Shoe Fly

Last week Abigail got her first pair of real shoes. What I mean by real is hard soled shoes with laces. We had been using soft soled shoes to assist her in her tranistion from crawling to walking...like all the books said we should do. Soft soled shoes are supposed to assist in allowing babies to use their toes to assist in balance and therefore learn to walk with more ease. All of the research I had done on when to buy her first shoes said that she doesn't really need shoes until she really has walking down pat.

Well, then enters daycare...The transition criteria for her to move from the infant room to the toddler room is threefold; she must be walking, she must not be on a bottle, she must be able to feed herself school lunch. Well, the first one was our stumbling block (no pun intended...okay maybe a little). The bottle was cut out around 11 months as she was drinking from a sippy cup and over the past month, she has perfected feeding herself! WHOO HOO. Of course now that she is walking pretty well in her soft shoes, they tell me they have to move her into the next room but she has to have hard soled shoes. And of course they tell me this on Friday for her to have on Monday. Normally not a problem but when I have a house full of people for Passover, it becomes more of a challenge to run out and buy Abby shoes.

So after being forced to buy shoes, I ran out to Stride Rite. I knew that for her first pair of shoes, I wanted to get very good shoes. She should have shoes that are made for her first steps and not just look pretty. Okay, so I went out and bought shoes that not only are made for a toddler but really look pretty too. What I wasn't prepared for was the fact that I spent more on her first pair of shoes than I would pay for shoes.

But they are very cute...good thing she is very cute too!

Thankfully she has taken to the shoes very well. They have helped to stabalize her foot very well and she is on the fly! We even had to go buy another baby gate. Nothing like baby proofing by just letting a walking 13 month old loose. The new shoes have definitely completed the transition from infant to toddler.

Now we just have to keep up with her and see what next steps she takes. No pun intended. Oh, who am I kidding! That pun was good.