Do you remember as a child having that "favorite" piece of clothing? For me, it was a dress in the third grade. Nothing special, just a little cotton dress that came in some clothes my aunt had handed down from another relative. I would have worn it every day if Mom would have let me. Here it is some 40+ years later, and I still remember that dress.
Well yesterday I ran by PayLess in Angleton to snag a pair of dress shoes for the cruise that I had been debating about. Carissa and Hunter were looking at the kids shoes. Carissa came running to me with a pair of tennis shoes that had the Blues Clues dog on them. (You have to know that Carissa is in her dog phase right now.) Grammy, look Blues Clues. We went to see if we could find her size. The shoes she had on were a 9, and the only size they had was a 7 1/2. She tried them on and said they fit. They did seem to run a little on the big side, but I thought that was just too big of a difference. We measured her foot, and she is about an 8 1/2. The wonderful clerk said she would check on the computer and see if they had a 9 anywhere in the area. They had a 9 at the Friendswood and Webster store. The Friendswood Store is in Baybrook Mall and the Webster store is across the street next to Target Store...go figure. I had them hold a pair at the Webster store. I really did not want to take two toddlers into the mall after an afternoon at the Children's Museum.
We headed on out to the Children's Museum where Hunter came in at 3' 6" and 43 lbs, and Carissa is 3' 4" and weighs 31 lbs. My favorite place was the awesome child sized grocery store. It was not too crowded and I enjoyed Carissa's and Hunter's interaction as Carissa showed Hunter and I around, since her and Mommy had already been there.
After a stop at the real store in the Children's Museum where Carissa picked out another dog that looked amazingly like one she had already had (She assured me it was not.) and a small plane with tracks, and Hunter had picked out a motor boat and small bus with tracks; we headed over to Hermann Park for a picnic. We enjoyed our lunch very much. There was a turtle swimming that we tried to feed pretzels to. He kept going under, and we had to try and see where his head would pop up next. We watched the train and the squirrels and discussed our next play date of the zoo and riding the train. (Hopefully the end of October)
As we went through our day, Carissa brought up the Blues Clues shoes about every hour in one capacity or another reminding me where our adventure would end. I assured her we would not go home until we got her shoes. When we finally made our way, through I might add that heavy 45 traffic, to the Webster store; the size 9 shoes were just too big. By this time, Hunter thought he just might need a pair also. The shoes fit him, imagine that. We are now in the four o'clock area with no naps and lots of driving in heavy traffic. Carissa informed me that in heavy traffic I needed to turned off the radio, and we all needed to be quiet. I asked the clerk to please call the Friendswood Store across the street in the mall to see if they had an 8 1/2, because if they did not; Carissa was going to go home in a large size 9 Blues Clues shoes, and we would have to figure out something else for Hunter. The clerk called and we waited for over 10 minutes while she was on hold. Jiminy Cricket I could have driven over there. She said they must be busy, but she didn't think they would be that busy. Maybe they forgot to come back to the phone. I bought the size 9. We left with them on Hunter's feet, and Carissa's bottom lip trembling and tears in her eyes. I told her the day would not end without her having her Blues Clues shoes.
We made our way through the mall to the shoe store. There were no customers in the small store when we got there. I smiled at the clerk and in the most drippingly sweet sarcastic voice I could muster told her we had been waiting on hold over at the other store for more than ten minutes to find out if she had an 8 1/2 Blues Clues shoes, but she must have been too busy to be able to get back to the phone; so I decided to just drive over. She found us an 8 1/2. Carissa tried them on. She said they fit. I told her wonderful. She wanted to wear them. I asked her to take them off, so the clerk could cut off the tags. In her wonderful sweet little voice she said, "That's ok Grammy, she can cut them off, " as she stuck her foot out. She had those shoes on, and there was no way they were coming off tags or no tags. The clerk cut the tags, and we left the mall happy. She wanted to call Mom and Dad (so grown up) and tell them about her Blues Clues shoes.
As she talked to Dad, we pulled into a Sonic to get slushes. Carissa wanted a blue slush. I named all the different flavors. Hunter wanted a watermelon slush. The blue slush was coconut. I wasn't sure if Carissa liked coconut or not. I asked her if she was SURE she wanted a blue one and not a watermelon one. She was sure. She visited with Mom and told her about her shoes and her day as we waited for our slushes. A couple of miles down the road, in heavy traffic, a little voice from the back says, "Here Grammy. I don't like this blue slush. I want a watermelon slush." I look in the rear view mirror and see a trembling bottom lip and teary eyes. I pull over, get her slush and put it in the cup holder, and tell her there is another Sonic in Alvin we can stop at and get her a watermelon slush. As I look in my rear view mirror, driving through downtown Alvin traffic 1/2 a mile from the Sonic, they are both sound asleep. All is not lost. Across from the Sonic is an old Dairy Queen or Treat or whatever it might be called. It has been open, in the same spot, for as long as I can remember. They have absolutely the best tortilla burger in the world. Actually they may have the only tortilla burger in the world. As the kids napped, I savored a tortilla burger with jalapenos and a small bag of fried okra. While I was waiting for the order, I cleaned the trash out of the car and threw away the slush's.
The kids napped all the way home. They woke up as I pulled into the driveway. As I was getting them out of the car, Hunter said, "Where's my watermelon slush?!!" Oh no, here we go.
LATER...After Carissa had her bath and her pj's on, she just wanted to wear her tennis shoes for a little while.
LATER
