First Shoes

If the shoe fits.....BUY IT!!!!

Adam left for Beijing last Sunday, and as I mentioned in my last post, that's when Willow really started to take charge of her walking. She has been cruising along the furniture and walls for almost five months. She had even taken a step or two in the past few months. At the end of May, she surprised us all and took 6 steps in a row without falling at the Little Women cast party. We were not even encouraging her to walk at that moment, she just stood up and went for it!

I think that's impressive.

The last few weeks, she's been walking more and more, gaining confidence with each day. I'm not sure she even realized that she was walking until last week. She went from taking 6-10 steps on Saturday, to taking more than 50 on Sunday! Ever since then, she's been getting better and better at mastering those tiny little steps.

My poor baby was walking around at the park, bare foot, to the horror of the Chinese park-goers. She incited shoe-rebellion among the toddlers. Once they saw her bare feet, they wanted their shoes off to! I thought it was high time she owned a pair of walking shoes. I felt so bad for her tender little feet when she walked on the rough surfaces. Babies shouldn't have to develop callouses.

She needed shoes--but her feet were too fat. 

How many times have I looked for a pair of shoes that would fit her....it's hard to say. She owns about 12 pairs of shoes, from her short life, that she was never able to wear because her feet are too chubby. They are wide, and they have quite a lot of vertical padding as well. If the shoe was long enough, then it wouldn't be wide enough. If the shoe was wide or tall enough, then it was way too long. Ugh!

I ignored our past efforts that had failed on an international scale--and went out in search of shoes. We went to a baby market, and a fancy shopping mall. She tried on dozens of pairs of shoes. I labored over prices, and tried to decide what I was willing to concede. Some shoes were the right price, but not a great fit. Some shoes were too expensive and too ugly. Some shoes fit, but they were boy shoes....Oh, the decisions!
Finally, I settled on a pair of soft leather sandals.

Much harder to climb UP the slide if you're wearing shoes!

 They were actually the first pair of sandals she tried on, but I hadn't been able to find anything better. They are actually a very good material, they have a flexible sole, they fit her wide-chubby feet, and are not too ugly. Chinese shoes are interesting. I should devote a whole slew of posts to Chinese shoes so that you can understand how awesome it is that these shoes are not ugly.

The best part about these shoes is that they were 40% off! They were a decent price--cheaper than baby shoes in America, probably. This is rare, since baby clothes and accessories seem to be over priced in China. If families only have one child, it's easy to mark up the prices.

These pictures are from Willow's first time walking in shoes. It was a little hard at first. She is much better at it today than she was a few days ago. But at least her feet are not getting scratched up or extremely dirty anymore! She seems to like them a lot--she finds them in the morning and walks around holding her shoes. She likes putting them on because it means she's going outside! 

Look how big she is getting....

~julie