Shoes of Doom

I got Hosanna some new shoes. What a meanie I am.

Up until this point, she has only worn soft shoes - more like slippers than shoes really. They are better for babies learning to walk because the soft leather bottoms don't interfere with proper technique. Or something like that. Soft shoes=better. BUT... she is an accomplished walker now and it is time for shoes. Spring is coming and she will need shoes to walk outside.

A group of friends online got together and ordered squeaky shoes. We got them at wholesale since there were so many of us. The shoes ended up being ridiculously cheap. So I got 5 pairs in different sizes for her to grow into. I was so excited!! They arrived and I put a pair on her right away.

She was absolutely horrified!! She cried and cried and cried some more. She refused to walk in them! She just stood there like a statue (a crying, screaming statue). We thought maybe she was afraid of them because they squeak when she walks. But we discovered it wasn't the squeak she was afraid of, it was the shoes themselves. She is such a sensitive little bug. She just didn't like the feel of real shoes.

Well, I feel sorry for her in a way, but she must learn to wear shoes. So we had some shoe training. It was kind of humorous, though I felt kind of bad for laughing at her. She would just stand there and cry every time we put them on her. I did figure out though, that the shoes made a great baby-sitter. After all, you can't get in trouble standing in one place.

As I tried to make dinner one day, I stuck her in her shoes and stood her out on the back porch. It was nice outside, and Teagan & the older kids were out there. She just stood there while I cooked. She didn't even cry because she was so busy watching the other kids.

See how cute the shoes are? Scary, huh.

We kept putting them on her. Eventually she would have to get used to them. And sure enough, she did. The night of the science fair I put them on her. I thought how handy it would be to have her stand in one place and not run around. But when she saw all the other little munchkins running around, she overcame her fear of shoes and ran with them. And she has been cool with them ever since.