Shoe Aversion

There are things that toddlers do just to drive you batty. Lana's signature move is kicking off her shoes. You are probably thinking, what's the big deal? So she likes to be barefoot--loosen up already Julie! For some reason, this really gets on my nerves. At this very moment there are about 6 pairs of shoes on the floor of the backseat of the minivan (along with a million cheerios). When I buckle her in the shoes are off by the time I walk around and open my door. When we take walks in her stroller, she kicks off her shoes and hopefully I am paying attention, so that I can retrieve them. Same thing in the shopping cart. And while she is in the process of kicking them off, she looks at me with that devilish--I am doing this to you so that steam comes out of your ears--grin. Long ago, I made the mistake of buying her expensive Stride Rite sneakers--well I lost one in the mall when she kicked one off and I wasn't paying attention. Now she gets all her shoes from Target or Walmart. The absolute worst is when we walk into a store and she is actually walking and she sits down on the floor and takes off her shoes and flings them in separate directions. I often turn around for a second and she is barefoot and I am wondering WTH happened to her shoes. Do her shoes truly offend? Maybe its b/c I by her cheapy shoes and they aren't comfy? Is she doing this just to see me lose my noodle in public chasing after a barefoot toddler while muttering, "What did you do with your shoes, you crazy kid?" (most likely). When is she going to learn that girls totally dig shoes? I think she actually likes to try on shoes, just not wear them for any length of time b/c one time in the Gap, I caught her trying to remove the flip flops off the mannequin. The funny thing is that there is one coveted pair of shoes that she will willfully wear for at least 15min--the pink sparkly dancing girl shoes that she calls her "tap shoes":
The teen years are going to be fun, right?