If you ever see a young and beautiful mommy frantically and efficiently rub hand sanitizer on her baby's feet at the grocery store or the mall or the library, don't judge. (p.s. That young and beautiful mommy I just mentioned in the above sentence would be me, just in case you didn't catch that.) I didn't believe in baby shoes.
And this is why...
You buy a pair of adorable baby shoes with ten percent of your paycheck, *it takes you 30 whole minutes just to stuff your baby's plump chubby feet in the shoes that you're already regretting buying; ten seconds after they're on, your baby grabs at them and pulls them off; you try to put them back on; he pulls them off again. [Now go back to * and repeat reading the scenario in your head ten times] 300 minutes later, you give up, grab some duct tape to secure the baby shoes on your baby's feet. You put your baby in the carseat and start driving. When you look into your rear mirror, you find your baby having the time of his life chewing his heart out on those once cute baby shoes. Sigh. You think to yourself Why hasn't any company started making dishwasher-safe, baby-teeth-proof, and anti-choke baby shoes and market them as teething toys yet? And then when you've arrived at your destination, you put the shoes back on your baby, and walk into the building. As you approach the automatic sliding door, you see in your reflection that your baby only has one shoe on. Somehow between your car and your final destination, he has dropped a shoe. You go back to the parking lot, and find that the one-twentieth paycheck worth of baby shoe is smashed into the ground like a dead rabbit after being rolled over by a car.
The above story is only an imagined one, but I am sure every mother has experienced something quite similar when it comes to baby shoes. That's why Ethan never wears shoes. We sometimes put socks on him but most of the time just let him go bare feet.
Until now, that is.
Ethan has been standing for a while now. He likes to stand on the benches at church, the chairs in the library, and the shopping carts in stores. I wince when I think about all the... [gulp]... germs that he collects with his feet. Thus the feet rubbing in hand sanitizer. It's not rational I know but I can't help it. Anyhow, E is a little older now that I feel like we can try letting him wear shoes again. And if we're going to spend so much on a pair of shoes, I'm going to make sure they're worth it, at least in the appearance department if not the functional one.
Oh, you are wise already about shoes.....this is just the beginning!
ReplyDeleteJ has fat feet syndrome (wide and tall). We tried fancy expensive shoes and it took a while to find a style that fit. Then he's just so hard on them that they wore out really quickly (he's never "outgrown" a pair - he breaks them well before). We decided Target and Payless shoes work well for us and they are under $20/pair which helps me feel better about it. He now proclaims that he has shoes for every occasion: running, walking, baseball, church...etc. It's like he's a son of a biomechanist (but he's the one who came up with his different shoes for different purposes).
ReplyDeleteI haven't even thought of Target! That's a great idea! Thanks, Jess :)
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