I made her cry. Twice.

Helena hates wearing shoes.  To make matters worse, she loves to pull her socks off.  There is just nothing better to play with in the stroller than a sock or her own toes.  A very cute thing in the summer but now it's fall and it's 55F/12C degrees out.

So today Helena and I headed out for the Canadian Passport Office, which is a 25-minute walk away.  She made it the entire way without even attempting to kick her shoes off.  I was celebrating.

From there the morning went downhill.  I learned I didn't have all the necessary forms with me, so I'd have to go back another time.  Frustrating.  Then I begin to walk back, this time facing the sun so I pull the stroller cover over Helena so she won't have to squint.  I'm walking, I'm walking, I'm walking.  I peek in at Helena and she has a sock in her mouth and a bare foot.  Where's the shoe?  I don't know.  How long has she had nothing on her foot? I don't know.

Turn around.  Walk 2 blocks, there's the shoe.  During that 2 block walk, she has successfully kicked off the other shoe.  So both shoes go in the basket, both feet are socked, and we walk.  As we cross the street, she pulls her sock off.  (Here's where it gets bad.) When we get to the sidewalk, I walk to the front of the stroller, tell her we have to keep our socks on, and put the sock back on.  She immediately pulls it off.  I tell her "No" and she starts to wail. 

It happens again 3 blocks later.  This time the wailing lasted quite a bit longer.

What a horrible feeling, knowing that you just made your baby cry because of what you said to her.  I know it's going to happen again, many times.  But the first time made me just feel awful.

So what did we do to make ourselves feel better once we were home?  I opened a bag of chocolate chips.  Helena ate a banana. And took her socks off.