Don't Fail to Try

This morning Natalie was playing in her closet and found her first pair of Stride Rite shoes. The ones Grammy bought for her. The size five pair of shoes that my now size-seven-wearing toddler insisted that she wanted to wear. She plopped down on the floor with a shoe in one hand and a very determined look on her face and proceeded to shove her foot into the cute hot pink shoe. All while chanting, "Shoes. Shoes. Na-Na's shoes." I sat down beside her and explained that the shoes were now too small for her feet. That her feet had grown bigger since she last wore them.

She persisted, and I said, "Natalie, honey, those shoes won't fit your feet anymore." To which she replied, with the sweetest look on her face, "Twy." Oh, how many times have I attempted to motivate my baby girl with that simple imperative sentence? And now she wanted me to do the same. Just try.

And "twy" we did until she was satisfied that her feet are, indeed, too big to fit in the now tiny shoes.

But I left that moment with a gentle and very poignant reminder that it never hurts to try, which reminds me of a quote that we should all live by, "Try and fail, but don't fail to try."

Of course, this little scenario also reminds me of the many times post-baby that I tried to fit into my jeans ... but failed miserably ... until just after her first birthday. Yes, baby girl, I can related to just how hard it is to let go of things that no longer fit :)