Peyton Ties Her Shoes

Four is the magic number. It's the age when I learned how to tie my shoes and it's the age when I taught Austen how to tie his. It is one of my earliest memories and one that involves my beloved grandmother who was visiting us in New Jersey after the birth of my little brother. No one had any time to tie my shoes for me so my grandmother calmly showed me how. Each time I teach one of my children, I fondly remember her and our time together.

So it's only fitting that Peyton too learned how to tie her shoes at age 4 (okay so she squeaked it in about a month before she turned 5 but hey, I've been busy). Like with Austen, I bought her a brand new pair of tie shoes and I told her she could not wear them to school until she learned how to tie them and do a double knot. Austen learned in about a day or so at least it felt like that - he was a quick learner. Peyton could have been a quick learner too but her stubbornness and lack of patience made it take about a week since she would only practice with me about 5 minutes each day. As soon as Hailey would go down for a nap, I would suggest practicing tying her shoes together. But, she was much more interested in getting me to play dress up with her animals or playing by herself in her room. It took a little bargaining on my end to get just five minutes with her to teach her and have her listen. Finally, we succeeded after many "I already know how to do its," when she clearly didn't. But she finally learned.  However, she won't be wearing her new shoes to school anytime soon because she was much too busy to allow time for me to teach her the double knot. I may have to save that one for when she's 5!