School Shoes

We had one of the most "interesting" experiences I have had in a while. Today we took the train to the mall at Bondi Junction to buy school shoes for Coop.  Part of his uniform requirement is two kinds of shoes- white "sports shoes" and "black shoes." The black shoes will be worn everyday, but Fridays. Friday is the day they do PE like activities and he has to wear his "sports uniform" and "sports shoes."  

Upon arriving at the mall, we headed to "the" place to buy uniform shoes in the area.  They must have had 20 different choices of black shoes and maybe 4 of the white ones. The place was MOBBED!  First you had to take a number. Seriously, when is the last time you had to take a number in a shoe store? I was  probably 5 the last time we had to do that. We got number 54 and they were on 21. We knew we were in for a long wait. We also knew that we couldn't stray too far in fear of losing our turn. So my mom and I tried every tactic we knew to keep the boys from freaking out. First it was a donut- yes, I know, sugar and waiting don't mix, but that doesn't really seem to affect my kids.  Then Nana took the boys to the toy store while I waited.  The boys came back with small backhoe loaders to play with which passed a good amount of time. My mom also took Tucker for a walk and Coop and I timed then.  Finally, it was our turn-- probably a good 90 minutes of waiting.  We chose the shoes we like.  Coop got his feet measured, tried the shoes on, we grabbed some grey uniform socks, paid for the shoes and left.  

This may not seem like such a big deal, but it was one of the most exhausting experiences I have had in a long time.  I hope Coop's feet grow very slowly over the school year because that is something I do not want to do again soon.