Shoe Shopping

Today, I faced the event I have been putting off for a long time…shoe shopping with Jude. Well actually with Jude, Elsa and Emmeline. Yikes.

We went into town, Jude in a bit of hyper mood, chatting at a million miles an hour about the most bizarre combination of topics and dancing in every shop we entered or even walked past *think bobbing up and down whilst holding your hands up as if you’re being arrested*. Elsa dying of embarrassment but laughing at the same time as he looks so ridiculous!

So Jude, similarly to when he has a hair cut hates having to sit so the assistant can measure his feet. I hate it also, especially if we have someone who clearly just thinks Jude is weird and doesn’t give him any allowance for his status. I remember a while ago Jude wouldn’t stand in one of those big automatic machines where the walls slide in until your feet are enclosed and the size is alerted up on a screen. To be honest, I would have been terrified of it as well as a child and actually even Elsa doesn’t like them so it isn’t really his fault. Anyway, this guy who was allegedly helping us kept getting annoyed at Jude for moving his feet out of place, tutting and sighing away to himself and basically after about ten minutes of Jude getting more and more agitated the machine still hadn’t been able to measure his feet. He was SO put out when I asked if he’d just do it the old school way and use an inoffensive and clearly as accurate, manual foot measurer. And do you know what?! In less than a few minutes we knew what Jude’s foot size was! Miracle!

So back to today…thankfully with only a manual foot measurer option, I was thrilled to see that there was a SALE on nearly all children’s shoes woo hoooo

Weirdly, Jude loves choosing shoes so he picked out a few pairs he liked and then I vetoed the horrendously bright/impractical/completely ugly ones and we agreed on a pair of boots for him to try. This sounds like an elaborate process but  it all happens in a matter of seconds, Jude isn’t one for pondering his decision and he was adamant he was getting a pain au chocolat after our purchase so was hurrying the process more than usual.

Jude didn’t think the seat was quite straight!!! 

We got the boots on finally after a hissy fit when I told HIM to try and do the zip up. He wouldn’t so rather than jeopardise the entire shopping trip, I gave in and did it for him. I’m not letting this one go at home though!

Jude had a walk to make sure they’re comfy…not that a) he knows what he’s meant to be checking for and b) he cares because of the imminent pain au chocolat – he’d say they were comfy just to shut me up and get us out the door.

Look, he’s SITTING!!! Funky socks, eh?! I couldn’t find any other pairs in his drawer!

Boots bought and stowed away in the buggy in pretty amazing timing really. We even managed to find a pair for Emmeline without too much trauma. I have a massive sense of relief at this stage because a) no one has stared at us b) Jude has coped really well with the whole scenario c) the lady in the shop has treated Jude like a completely normal child d) Jude hasn’t even chatted to everyone in the shop.

It’s as if we’re a typical, normal family!! What a feeling!

We still have to get out though…hard to believe, but this was pretty uneventful too apart from a few seconds of Elsa and Jude having a fight at the top of the stairs. She didn’t want him to walk down the stairs with her so took it upon herself to wrestle him towards my direction and thus relinquishing any responsibility or even association with her brother!

I love observing Jude whilst he watches lift doors, I would kill to know what’s going on in that brain of his. He stares at it, head at an angle whilst you can hear the lift coming up from the ground floor. It’s one of those big old lifts where you have to hold the button down and it sounds so loud and as if the effort it’s having to make, just to creep up that one floor is massive. He’s obsessed with this thing, it’s literally the highlight of his day just to press the button and stand inside it. Maybe he likes there rumbling feel of it’s movement?

Jude likes it when we take the buggy out with us as he’s so unstable on his feet; he always holds on to the handle and uses his other hand to balance himself. THIS is why he needs physio, being able to walk is, in my opinion, not justification for the council to turn him down 🙁

Anyway, here’s our new boots! Emmeline got some lovely soft winter boots in a size and a half larger than what she has been wearing (whoops). She was only measured a month ago so she’s clearly had a huge growth spurt.

Thank goodness that’s over for a while. But saying that, it wasn’t too bad and perhaps this is just another thing Jude is getting used to. Or perhaps I caught him on a good day.

Do your children like shoe shopping? Any interesting experiences?