Shoe-less and fighting back

Last weekend we took Brady to Gymboree. Usually, my parents take Brady during the weekdays, but since he's moved up a grade, he also has classes on Saturday mornings, so Irene and I get to go with him then.

In case you've never gone to Gymboree, it's a shoe-free zone. Complying with this rule, when we got there, we took off our shoes and put them in the little cubbies under the benches. Unfortunately, when we were packing up to leave, we found that one of Brady's shoes had been stolen! Poor Brady, who absolutely loves shoes (gee, I wonder where he gets that from....), had to limp around with only one shoe on - and it was raining out that day. On the way home, I heard Brady mumble something about knowing who took his shoe.

When we got home I told him we could call the Police if he could somehow help identify the scoundrel that left him bare footed. With Brady's limited vocabulary, I thought maybe drawing may be the best path forward, and I pulled out a piece of paper to have him draw a picture of the thief. Brady tried, but it ended up looking mostly like scribbles and Brady kept yelling "worm! worm!" I didn't see any worms at Gymboree, so I tried another tact - a stroke of genious actually, if I do say so myself.

I pulled out Mr. Potato head and told Brady to try to show me what he remembered the villan looking like. This is what he did....

So, if anybody sees a uni-browed 2-year old, with four shifty right eyes, and two left arms, let me know. According to Brady, that Saturday he was wearing a green baseball cap with blue shoes too. I took this picture and had it posted on the local Police website and sure enough, the next time Brady showed up to Gymboree with my parents, the teacher said his stolen shoe was dropped off anonomously for Brady.

But we'll always have this picture and when we find the uni-browed runt, we're going steal his shoes and see how he likes it!