Monday, January 17, 2011

For the love of tappy shoes

This is a memory I always said I needed to write down for Issy when she gets older...

So, Isabelle and I were out yard sailing, typical Saturday morning in June 2010. My sweet four year old daughter found a lady who was selling a Cinderella dress costume. This was no normal costume though, it actually had lights sewn into the skirt so that a little girl could switch the button and suddenly be transformed into a real fairytale princess! Of course, we bought the dress. Isabelle is no fashion dud though so she knew immediatly that she would need shoes. She went to the next table and searched and sure enough came up with a pair of white mary janes with little heels on them. They were only a size too big so we got the shoes too and Issy left the yard sale fully outfitted in Cinderella attire despite the 100 degree heat.

The next stop for the day was Wal-Mart. I was already hot and sweaty from the yard sale shopping  so I did not even listen as Isabelle begged me to let her walk by herself in the store. I put her in the child seat in front of cart and told her not to give me a hard time. Amazingly she stayed put without too much complaint!

When we reached the shoe section I found some tennis shoes on sale that would fit Isabelle so I took off her new little white "tappy shoes" as she called them to try on the tennis shoes. That was when she asked me the question that melted my heart right then and there while at the same time making me roll with laughter at the innocence of a four year old girl....

Issy looked at me with her huge blue eyes and just as serious as she could said, "Mommy, before you put my tappy shoes back on can you please just slap them on the floor a little so I can hear the sound they make?"

Even now I have a happy tear thinking of how important this small thing was to my little girl. All she wanted to do that day was walk through Wal-Mart in her new-used tappy shoes and listen to the sound they made on the floor. Can you imagine feeling that way just one more time in your life? With all of my busy-ness and sweat and rushing I had failed to see the most simple beautiful thing that could make my child smile....and to think the whole experience cost less than two dollars!

So today as my daughter stands beside me while I type, tying a scarf around my head so that I can look like Mary mother of Jesus, I pray that the Lord will always remind me to slow down and listen to sound of the tappy shoes on the ground...

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