A Shoe Story

From an email I sent to my dear mother-in-law earlier this week:

I'm still learning about the vast discrepancies in children's shoe sizes--depending on the brand, your kid might wear any number of shoe sizes at the same time!

Example: on Monday I pulled out a pair of unworn size 11's that someone had given us for Meg.

These 11's

have always been much too big for her, but the day before I noticed that her black Sunday shoes

are also an 11 and are actually beginning to get a bit tight!

So I pulled out these new size 11's,

which Meg eagerly put on, and they seemed fine at home. But by the time we got to Great Falls, we noticed she was walking very slowly and awkwardly to keep them on her feet; they were actually too large and kept sliding off her heels. So we stuffed some toilet paper in the toes and made due for that day!

Today I took her shopping for some spring sneakers. (She left the house wearing her brown Sunday shoes

that I bought her last fall--they are a size 10 and still fit her perfectly.) I had the lady at the shoe store measure her foot, and according to that black, metal measuring thingy with the slider, she should clearly be wearing a size 12 or 12.5! She tried on several pairs of shoes, and the Nikes that we ended up buying (Nikes run a half-size small, according to the shoe lady) were a 12.5!

Meanwhile, those size-11 hand-me-downs

that she tried on Monday will go back on the closet's top shelf until the fall!

And while we're on shoes... look who learned to tie her laces in the 24 hours since we brought these babies home?

Shall we take a closer look at that handiwork?

Great job, Meggers! Mommy's proud of you, Love!