8 Year Old Feet -

I’ll keep buying the wipes for the bottom of the tub, and I’ll keep searching for the matching socks.

Let us pause to mourn the socks.

But please, don't grow up too fast. Keep jumping off the couch. Keep skipping the last step. Keep running through the wet grass. 8 year old feet

And the shoes they loved? The ones with the neon stripes? Suddenly, they hate them. "They pinch my arch," they say, using a phrase they definitely learned from a commercial. You buy the expensive brand with the removable insoles. They wear them to the bus stop. You cry into your coffee. I’ll keep buying the wipes for the bottom

These feet are brave. They jump off swings at the apex of the arc. They run barefoot across hot driveway asphalt to get to the sprinkler. They stomp in puddles with zero regard for the consequences. They tap impatiently when waiting for a video game to load. Keep jumping off the couch

If you are the parent of an 8-year-old, you have a drawer filled with odd socks. You have a bag in the laundry room labeled "Lonely Socks." You have purchased 50-packs of identical white ankle socks, only to have 47 of them vanish into a wormhole that exists exclusively inside your child’s sneakers.