I have been struggling with the "shoes" concept. It was my understanding that we're supposed to leave shoes - ones with real soles and stiff(er) sides off of baby feet for as long as possible to allow the baby to flatten his foot when he walks. Or something. I don't remember now.
We have a pair of Robeez (http://store.babycenter.com/product/baby+clothing/shoes/robeez/truck+sand+soft-soled+leather+shoes.do?asc=false) that we bought for our trip to South Carolina in February. We figured that the best thing we could do for DJ was to get him out of the carseat during stops and let him walk around (he was still holding our hands at the time) to give him some exercise. Therefore, we needed a pair of shoes, and Eleanor mirrored my thought... Robeez shoes. These things are THE BOMB. They're soft soled, they're very comfortable for the baby/toddler, cute as can be, and perfect for learning to walk. His first pair came from Lisa Garfield as an infant; they had race cars on them. :-)
But summer is here. And that means more outside time, and outside involves things that soft soled shoes might not stop from hurting a tender little foot.
I decided to do some light research on the subject, and started with my favorite online baby reference site, BabyCenter.com. I found this article about it which talked more about how to size/fit a shoe for a toddler than the shoe issue with which I've been struggling. Effectively, it said that as soon as your baby is walking, it's time for shoes. Article link here: http://www.babycenter.com/0_your-childs-first-shoes_1736073.bc?articleId=1736073&showAll=true. Ok, so I assume that's a valid answer. Now what?
Target. The Bull's Eye Boutique. Tar-jjjjay.
As I was perusing the shoe aisles looking for shoes his size, I found a pair of nice sandles to wear to work that do not require buckling. Excellent, I found a pair of summer pregnancy shoes. I won't be able to bend over to buckle anything very soon....
Then I found the kid shoe section. One aisle was dedicated to boys. The other 3 aisles were dedicated to girls. I was amused by this, and certainly not surprised.
The next problem... what size is he?! No idea. I walked by a display that said, "pre-walking shoes", so I stopped there to see if I could at least figure out the right size. There were soft soled shoes on that display as well as some harder tennis shoe type shoes. I picked up a pair sized 4, put the bottoms up against his foot bottom, figured they were close, and tried to put them on. No dice. That shoe was not going on his foot (he had socks on). Oh good, they have the same shoe in a size 5. That shoe actually went on his foot. He has about half an inch of room before his big toe hits the end of the shoe, so I'm thinking that I'm close enough.... and that they might last 2 months at his growth rate!
We take them home and while DJ is eating dinner, I put his new shoes on his feet. He wasn't exactly happy about them as he fussed a little, but food comes first so they were mostly ignored.
When he was finished, I put him down on the floor in his new shoes, and he just stood there. And then he started to *wail*. He didnt move, just cried. He wanted no parts of them. So I took both of his hands and showed him that he can walk in them around the kitchen. After about 10 minutes, his seemed to regain some confidence in his walking skills, and started walking in them on his own. But he really wanted nothing to do with them at first.
This morning, Miss Eleanor and I put his shoes on him so he could walk around in the kitchen. When Eleanor first put him down, he refused to move again. A short 5 pace walk to me with Eleanor guiding him reminded him that the shoes were not concrete blocks cementing his feet to the kitchen floor.
We'll see how the rest of the day goes.... :)
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