I love it when Mommy lets me play in the attic. It's so much fun digging in the old trunk. I find all kinds of old toys to play with. But the best part is when I find jewelry or clothes.
I like to put them on and pretend I'm a famous model. But one time I upset Mommy when I tried to put on some red shoes that I found.
They were very small, almost too small for me even. And there were little birds and flowers all over the shoes. I just wanted to try them on. But she grabbed the shoes and told me never to touch them again.
After a while Mommy said she was sorry she yelled at me. She said the shoes used to belong to my great grandmother who lived in China.
Then she told me a story.
In China little girls used to have their feet bound or tied up so that they would stay small. That was supposed to make the girls walk gracefully as they grew older. But they could never run or jump like I do.
But my great grandmother cried so much they gave up. Even the pretty red shoes didn't change her mind. They told her no one would ever marry a girl with big feet. But someone did -- a farmer who wanted a strong wife to work in the rice fields.
So, when my great grandmother had her own daughter, she didn't make her bind her feet. Not only that, she told her to leave China and live somewhere else where she could feel free to jump, run or dance any time she wanted to -- with big feet!
And that's how my grandmother ended up in California. She married a man who didn't mind her big feet. And then Mommy was born. And she married a man who didn't mind her big feet.
I didn't really want to wear those little red shoes anyway. They were too tight. Guess I have big feet, too! But that's OK, because I like to play soccer and need to have big, strong feet!