Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

It was an interesting morning at my house today. Harper slept in a little longer than usual and woke up in a really good mood. When I went in to get her, she was talking to Lola (her glow worm) and when she saw me, she pointed at her diaper and said please. This is a big deal because she usually thinks morning diaper changes are a big waste of time and throws a fit. Everything was going great. She brushed her teeth. She brushed Lola's teeth. She got dressed. She let me comb her hair. Then came the shoes. My daughter is 18 months old and already has an unnatural love of shoes. She talks about shoes all the time and regularly takes her shoes out of her dresser and plays with them. She has one particular pair of tennis shoes that I have designated as her school shoes. She wears them to baby school every day and gets them covered in red playground dirt everyday. But it's ok, because they are her school shoes. Today, Harper wanted to wear her new pink crocks (which are way to big for her anyway) instead of her schools shoes. You would have thought that the world was ending. There was crying and shoe throwing and rolling on the ground. It was bad. And then it was over just as quickly as it began. I don't think I currently have the necessary skills to effectively deal with this new phase of life. But, I better get on it because these little outbursts are becoming more and more frequent. My general plan is to ignore it, which is pretty easy to do at home. But what do you do when you're in a public place? Any suggestions?