Aiden's Big Announcement

Aiden has been bugging me for weeks about wanting new shoes. He goes through these weird phases where he gets an idea in his head and won't let it go. I told him we'd discuss it after he got his room cleaned. Apparently he REALLY wanted new shoes because his room is clean. Well, at least the parts I can see are clean. I didn't check under his bed or in his closet for fear of what would jump out and attack me.

I took him last night and we started at Payless. He found a pair of Converse hightops he wanted, but each one took no less than ten minutes to put on. This is a kid who never even unties his shoes. He just takes them off, dumps them where they are, and hopes to slip them on in the morning after going nuts trying to find them. Our mornings are crazy enough without adding another ten minutes per foot to it. So, I put my foot down. (Get it? Put my foot down. I know. I'm so punny.) I insisted that I would not pay for those, but he could use his own money to pay for them, and suggested we go to Target.

Praise Target, I tell you. They were having a Converse clearance. He found two pair he couldn't choose between and then a third pair that were more supportive, and he kind of liked. All three were on clearance and the total was still less than the cost of the one pair he'd originally chosen. So, I let him have all three. I'm not really sure who honestly won that battle. He didn't get the pair he wanted, but I somehow walked away having purchased him three pairs of shoes instead of the one we originally went for.

As we were walking through the store picking up the few other things we needed, Aiden decided completely out of the blue and in full voice to make an announcement. I mean it was totally out of the blue.

"Mom, I'm going to be hitting puberty soon, you know." Ummmm. Wow! Thanks for the heads up on that, son. I'll be sure to mark it on the calendar.