better next time.