Pink Crocs

I thought I was being really clever when I went out and bought a bunch of little shirts for Sarah. You see, these shirts were on sale - very, very cheap and very, very cute. So, I bought one in every color. This all seemed reasonable to me at the time. Still does. But, all of this reasonableness breaks down when the unreasonable, a two-year old, is thrown into the situation.

For reasons I can't understand, Sarah absolutely refuses to wear the shirts - ALL of them. I've tried every trick to get her to wear one cooperatively. I've given her choices: "Do you want to wear the pink one or the blue one?" I've bribed: "If you put this shirt on, we can go to the park." I've pleaded: "Pleeeaaase, Sarah, put this shirt on." When I've lost my patience and just attempted to pull one over her head, she's recoiled as if I were trying to force her head down the throat of a python.

So, I've given up on trying to get her to wear these shirts and really anything else. When we were headed to a party recently, I pulled out two cute little dresses and suggested that she put one on, because they were "party clothes". She looked down at her stained t-shirt and skirt and said, "These are party clothes."

Now, she's about to outgrow her favorite shoes. I knew I had to include her in the selection of a new pair, so I took her shopping with me. Waiting for us when we walked into the store was a wall filled with a rainbow of Crocs. Like a moth to a flame, she ran to the pinkest pair. They satisfied two very important criteria for her: 1) they were like daddy's (Mike has a pair in very masculine brown) and 2) they were pink.

And, just like that she found the perfect compliment to her stained t-shirts and colorful pants:




The complications of life with a toddler are far greater than I ever imagined.