Sophia loves to put her shoes on, and she will happily put them on upon request. It means we get to go somewhere. While she may not like change and new places she does like to leave the house to explore playgrounds and even go grocery shopping. She’ll even hint at times that she wants to go out and at other times she just wants to wear her shoes around the house.
Usually Kurt and I don’t wear our outdoor shoes inside, but we never applied that rule with Sophia because for the longest time she didn’t do much walking on dirty outdoor surfaces. I have a pair of slippers for her but they’re a pair of Robeez shoes. I think they’re too hard for her to put on herself so we allow the outdoor sandals. But because she climbs on the couch by flinging her foot on top of the cushion and then pulling herself up, we decided to insist that she take them off prior to sitting on the couch.
We only had to tell her once and now she very obediently sits on the floor to remove her shoes. Such a good girl. She has also gone as far as to apply the rule to climbing on the chairs at the dining table. It really isn’t necessary. They’re just wooden chairs that are easily wiped down, but why stop her?
On Friday we all went out to Baskin Robbins after dinner. I helped Sophia pull the heavy chair from the table before sitting in my own chair, then I looked over an noticed she wasn’t climbing up yet, “What are you doing?” At first she was trying to take off her shoe while standing, but then she sat on the floor tugged at her sandal. Kurt came to the table with his cone, “What is she doing?”
“She’s taking off her shoes before climbing up, of course.”
