Twinkle Toes

When Austin and I were first married, we literally lived paycheck to paycheck and hardly had anything leftover for savings. I hated that year so much that it transformed the way I think and behave with money. That year also was a good study on 'need vs. want' and to be grateful for the small things in life that are typically taken for granted.

Once our kids came along, the obvious thing happens with money-- it gets spent because they always need something. :) I feel I've done a good job at living comfortably, but within our means, so we can keep more money in our pockets. However, the daughter pulls on those pockets every once in awhile just by her sweet, cute girly nature. This week I pulled away from my reservations and finally bought Leila her very own pair of Twinkle Toe Light Up shoes.

She couldn't be more happy and more easy to get out the door in the mornings. We had bought a pair of beaded and bejeweled shoes from Target that she really liked, but after we got home, she was constantly smacking her foot on the ground and saying, "They no light up!" She took that line with her on the road, too, demonstrating for anyone who would give her the time of day: parents at school, 6th graders walking down the hall, strangers in Wal-Mart.

The next couple of weeks after those Target shoes were broken out, she also learned that her beloved Nike tennis shoes no longer fit and that it was awfully difficult to play chase around my car in her Hello Kitty rain boots so she started to throw fits again over which pair of shoes she would and could wear out the door.

In case any one has forgotten, Leila is a girl who has always hated shoes. The number of shoes we have bought for her (before she could really oppose or support the choice in the store) is a number larger than the number of shoes I currently own. So, Miss Leila... even though I know these shoes are going to be dirty-ugly in two weeks, the beads will fall off, and the lights will wear out before you outgrow them, I am a slow mother at times to understand that you just want what you want, regardless of those consequences.

And with her new Twinkle Toes, she is back on the road whereever any one will be an audience as she demonstrates with pride, "Look: My Shoes they Light UP!"