Nu Shus

We got Zoe her first pair of new shoes today. They are totally cute!

As we rode down the escalator to Stride Rite in Sun Valley Mall, Vera holding Zoe and me pushing the stroller, I recalled shoe shopping with my Mom as a kid. We can joke about it now, but at the time... let's just say that my mother's and my taste in shoes were very different and neither of us enjoyed the experience. So, I made a mental note to really try to pay attention to Zoe's non-verbal clues and to help her actively participate in the process of choosing her first pair of shoes.

Vera and I picked out three pairs, then whittled it down to two. One was a variation on the classic white leather above the ankle lace up shoe that people used to bronze (Do people still bronze baby shoes????). The other was a below the ankle shoe with a Velcro strap, brown with pink trim.

Vera really liked the idea of the "classic first shoe". So we asked the sales woman put on the white shoe first. Zoe started screaming before we put her on the ground. She was shaking her feet frantically trying to shake the foreign things on them off. First we tried to get her to stand, she simply did not want to stand in them. Vera then put her down on the floor and she would not crawl, she just sat there and cried. The sales woman said that babies often have this reaction with their first shoes and that it can take a few days to get used to them.

I suggested we try the brown ones, as they did not come up around the ankles making them less restricting. And, voila, Zoe was obviously much more comfortable in these... She stood holding the bench and cruised a bit, and then got down on all fours and started crawling. We had a winner! It took less than 20 minutes.

So for our first shoe shopping adventure, we all left happy with the purchase (I ignored the fact that my wallet felt lighter). I hope future shoe shopping is that easy!