There is always an exception...

Yesterday, I got out some "new" shoes for Karina from our hand-me-down box. One is a pair of white sandals that have velcro closures on the front and back. We tried them all on and when it came time to try the sandals, I fit them to her foot and explained that when she puts them on, she will only have to undo the back velcro each time. The front can stay closed and she can just slip her feet in and out. No big deal really...unless you are Karina.

When we put shoes on this morning, she excitedly chose the new sandals. She clarified once more with me to make sure that it was okay to just use the back velcro, trying hard to understand why you would not want to undo the whole thing every time. I reassured her that it was the way to go to save time and keep things easy. She agreed reluctantly once again, but I could tell she wasn't believing that this was really the way to go.

As we were driving, I noticed she was unusually quiet, clearly deep in thought. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and I had to know what she was thinking about so seriously.

She looked up at me in the mirror (almost in tears) as she said: "but Mommy, if my sandals were on fire, would it be okay to undo the front velcro? I wouldn't want my feet to burn up! That would be okay, right?"

So...when you see our Karina putting on her sandals the hard way every time...just go with it.