You'll notice I talk about these beauties in the past tense. No, nothing happened to them. No nefarious criminals broke in and purloined said shoes. It's really just one, albeit BIG, problem. They STINK!
Urban has been wearing these little gems all summer long. With no socks. In record heat. THEY WREAK!!!
Last night we were in the car and he started whimpering about how sweaty his feet were. My very caring response was, "I'm sure they are. I told you to wear sandals today. But no matter what, you can not remove those shoes in my car."
He started whining. Finally I acquiesced. I'm not an ogre, after all. He slipped off the shoes, and it immediately smelled like rotting asparagus. Seriously. It is very possibly that a small animal curled up int he toes of these shoes and died.
I rolled down the windows, but with a heat index of 111˚, it was kind of like rolling down a window to reveal a hot, sticky wall. "Dear God child, put your shoes back on!" I pleaded.
Urban giggled and said, "My feet smell like butt! I need a bath!"
"Yes," I agreed, "perhaps in vinegar."
So, now I am faced with a problem. What do I do with the shoes? Do I try to de-stinkify them somehow? Do I throw them out? Do I replace them??? The idea of tossing his shoes sends Urban into hysterics. I am at a loss. Anybody out there have any advice for a smell-sensitive mama and an Anakin-loving 4 1/2-year-old shoe hoarder?
Your opinions are welcomed.
Hi Alicia,
ReplyDeleteI had a pair of Mary Jane Sketchers that started to get an odor in them that I would noticed while sitting at my desk at work. I always wear a pair of cotton dress socks w/ them, but it still happened. First time as an adult it has happened so I was quite perplexed. I don't know how long you can keep Urban out of them for this to work, but what I did was put a generous amount of baking soda in my shoes and let them stay on the shoe rack in the closet for about a week. Before slipping them on, I tapped out the excess baking soda from the shoes but left a light dusting on the bottom. I waited until they were dry the next day and put another generous amount of baking soda throughout the shoe and let them sit in the closet again. I repeated this process for about two weeks and the odor went away. I leave baking soda in them in between each wear, just because I think this style of leather shoe gets an odor for some reason. You have to wait for them to dry, otherwise the baking soda is just going to trap the odor in. Like I said, if you can keep him out of them long enough, it may work. Leaving a bit of soda in them while I wore them I think helped too. While I was reading your other post about the shoe pile at the front door, it made me think of an article I just recently read about taking shoes off at the door because of the pollens and chemicals in the environment that can get on the bottom of your shoes and embed themselves into your carpets and cause respiratory problems inside the home. So it's good that you guys take your shoes off at the door! Also, when you wrote about Urban's asthma scare turned croup...when we moved back to Iowa for me to attend college, Kristen developed asthma all of a sudden at age three. Prior to this, she had only visited her pediatrician for her well baby appointments; never having been sick before. She would get bronchitis and even pneumonia. The doctor said asthma can be environmental and he saw many cases over the years such as this when people move into Clinton because of all the factories. Made me think of the guy you told me about that original got the counselor job, but had to resign after finding out he was allergic to Clinton! Anyway, once we moved to Arizona, the first month we were here, Kristen suffered a bout of asthma bronchitis but after that, has not been sick since, and has never had another problem w/ her asthma. We have lived in AZ for almost six years now. She was constantly fighting w/ upper respiratory issues while in Clinton. I'm mentioning this for you to keep in mind just in case where you recently moved to has factories or high levels of pollutants in the environment. I enjoy reading your blog. Since I am in school again working on my Bachelors, I have not had much time to utilize my new E-Reader to read any new novels, so I enjoy reading your little "shorts" to get my reading fix! So thanks for the stories! Hope you are doing well! Jenny Grizzle