Little Peanut is about to turn 1 year old! She has learned so much in her tiny 11 1/2 months of life so far. She waves hello and bye bye, blows kisses, says dada, baba, ooh, wow, uh oh, shhh, shoes, and mama (once), she crawls and climbs over EVERYTHING, and she can pull herself up and cruise along furniture. But her most impressive feat to date was just a few weeks ago when she took her first steps. On her own. No hands. No furniture. No net. She did it all by herself. Hubby and I sat a few feet apart on the floor, helping her practice go from mommy to daddy. She was reluctant to let go of our hands, but she did it! She took 4 steps independently to get to daddy's arms! We celebrated like we had just hit the Powerball Lottery. Baby girl was beaming. So proud of herself, she wanted to do it again and again... and again and again...
After that triumphant day, she wants to be on her feet at all times. Enough with this crawling shit. She may have gotten a little too cocky about it, or maybe she was just excited to show her friends at daycare, because the next school day, she decided she didn't need anyone to help her get from point A to point B. She pulled herself up on the baby gate that corrals the little munchkins to the play area, and let go. Her teachers looked at her and praised her for standing all by herself. But wait, there's more! Watch this! She smiled back, took a deep breath, and planted one foot in front of the other. (Well, not exactly in front. More like forward and diagonal to the other foot. She walks like she just crapped her pants, and that's only true some of the time). Then she took another... and another... Her teachers watched, frozen in astonishment, not expecting her move away from the gate. She took a forth step and then... SPLAT. She face planted to the floor. She wasn't hurt, except for her ego maybe, but it was enough to deter her from attempting that trick again.
She still wants to be on her feet all the time, but now she's a little more insistent on holding on to our hands with her baby vise grip, and she will scream like a pterodactyl if we try to let her go. I don't want her to be discouraged, so I thought maybe a new pair of shoes would be motivating. She loves shoes. She loves to touch them, pull them off, throw them, eat them... So I took her to Stride Rite to buy her her first pair of walking sneakers.
Upon just entering the shoe store, she turned into baby Sarah Jessica Parker. Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. She just kept saying "Wow. Wow." and "Ooh." The sparklier the shoe, the bigger the reaction. The bubbly sales associate came over and asked what size she was. Uh, tiny? I have no idea.
"What stage is she in?" she asked me.
"Excuse me? Stage?" I replied, confused.
"Walking. What stage walker is she?" she clarified.
"Oh, right. I knew that. She's taken a few steps on her own, but still needs help." I didn't want to embarrass the little nugget by going into details.
"So she's a beginner walker. I'll grab some soft sole shoes for her in her size to try on." She got her measurements and brought back 3 pairs for her to try.
We tried on all 3 pairs and each time, baby girl wanted to walk over to the mirror to check them out, like she knew that was a thing. This girl was born knowing how to shoe shop! We went with the sparkly sneakers. "We'll take these. How much?" I asked.
"$45.99!" she said with excitement, as though that was a steal.
"Whuuuuu? How much are the other two?" I asked, thinking maybe the sparkles were extra.
"$45.99!" she said, still trying to convince me this was a good deal.
Good god! I don't even think I spent that much on the shoes I wore on my wedding day!
"They are ergonomically designed with soft soles and memory foam for beginner walkers to bend and flex their little arches and provides excellent support! It's really important at this stage to provide good arch support." she explained, holding on to this sale for dear life.
Ergonomics? Memory foam? Arch support? Are these shoes made for walking or running a marathon? Babies don't have arches! Their feet are like fat marshmallows with tiny marshmallows growing from the top. And they don't bend or flex! The toes curl up, making it impossible to put a sock on, let alone a sneaker, but flex? I think not.
I was about to walk my frugal self right out of that store, but then I looked over at my little girly girl, marveled at the sight of these new kicks, rolling her ankles, watching the sparkles catch the sunlight coming in from the window and I caved.
"Ok, ring us up." I surrendered.
"Great! Now, just so you know, babies typically grow into a new size every 2-3 months, so come back in May and we'll get her in a nice Stage 2 sandal for Summer!" She exclaimed as she all too joyfully swiped my credit card.
Don't push it, lady.
