Missing: One Red Shoe

I am a HUGE fan of Converse Chuck Taylors for my boys. In fact, every member of my family has a pair and we wear them out! We should get paid to wear them, we are so stinkin' cute in them!

I try not to buy too much for my littlest boy, as he truly does have all he needs and more handed down from his older brothers, but when I discovered that his shoes were a bit tight a few weeks ago and the next pair I had waiting for him to grow into were way too big, I immediately bought him his very own pair of little Chuck Taylors - bright red!

I put them on him every day. They are the cutest thing ever and I smile every time I see them. Jack (with his weird shoe obsession) carries them everywhere when he isn't wearing them. He fills them with toys and rocks and plays with the laces. Money well spent.

Yesterday though, I went to get them to put them on them and one was missing. No big deal - that is quite common. Jack carries shoes all over the house and has his favorite hiding places for them - my kitchen cupboards, under the couch, in Mitchell's bed, in the secret closet...

But after checking all these places, I found no missing little red shoe and I had to really start thinking "outside the box" for unusual places a small shoe could hide. I searched EVERYWHERE! I looked in toilets and trash cans and opened every drawer. I looked under beds and on all bookshelves. I broadened my search to include the backyard and garage, the car and even the garbage bins. I upped the stakes a bit by promising $1 reward to any boy who found the run away shoe. Even after the promise of money wore off for the boys and they gave up, I continued my search, mostly now motivated by my need to discover what in the world happened to this shoe!

I had almost given up hope and truly searched everywhere more than once, when I decided to check one last place that i hadn't given quite thorough enough of an examination. I have a lidded basked that holds all the boys' winter hats (since I make them myself, they have A LOT of winter hats and they take up an entire basket...) I dug my hands down in it and didn't feel anything but soft, yarn-made hats. As I began to shut the lid once more, my good sense got the better of me this time and I re-opened the basket. Anything worth doing is worth doing right, right? I began to theatrically toss hat after hat out of the basket, almost enjoying my frustrated childishness and making such a mess in my search that no one but myself would clean up. I got to the bottom of the basket, with dozens of hats now on the ground, when... I found it! There was that little red shoe, at the very bottom of our winter hat basket!

This was no accident. Someone purposely burried it here. I shouted with triumph and ran into the living room to show off my victory to my family! Mitchell saw that shoes, heard where I found it, and said, "Hey, I put that there! I hid it in the hat box!"

You.. little... stinker... I honestly searched off and on ALL DAY for that shoe. That little red shoe that you hid and then forgot about, even though we were ALL searching for it; even though I promised you a whole dollar for its return! Oh, Mitchell...