The Shoe Store

I'd have to say yesterday was our hardest day in a long while. For some reason, I thought I'd try to do something spontaneous because Henry fell asleep in the car while Brady was at preschool. I knew he wouldn't be able to take an afternoon nap after that and both boys desperately needed new shoes. The best shoe store in town is 30 minutes away, so it's hard to find the time to get over there. So, Henry slept for 30 minutes in the car, we picked Brady up from preschool, went out to lunch, and then headed for the store. Lunch went fine, but took a lot longer than it should have b/c we ran into the boys' grandparents right when we had finished. Brady was still hungry and they offered to buy him another sandwich, so we stayed for almost an hour longer than we should have. Brady is used to having quiet time in his room every afternoon, but we sometimes skip it if we have other things going on. Yesterday showed me what NOT to do in lieu of quiet time.

We get to the store and Brady tells the lady that he has to have light up shoes. My only requirement is no laces. Poor girl searched all the brands for a light up pair in his size, but they had none, so he didn't want to get anything at first. While she was looking, the boys started unshelving their display of stuffed animals. I was ok with that at first b/c it was keeping them occupied and I knew they'd clean it up when they were done. But then Brady started, as I should have expected, throwing the animals at the ceiling, and I couldn't get him to stop. Once we managed to get the first pair of shoes was on his feet, he had to run across the store b/c the lady asked him to walk for her. And then he wouldn't stop. And then his brother started copying him. He got completely out of control and I should have just left, but we had a whole pile of shoe possibilities sitting there and it's so hard to get to this store. So we stayed. And things got worse. He refused to even try on the sandals, and when he put a pair of tennis shoes on, he'd pull them right back off saying they felt funny. The final pair, I managed to get him to keep on long enough to have them checked and told they fit him great. But then he said he didn't like them and tried to pull them off. I set a timer for 3 minutes and told him he had to keep them on until the timer went off. By the end of the 3 minutes, he loved them! Mission accomplished after way too much "Brady, please stop running." "Brady, please stop throwing." "Brady watch out for your brother!" "Brady, where did you go?" "Brady, please stop climbing on me" "Brady, just leave them on for a minute to see if they fit." "Brady, don't you want a balloon? 1, 2.."

All of this took over an hour, and I was so drained. Halfway thru it, I realized that joint compressions might help. They did, but only for a little while. I felt like the other customers were giving me dirty looks thinking these kids just needed some discipline. I wanted to tell them all that he was in sensory overload and just couldn't control himself. And little brother just wants to be like big brother.

I know shoe shopping for kids can be hard under any circumstances, but this was just horrible. He's usually pretty good looking for shoes, but I guess he was just "off" today and couldn't get it together. And little brother copied his craziness.

I really don't know what I was thinking trying to just up and do something productive.

Thank goodness he slept in today, and we have nowhere to go, so I'm hoping for a better day!