Colin's Big Feet

Colin and I just got back from Stride-Rite. This was a big deal because it was Colin's first time to be officially measured for shoes and his first trip to a real shoe store. Colin has never really worn shoes at all. I have been randomly trying to fit him for sandals on trips to Wal-Mart or Babies R Us and have not succeeded. I bought a couple of pairs of cutesy light weight sandals a couple of months ago, but they either don't fit at all or Colin takes them off in two seconds. He is not a fan of shoes. I realized that I was guessing on the sizes and decided that it was time for a real trip to the shoe store. Colin is walking now and I can't let a barefoot baby out of the stroller anymore!

The trip to the store ended up surprising the heck out of me! Number one is how expensive those shoes were. This is the kind of store that requires we shop the clearance racks. Their shoes were incredibly pricey. However, I am glad we went because the women there were well trained and very helpful regarding shoes for little feet. It was great to finally find out about the size issue. And that brings me to the second big surprise...Colin's feet are way bigger than I thought they were!!! His right foot measured just past a 5 and his left foot measured 5 and a half! And they both measured very wide!!!!! Colin needed a size 6 wide!!!! I would never have imagined that was his size, but it certainly explains why I could never get his feet squeezed into the shoes I was looking at. It was baffling me and I never thought about him needing wide width. So, we bought him a very handsome pair of brown leather sandals made just for new walkers. At first he would not stand on his feet with them on...he kept collapsing to the floor to inspect his feet. By the time we got home, I was able to convince him to take a stroll around the kitchen with me holding his hands. He is totally confused by them, but I am going to make him wear them at least once a day to get used to it. I probably should have had him wearing shoes much earlier, if just to get him used to having something on his feet. Just add that to the list of things I have learned this year!