The Power of a Pair of Socks

Originally posted at the former Chicago Moms Blog on Jan 4, 2010

The Power of a Pair of Socks

The afternoon started off innocently enough. I had finally gotten my rear into action by literally scraping the piles of socks, hangers and miscellaneous clothing articles from the floor of my closet to the middle of my bedroom. "Ta-Da! Instantly clean closet!" Sadly, the clean closet was next to a (now) disastrous bedroom...

Sigh...

And so the shuffling of crap from The Pile to their appropriate drawers, hangers, garbage and donation bags commenced. About 2 hours into it (no joke) and 1 and a half LifeTime movies later (husbands were murdered! Best friends were betrayed!), I stumbled upon My Kryptonite and all plans to destroy The Pile came to a screeching halt...

For in the pile of Socks to Sort (we all have THAT pile, but mine seems to be bigger than necessary for the 5 human beings that reside in this home) I pulled out the teeniest, tiniest pair of sky blue socks ever known to man. But not just ANY baby socks, though. No, these socks were the first pair of socks that I ever purchased for my first child. THE socks. The ones that matched the teeny, tiny little blue outfit with baby Cookie Monster on the lapel. The teensy, tiny, itty, bitty, precious socks that once covered the teensy, tiny, itty, bitty, precious feet of my eldest son (whose 10 year old feet are no longer teeny-tiny, itty-bitty or precious in any way, shape or form!). I folded their cuffs. I laid them beside my own socks. I fitted them upon my fingertips and marveled at how something so insiginifcantly small could undam such a flood of memories.

Tears? Yes.

Nostalgic trip down memory lane? Absolutely.

Enough wistful longing for another baby in my arms to force me to trip down the stairs and write this post (in between hoarsely yelling at said firstborn for arguing with his sister and brother over the television and Oh My God can't you all just BE QUIET because Mommy is trying to write SOMETHING SWEET AND TENDER WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU CHILDREN?!?)

Surprisingly? Yes.

Baby socks: They've got some serious power to 'em.