Like Father, Like Daughter

Before I tell you this story, I want you to know I did struggle with my conscience about writing it. For about three seconds!

We like to eat breakfast out every six weeks or so, and we've lately been eating at the International House of Pancakes, better known as "IHOP." In fact, Jack learned how to imitate a frog today after we talked about the acronym IHOP, but I digress. A few months ago, we were getting ready to go out to breakfast and Lily was being obstinate. I can't remember if it was lack of sleep, feeling sick or just general cussedness, but she didn't want to get dressed or go to the "stupid IHOP." After some discussion and threats, she unwillingly got dressed, but informed us that, if we made her go, she was going to wear her shoes on the wrong feet. We decided we could live with that if she could, so off we went.

We arrived a little later than usual, due to the battle of wills at home. Unfortunately, we just missed that window of time where we would be seated immediately (before 10 am, if anyone decides to eat at the Saugus IHOP), and we had to wait about 10 minutes. As we were sitting there, I noticed that a couple on the bench across from us were watching Lily and smiling. I smiled back, and the woman said "She has her shoes on the wrong feet." Lily said "I did that on purpose!" and the couple laughed, and told us their daughter sometimes did the same thing. As we were taken to our table, I saw other patrons looking at her feet and smiling.

Fast forward to this morning. We had promised last night that we would take the kids to IHOP in the morning, and they both woke up raring to go. Despite the heavy snow/ran mix that was falling, we made it to the restaurant before 10 and were seated immediately. The kids ordered their usual "Make a Face" pancakes, I ordered my usual corned beef hash and scrambled eggs, and Jim, as usual, ordered the special that offered the most sickly sweet pancake creation and too much other food. I think he does that just so he can tell me he ate too much on the way home, because that's what happens every time. This week's special pancake was Shortbread Pancakes with strawberry syrup. Ugh.

After a nice breakfast together, we got back in the car to go home. As I started the engine, Jim lifted his feet a bit so I could see them and said "Are my boots on the wrong feet?" I said, "I'm not sure" and he said "Yep, they are" and pointed. Sure enough, the side zippers were on the inside and you could see the toes curved to the outside. After laughing until tears came into my eyes, I asked "Didn't they feel uncomfortable?" and Jim said "Well, they're so big I didn't notice."