I don't know if I've mentioned it recently or not (chances are, no) but Sam has been more or less walking... in spurts. She's been cruising around like it's no one's business, and has been flying on her FP walker back and forth across the room. She's also started standing up on her down, and can crouch down and back up again, so she's been working on her balance and leg strength. And within the last week or so she has been taking 5-6 steps out from the couch, stopping, turning around to smile at me, and then proceed on her way! With her birthday coming up this weekend, we decided that it was time -- people were going to want to walk around with her, and if her party is mainly outside I wanted to see her feet protected, so there you have it!
We decided to go to StrideRite for her first pair because personally I think they have the best reputation for children's shoes, my first pair of sneakers were from StrideRite, and I wanted her first pair to be a good pair of sneakers as she's trying to learn to be steady on her feet.
We got Sam measured and she's currently a size 3W -- poor thing has her dad's wide feet! And because she's almost walking, we decided to go with the Step 3 shoe rather than the Step 2 because although the Step 2s were a little more flexible for her, she was going to be growing out of them faster than we would want, and they're only good for the first 5 months of walking, so why not just jump forward to actual walking sneakers and save us the cash? So we went with a size 4 of the Step 3s because that's the smallest they had -- we tried them on her and they fit well, and her toes were where they needed to be, so we went with that.
Speaking of cash, going in, I knew what to expect, and even though I had given Chris the website for his viewing pleasure, he was still stickershocked... but what are you going to do? Sure, there was a 20% off sale going on for select styles, and of course Sam's feet were too small for the cute pairs on sale, and sure, the pair we both fell in love with (see above) was one of the more expensive, not-on-sale sneakers in Step 3s... but the way I look at it, her feet are developing, she needs a decent pair of learning sneakers, and you only get your first pair once!
Granted, I would never spend $50 on a pair of shoes for myself, but this is my daughter -- I'm allowed to spoil her.
But baby feet grow fast -- about half a shoe size every 2-3 month, so she's going to be out of these sooner than she's in them, so I think that's another reason why we bought her the size 4 Step 3s because there IS some growing room still, so we'll be able to get the most for my money.
Next time though? StrideRite Outlet. Or Payless.
But for now? Adorable sneakers. Watching her trying to walk with these news things on her feet is way too cute. She's not a fan yet though, you can tell -- more weight to hold her back, and if the doesn't lift her feet high enough, she does fall... sometimes she'll catch herself, others, like last night, she just loses her balance, and it's sad. =( But she'll get used to them eventually... right now I think her favorite part is undoing the Velcro. CUTE!
No comments:
Post a Comment