Oh Aussie Gumboots!
From Australia with love tiny tot Sam received a cheerful yellow pair of wellington boots adorned with a friendly koala on each ankle. Inherited by Bea these boots have become a firm favourite and she can often be found stomping around in them, regularly having stubbornly inched her toes into the wrong boots.
These were the boots in which she left the house on Tuesday morning. With Daddy away in Austin, Texas to proudly collect an interactive award at SxSW we were tasked with the preschool run. We dropped the boy off with his friends in the playground and then us girls went shopping.
We browsed the racks at Marshalls and Bea happily sat in the trolley. Her small grabby hands reaching greedily for hanging garments as we strolled through the aisles leaving a trail of disarray. She enjoyed watching herself in the changing room's big mirror and tried to kick her laughing reflection. Bea decided to wean herself the other month, I think we made it to sixteen months before she lost interest. After nursing two children into toddlerhood I am very much in need of a pick me up in the bust department and was on the prowl for new underwear. I left the store disheartened.
The supermarket was our next port of call. Bea arched her back and flailed as I tried to sit her in another trolley. She was adamant that she should be allowed to walk. I headed into the store with Bea happily toddling alongside me.
I trawled the beer aisles looking for elusive rebate forms to ease our grocery bill and provide me a buzz of excitement as bankable cheques arrive in the post in exchange for our discarded supermarket receipts. Bea disappeared between the stacked Miller Lites and I had to struggle to hurriedly wrangle the obstinate child back out from between the display of crates.
As I set her back on her tottering feet in the aisle a passing shopper commented on how dangerous it was for her to be clambering around in the display, as if I'd been intentionally letting her use it as her personal playground. He then started a commentary on wearing shoes and that the floor was slippery without the proper footwear on. I was politely making appropriate noises and carrying on my way when his words registered. Looking down at the little girl holding my hand and determinedly pulling away in another direction I clocked her pink stripy socked feet. Pink and stripy. Socks. No yellow. And no koalas! Oh no! Where were her wellies?!
Our remaining Sam free time was spent frantically retracing steps and hunting for the missing precious footwear. We found one little yellow boot propped up atop customer service at the grocery store. The other took a bit more searching. Boot number two was eventually located under a clothes rack in Marshalls.