Sock Wars

 

"Her feet are cold. The floor is freezing. You need to put socks on her."

This line, delivered in Spanish, is repeated
to us multiple times a day, but especially at night.

"Yes, Grandpa. I'm putting her socks on in just a minute."

I do put socks on her. In front of him, so he is satisfied. Knowing full well that in a matter of minutes (usually), Kit is going to yank those things right off and run across the "freezing" floor pleased as punch with herself. As soon as he notices, the whole thing starts over.

Occasionally, she will leave them on longer if there is enough distractions that keep her from noticing her feet. And if the socks are well fitting and have grips on the bottom. But how many times do toddler socks ever fit well? It seems like they are always sliding off because they are either too small or too big.

As for grips, I should be out buying puffy paint and then applying it in cute patterns to the bottoms of all of her socks. But I'm not, I'm writing about not doing it instead.

Grandpa-approved footgear. Check.
Wait! Donde estan sus chicitas pantelones ?!
 (Where are her little pants?!)

 

 

The sock conversation is one I do not see an end to as long as Grandpa lives with us. That one is not due to any illness. He just assumes that everyone is as cold as he is, especially the baby. Our barefoot ways drive him loco! He tells them everyday, in Spanish, "It's cold! Put on some socks!", and the kids just nod and go about their business.

Zak usually wears socks during the day so it's no big deal for him to go slip on a pair. But Grace does not like to wear them without shoes, so she resists. Silently but stubbornly refusing by simply not complying. If he gets insistent, she just quietly slips out of the room.

He doesn't tell me directly that I should wear socks, but he does repeatedly tell me how freezing the floor is.

And while yes, our floors can get quite chilly when the temperature drops below 50, they are not going to make me, the kids or the baby freeze to death if we walk on them with bare feet.

Actually, I know that Kit likes it. She prefers our hard floors to the rugs, and she likes feeling things with her feet, textures and temperature.

I keep her dressed otherwise temperature appropriately (even though Victor and I squabble about what that means, he feels I underdress her sometimes too), and I check her neck and torso throughout the day to make sure her temperature is toasty, because cold toes doesn't always indicate a cold body. And I do try to make sure she wears socks on the colder mornings/days.

I am not, however, going to lead her into a massive meltdown over socks. We have much bigger battles to fight.

Right now, though, she's asleep. With socks on. Everybody wins!