Have You Seen My Mate?

No, seriously...have you? This is one of Abbie's Garanimal tennis shoes that she wears to daycare each day. These are probably the third pair we have bought for Abbie, each one moving up a size, because they are not expensive by any means (thanks to Wal-Mart) and are great for all of Abbie's playground playing each day of the week at daycare. I mean to tell you, the girl is rough on these shoes, and despite weekly washing, they stay dirty and slightly gray in color.

Well, I noticed at some point during the weekend that I only saw one in our kitchen (we each keep a pair of shoes just inside the house because I am NOT a fan of shoes on throughout the house). I kept thinking to myself that the other one would show up as I did my typically tiding-up process throughout the long weekend.

This brings us to Monday night. I really started searching because I needed I needed to find the other shoe before Tuesday morning (in which I could fully see me running around like crazy at 7:25 a.m. trying to find it), but it still did not turn up. Abbie was ready for bed, so I put the shoe mystery out of my mind.

Until this morning. It was about 7 a.m. and I told Michael that I needed his help once and for all. Believe me when I tell you, we did a thorough search of the house. All the obvious places were inspected. Seriously, we looked under beds, inside all the closets, inside bathtubs and cabinets, in all of Abbie's toy-storage containers, even inside the infamous toy kitchen. The shoe is GONE! We finally tried that ol' trick my mother used on me - we gave Abbie the one shoe and asked her to go get the other one. At first, she just sat on the floor and tried to put on the shoe, but I pleaded with her to find the mate. She then looked up as if she fully understood her mission, and took off to her bedroom, shoe still in hand. I quietly followed her where she came to one of her baskets that is filled with stuffed animals. She stopped, held out her empty hand and just said "yeah" to the basket.

I knew deep down that I had just put all those stuffed animals back in the basket the night before, but just in case, I pulled each one out and laid it on the floor.

Did I find the missing shoe?

NO!!!

I kid you not when I say it is a complete and total mystery in our house. I have absolutely no idea where that shoe is and it is driving me insane! So, if anyone comes across a right-foot Garanimal sneaker, size 5, for girls, please let me know.