Shoes

Yes, this really is a post about shoes.

One of my many pregnancy-induced concerns dawned on me while sitting in the doctor's office waiting room, surrounded by lots of pregnant women and their toddlers.  I noticed the very cute shoes on a little girl - and then thought oh my gosh...I have to buy shoes for the baby. SHOES!

I have never purchased shoes for anyone but myself. I won't even buy them for Ryan, because he's picky, and let's face it, we've gotta be picky about shoes. They have to fit just right, in the toes and the arch and the everything...so shoes just aren't something that people buy for other people. 

So in my weird little mind, this was a pretty big deal.

Well, I managed to luck out and have a baby during a warm winter and very, very hot summer, so until now I have avoided shoes nearly altogether.  I figure: baby feet are so cute, and everyone loves them, so why make her wear shoes? She's perfectly content barefoot.  Plus there are lots of rules about the right kind of shoes for baby feet, and I don't know them all yet, so I didn't want to screw her up by putting on the wrong kind.

But we got these little Sperry Topsiders as a shower gift, and goshdarnit, they're so cute. I couldn't just let her grow out of them without having her wear them. So I put them on her from time to time, though I usually take them off before we even get to our destination that I previously deemed shoe-worthy.  She, however, loves them. She thinks they're fantastic. If I could guess what her little mind is thinking, it would be these toys are great. GREAT! They have strings, and I can chew on them, and they just are right there, on my feet.  How FANTASTIC.  Now I will try to pull them off so I can chew on them forever and ever. And ever. And also, I love milk and sweet potatoes.

And such is the life of the seven-month-old. (Yes, that's right: SEVEN months. I will spare you the weepy sappy I-can't-believe-she's-this-old speech.)  She also enjoys rolling around completely naked while one of us is attempting to change her diaper, and - this just in - sitting up in her crib when she's supposed to be going to sleep. She just sits up, watches the fishies swim across her Baby Einstein thing, and chews on the bottom of her Sleep Sack.  Then she cries when she decides she doesn't feel like taking a nap. It's really kind of pitiful.

*****

We had a very busy summer travelling all over the place.  We went to south to Ryan's hometown, north to mine, and weddings all over the place.  There was a span of about three weeks when any time Ryan had a day off, we were travelling or had family visiting.  It's fun to do this, but it's also exhausting to pack and unpack and repack, and wash the sheets on the guest bed, then pull them off, wash them, and replace them for another round.  It's tough, too, to be finally falling into some semblance of a nap schedule (Nora's...not mine) only to interrupt it again while going somewhere else (though, it's also worth it...our families are far away so this is just a part of life for us, and we're okay with it).  So this past weekend, we took it easy. We had some friends who we hadn't seen in awhile over on Friday evening.  On Saturday and Sunday we ran a few errands and went to church, but mostly we just hung out and enjoyed being a little family of three.  It was just nice - a good mixture of fun, relaxing, and productive - which is just the way weekends should be.

the silly little smirk she has been showing off lately