New shoes

Grant got his first pair of "real" shoes on Wednesday. Since he's been walking for a couple of weeks now, I figured it was time to take him out of his Robeez and put him into some real shoes. A couple of weeks ago, the three of us were out shopping and went by a shoe store, where we had his feet measured. Not surprising to us, he measured extra-wide....not wide, but extra wide! Grant has always had big feet....not necessarily incredibly long, but just really thick.

So this week, we were out at the mall and went by the Stride Rite store. I've said from the very beginning that I'd never buy my child $45 pairs of shoes, especially since they outgrow them so fast! But lately everyone says that you want kids to have good shoes when they're first walking. And even if I did try to buy him some cheaper ones, I don't know how many brands even make them available in extra wide.

So at Stride Rite, the lady measured him again, and agreed that he definitely needed extra-wide, and his foot came right to the edge of the size 5 line. So we found him some cute 5 1/2 brown shoes, which he'll hopefully be able to wear for a few months. He seems to do pretty well in them....he stumbled over them a little at the beginning, but is doing great now!

After we left the store, we kept walking around the mall. After I take Grant out of his stroller and give him some freedom, he HATES being put back in there! I let him walk around for a while in his new shoes, and for a while he was content pushing his stroller and holding my hand. But then he wanted to go off on his own, and a crowded mall is not necessarily the best place to do that! So after a few minutes of running and grabbing him away from places where he shouldn't be, I put him back in his stroller. He was not very happy with me and put up a good fight! The joys of having a toddler!

Here's a picture I took the other day when we were outside in the front yard. Grant has been pretty good with all the Christmas lights....he doesn't grab them and pull them as much as I thought he might. But here he was pulling on some of the lights we've run along the sidewalk. I thought this was the funniest expression!