Twinkerbell shoes!

So, it's Saturday evening. Twinkle, The Wrench and I head off to our favorite Tex-Mex place. We are having a great time; Daddy and his little Princess are on one side of the table, and I'm sitting opposite, looking at the two people I love most in all the world, watching them laugh, and play. The chips are crunching, the salsa is zinging, the fajitas are sizzling, and life is good.

Suddenly I remember what else we have to do tonight. Or I should say, what we have to try to get done tonight, or maybe tomorrow if we are lucky, and most certainly by Monday night at the very latest.

That's because another pre-Hospital ritual is shoe shopping. Aside from the fact that women have a love affair with the shoe store that most men simply cannot fathom, we have a very practical reason for going shopping tonight.

After a hundred-eleventy-two gazillion trips to the Hospital, we have learned to always take along a new pair of shoes. This comes from Mommy's Observations on the Availability of Shoes:

Mommy's Observations on the Availability of Shoes

• If we don't have the shoes with us, then O&P will surely want the shoes right then and there.

• If we don't have the shoes with us, then the shoes will have to be sent back to the Hospital ASAP, and we will have to wait even longer for the corrected shoe(s) and/or orthotics and/or appliances.
  

• We never do a good job of shopping for shoes when we are under a deadline, tired, or stressed.

We have paid attention - we have learned: We shop *before* we go.

One of Twinkle's many problems is that she appears to have a "significant" leg length discrepancy. In other words, it looks like one leg is quite a bit shorter than the other. The great majority of us human-types actually have one leg that is a tiny bit shorter than the other - just as most of us have one foot that is slightly smaller than the other. Twinkle falls into a different category; her leg bones from the hip to the knee, and from the knee to the ankle (the ones that usually can be surgically corrected to fix the problem) are close enough to the same length; most of her discrepancy actually occurs from the ankle to the floor. I guess you could say that one of her feet is actually shorter than the other.

So... the correction has to occur at the shoe. This means trying to find shoes that make the Doctor happy, and that also make our friends in the O&P department (Orthotics & Prosthetics) happy. The doctor wants shoes that will support her ankles, and that have good arch support. O&P wants shoes that have a certain type of bottom on them; they can *make* everything else happen (the arch support, the ankle support) if the shoes can be "lifted" correctly. Daddy and Mommy want shoes that will last longer than a week (she's really going through a growth spurt right now) and that will make Twinkle happy enough to put the braces on the feet, and put the feet into the shoes.

What is usually a long, drawn-out search for The Right Shoes was tonight blessedly, remarkably, wonderfully simple.

We didn't know it when we started, but what we needed was a pair of Tinkerbell shoes. They had the right kind of sole, that sparkly little pixie Tinkerbell on the sides, and beautiful pink satin ribbon laces. Just right for a girly-girl 'tween who is also a Tinkerbell fan.

Nearly ready to go on Tuesday. There's just one last important thing to do...