Choosing your battles

My mom sent me home the other day with a pair of Minnie Mouse dress-up shoes for Sweet Pea.  When we got home, I gave them to her.  She loved them so much that when bedtime came, I could sense the dark thunders of battle rumbling in the distance.  It sounded like this:

Daddy:  Okay, it's time for bed, baby.  Let's take off your shoes.
Baby:  Shoes!  Minnie Mouse!
Daddy:  But you can't sleep in shoes, baby.
Baby:  Min-NIE!  Mouse.

I was answering emails in our office, and she tottered in to divide and conquer.  (I still can't believe that they do that as young as two.  Two!)

"Shoes, Mama!  Pretty."

I figured it didn't matter if she went to bed in her shoes, so I told her to go back in and ask Daddy nicely if she could wear them to bed.  He heard me and told her it was okay.  Crisis averted.  

I think she got her love of shoes from me.  And her Nana.

We liked telling ourselves that we "outsmarted" her with our practical parenting.  

Incidentally, she woke up this morning crying and yelling, "Mama!  Minnie!  Shoes!" because she realized instantly that she wasn't wearing them.  I wish desperately that we had one of those video baby monitors so I could have watched the whole process go down.  I imagine her blinking her little eyes, all "Where am I?"-like, then seeing her feet and grabbing the sheets in horror until she realized that I left the shoes right next to her head.  She wanted to wear them shopping, and wasn't convinced when I told her that the shoes were "too beautiful to wear all day and get dirty," but she understood when I told her the shoes were tired and needed a nap, so she blew them a kiss and left them in her bed and we put on her sandals instead.  

Oh, and in case you were wondering...that's three blankies in her bed with her.  I asked my grandma to make her a mini-version of the original "Blankie" that became her beloved so we could take something smaller in the car and in the stroller.  Gigi made her a little one, which we call "Blankie Smallz."  My grandma also made another one to give to Bean for a dolly, but Sweet Pea found that one and stole it.  She named it "Blankie Baby."  Now she won't sleep unless she has all three.  

Clearly, someone has the war rigged around here.

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