Baby shoes

Adam has a shoe issue. He did not walk until he was well over a year and a half and he hardly ever left the house, but his shoes were white DC sneakers. They were velcro and wide and comfy. They were sturdy and although he was not skating yet, he looked really cute in them.

However, his feet grew and he refused, I mean refused to wear any other shoe on his feet. He would scream, hold his feet and throw the new shoes. If you would hold him down and make him wear new shoes, he would talk them off, refuse to walk and protest using every method. He would begin non violent, then resort to violence in his protest. Sometimes he would cry so hard that he would then vomit. Vomiting is a big deal because we work so hard on getting food inside him. When it comes out, I'm so pissed, I'm like "damn there goes 250 calories". We really try to avoid losing food so if the choice is  health vs. shoes. Shoes win.

This would happen every time we would try a new shoe for about a year now. 

I am not suppernanny and I have to pick my battles. He had a hole in his neck and a feeding tube in his stomach, so the shoe thing seemed small. So the kid is monk-like, a little ocd, likes dc, whatever. We worked around it. 

He never really needed to wear sandals or boots because there were no sandy beaches or snow in his lifestyle. So our solution was to reorder the same shoe in the next size up.  He has those DC sneakers in a size 4, 5 and 6. 

Now I realized that his foot is bigger again (6.5) and he really needs to branch out a bit. I mean snow can be in his future and maybe rain. So over the weekend I took him to a shoe store. He is 29 months old and he freaked out. He wanted no part of the measurement (had to hold him) and once the shoes went on his feet, he freaked out and he is loud. 

I remained calm and used simple words. I held him. He cried and carried on and we both sat on the floor in Stride Rite for almost 25 minutes. During that time every time he was calm, I would say, "Ok, Adam let's get up now", but he would scream and shake his head and when I would pick him up to have him walk, he would lift his legs in the air and refuse to stand on his own feet. He is a great protestor, but I am tough, too. 

Eventually I got him to leave. He just got worn out and maybe bored sitting on the floor and realized that he had to walk in order to leave. As we walked through the mall, periodically he would realize his shoes were different and then he would fall to the ground and collapse. Refusing to stand. I would actually smile. It took us quite some time to get to the car. 

I think that I have a greater perspective and a tolerance for tantrums. Me, 10 years ago, would have been embarrassed by this behavior and probably would have yelled. I might have just carried the screaming fist beating child out. Not that that doesn't have it's place, but I would not have found any humor in it. Today, I found it comical, sweet and endearing. It was like , well, that's Adam. He's stubborn, but so am I. I almost laughed each time he would remember his shoes were new and he would stop walking. I would not have done that a decade ago.  

I was worried about getting them on him this morning for school, but not a peep.

Phew.