Shoes

To begin with, I do not need anyone to comment that I have issues. I am well aware that I deliberate many things far more than others although certainly I cannot be alone in the amount of time I ponder most aspects of parenting. Also, brace yourself because this post is a lot of rambling with little substance so you might want to spare yourself now.

On to the issue, Clara Grace is growing. Not surprisingly. Of course she is growing. Anyone that knows us might recall how long she spent in certain outfits, how we got TWO seasons out of summer wear and the fact that we couldn't even buy her actual walking shoes when she started to walk because Stride Rite didn't make the walkers small enough. That is right...at one year of age she was sized at a 2 and had to settle for the "cruising" type of shoe they made. Here is a picture of her wearing said shoes on July 31, 2005 which puts her at 13 months old. And if I recall correctly that outfit was a size 3-6 month outfit. Isn't she a cutie?!?

Fast forward to 4.5 years of age. Now. I have noticed how some of her casual and dress shoes were getting snug so we sort of abandoned wearing them knowing we needed to replace them. Here lately she has been wearing her sneakers mostly. Although she hasn't complained, I noticed that her sneakers weren't sliding on quite as easily anymore so printed off the size chart from striderite.com. Her sneakers were a size 7 and she appeared to be a size 9. Uh oh! Talk about feeling bad.

So yesterday after church we headed out to the mall. In my defense, when she was sized in the store she measured at an 8 so a small amount of my guilt slipped away. Now that we were finally seeing to the issue, we then had to determine which shoe(s) to buy. Stride Rite now offers a multitude of brands and CG is now getting to an age where we can venture out (to date mainly Stride Rite and Buster Browns have been on her feet). Before she was sized, Charles walked over to the toddler section while I scoped out the girls' section (Oh my!). I saw a pair of Saucony sneakers that looked adorable and was a well-made shoe. I carried it over to Charles to see what he thought and he turned around holding the exact same sneaker from the toddler section. So she was sized and fitted and came away with a size 8.5. Oh, and these have laces! The last couple of pairs of sneakers have had velcro and I much prefer laces so this was awesome.In addition to buying non-Stride Rite sneakers, we crossed another line. We bought Clara Grace her first pair of Crocs. I was opposed to these shoes for a long time due to the look and safety concerns. Over the past years the look has grown on me, and I'm thinking we'll keep her off the escalator...certainly she'll be wearing sneakers on the playground anyway. Last spring I bought her a knock-off pair from Target that caused blisters after one day of walking in Washington D.C. Although cute, it made a believer out of me to spend the extra money and get a pair of actual Crocs since I repeatedly hear fantastic reports of how stellar the shoes are. I have to admit, I think the mammoth Crocs are precious! There is a picture of the shoes we selected below. I did a lot of pondering and decided to go for it...so now she has her first pair. We'll see how it works out and if I regret the decision later.

Until then, know that I am moving on to the next simple decision that I'll undoubtedly over-analyize prior to making a decision. It seems I struggle with each shoe purchase though and wonder if I'll ever be able to just go get the shoes without all the inner-deliberation.