Shoes

According to various things I've read on parenting sites and on podiatry sites, it is best for a child to wear soft-soled shoes until 2 years old. This allows proper development of the arch of the foot, as well as the muscles in the foot which are involved in walking and balance. Therefore, Captain Adorable has been wearing shoes with leather soles since September 2007. These shoes are cute in addition to being soft and comfortable. However, they are not great for walking around outside in the cold or the wet/damp/soggy...

Therefore I have been looking for good quality but not too expensive soft soled shoes for quite a few weeks now. The ones I really like online are $40+ per pair! This is a bit much for a pair of shoes he will likely wear for only a few months! Therefore, I decided to buy a "normal" pair of shoes for him. I searched out the pair with the most flexible bottom I could find. I tried to make certain that it was not too confining to the foot, but would still keep his feet dry and warm enough to play outside when the playground is wet and/or cold.

The shoes I bought are ridiculously difficult to put on. Not only that, but the first couple of times I put them on him (inside the house only), he would not walk, only crawl. My Mom (who is here visiting now) helped me to get him to walk by suggesting we each hold one of his hands and help him to walk. After a couple of times back and forth between the living room and the kitchen, he was clomping around fine. However, the shoes kept falling off of his feet! I finally had the shoes on in a way that I thought was good enough and we headed for the playground. At the playground, one of the shoes fell off again! Fortunately, I did bring his soft soled shoes with us and I put those on his feet instead and we just kept him away from the wet parts of the playground.

Today at the mall I saw a kiosk selling cute children's shoes. I tried out the flexibility of the soles, and was pleased to see that they were quite soft, the shoes were light, and they were also waaaaaay cute. I bought them. Now I can't wait to take Captain Adorable to the playground so he can wear the new shoes! I am so pleased with them (so far...).

In case anyone was wondering, I have not stopped reading. I am so enamored with the Sandman books that I've been re-reading them, much more carefully and slowly this time. I love the story(ies) and I have some objections to some things I see as discrepancies or bad choices...but they, that's me. :)