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Shoeless

I packed very carefully for the trip---some suitcases for our trip to NYC, some for the trip to WI, carefully choosing which items of clothing go in which suitcases. We tried to pack really light (it involved washing three times over 2 weeks) and I carefully chose which shoes we took on the trip. Eleanor only has 2 pairs of shoes that fit: crocs and slip on keds. Amanda left the mocs at home, brought crocs and her "shiny shoes". Luke has more potential pairs, since he has a number of "upstream" boys giving him shoes. He brought crocs (Amanda's old ones, with new jibbits) and tennis shoes, and wore the crocs in the plane.

On the flight to NJ, Luke was doing his imitation of a monkey, climbing all over the cabin ("Nap? What's a nap?") As we were exiting the airplane we noticed that he had lost one of his crocs. We looked around, couldn't find it, and resolved to find a shoe for him in Manhattan. (I could have gotten out the pair of tennies from the other suitcase---didn't think of it at the time. You try amusing kids in the back of a plane for a 3 hour trip and see how your brain is doing at the end of it =).

Our journey to our hotel was uneventful, if tiring. We caught a taxi from the airport to the train, a train to Penn Station, a subway to Times Square, then another subway to 3 blocks from the hotel, then walked to the hotel. No shoe, no problem, since Luke was (mostly) in the stroller.

We asked at the desk for places to find a shoe for a little boy. They didn't know, maybe Bloomingdales? In case you are ever looking for shoes in NY, the Bloomingdales on Lexington has no children's shoes (although it probably has most everything else you're looking for, as long as it is upscale enough). Of course we took the escalator up 8 floors to find this out. We took the elevator down.

Thanks to a recommendation from our host, we got sandals for Luke at Gap Kids---they had precisely one appropriate pair, and it happened to be in his size, not ridiculously expensive, and now he has yet another pair of shoes.

Amanda tried to tell us that she needs new shoes, but we didn't listen. The next day we were getting dressed, and told her to find her shoes, and she came to the door with...one shoe on. Where's your other one, we asked. "I can't find it. Maybe we could buy a new pair of shoes!" I suspected something was fishy by the speed with which she reached her conclusion---sure enough, her other shoe was hiding in the suitcase. Amanda thought she had solved the problem of how to get new shoes in NY---unfortunately for her, her parents were not born yesterday.

Post script: Today (August 14) we went to buy playground shoes for Eleanor. She's got big feet: size 3 kids. She's also picky, so it took a long time to find the right shoes, and there was a sale so I looked for dress shoes for her as well (the last time she had dress shoes was 2 sizes ago). Amanda was pretty convinced she needs a new pair, but her feet haven't grown in the last 6 months or so. Luke and Amanda now both wear the same size shoe. So Amanda gets to keep the 3 pairs she has (she's luckier than most!), unless she can convince Luke to share his shoes with her...

Oh, and even after searching the plane when we got home, we never did find the missing croc.

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