Twinkle what?

Last night after dinner Bret and I took the kids to buy new shoes. The months of flip flops and crocs willing coming to an end shortly and we have been putting off the purchase of new sneakers for a while now.

Two things during our experience caught me off guard. The first of which was how much Palmer's feet have grown. He is wearing an 8 1/2 shoes size. I guess this was surprising to me because Emily only wears a 9 1/2. When it came to buying shoes for Palmer he wasn't very concerned with which pair he got but at his age independence is key. I can't tell you how nice it is to tell your kid "get your shoes on" and not have to sit down and do it for him. I LOVE Crocs for this very reason. Not to mention the fact that you hose them off when oh I don't know he accidentally pees down his leg into his shoes during the first few months of potty training. So Palmer got a nice pair of Nike tennis shoes that he can put on and take off by himself (ie no laces).

It goes without saying that my little diva Emily was in shoe heaven. She loves shoes (I have no idea where she gets this from) and was at first having a hard time deciding which pair to try on. Then she saw them. With a squeal of delight I saw her grab a pair of shoes off the rack and say "mom these are Twinkle Toes...I have to have these...PLEASE mom!". Then seeing a similar pair next to the ones in her hands that were pink she quickly switch the blue ones in her hand for the pink ones.

Bret and I kind of looked at each other going "WTF are Twinkle Toes"? I have never heard of or seen these shoes before. Although Emily is close to reading there was still no way for her to have read the box (which were labeled as Twinkle Toes). After looking at the price (which was actually lower than some of the Nike's we were looking at) and seeing how she had no intentions of parting with these shoes we caved. They are not exactly what I would have thought she would have gone for. They are not ugly but they are certainly not what I would have chosen. Then it hit me. They are not for me. They are for my five year old. This was the first time I can think of when Emily's "style" was becoming her own and not what I was choosing for her.

I had several flashbacks to my own childhood when I argued with my mother about everything from sagging jeans, holey jeans, the slicker jump suits, and when girls were wearing boxer shorts as shorts (for the record my mom was horrified that her teenage daughter wanted to wear men's underwear for anything other than PJ's). Emily's "style" has popped up a few other times in the last few weeks as we have been preparing for the start of the school year. I was surprised at how insistent she was to have knee socks to wear with her skirts and dresses instead of the tights I had assumed. Flipping through some of my magazines I have also been surprised to see how accurate her style has been with what is being advertised (we don't have TV anymore so the commercials can't really be at blame).

On the way home from the shoes store Bret and I laughed about the differences in our two kids. Someday we will be giving Emily strict dollar amounts allowed to be spent on school clothes and trying to stay out of the way. Palmer on the hand will most likely need to be drug to the store to try on new jeans. Although watching Emily put on her new shoes and feeling like a rock star this morning was enough to make me smile and be glad that we are not yet at the point where this need to be trendy doesn't cost us much much more $.