I've had the hardest time finding shoes for her lately. She has gone through a crazy growth spurt and nothing fits. We just had her 15 month appointment yesterday, so I can say with confidence that she is now 31 inches tall and 22 lbs. She is not even in the shorty percentile anymore.
Anyway, last weekend we lost one of the last non-church shoes that fit her in Orlando. She can't wear her too-small jellies all winter, even though I really, really love her jelly shoes.
So I've been looking and looking, but it's been hard to find tennis shoes that weren't crazy expensive and/or impossible to get on her feet. I've been coming up blank. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO BUY KIDS' SHOES?!?!?!? AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO FEELS THIS WAY?!?!?
Anyway, today I headed to Target with my little coupon I got in the mail determined to find something. I finally found a pair of brown mary janes that I thought could work, but oh yeah, we are going to West Virginia for Thanksgiving and Idaho Falls for Christmas and I think snow and mary janes don't mix so well. What do I buy for her, boots? Boots that I will never be able to get on her feet? I paced in the toddler shoe aisle for seriously what felt like hours. And then....
....I turned around. And saw the boy shoes.
They were cheaper. They had her size. They were not mary janes. And, refreshingly, they were not obnoxious shades of silvery sparkles or hot pink glitter or My Little Pony purple. Seriously, why do we insist on dressing our little girls in such garish colors? It drives me insane. The boy shoes were a lot cuter in my opinion. People always say girls clothes are cuter, but I'm not so sure.
I put the little navy blue shoes on her feet just to try them. She took off and ran around the store. She didn't care that they were in the boys' section. So I decided I didn't care either. And I bought them.
I'm trying to decide if this is a manifestation of deeper things. My parents never signed me up for T ball or soccer, but I sure am going to sign her up. Go play sports! Or go be a ballerina if you want! Be a tom boy, be a girlie girl, I don't care! Just be confident and kind and things will work out. Be confident enough to wear boy shoes when you want and princess dresses the rest of the time, whatever. There are more important things to worry about.
So...wandering around the store, I thought about all this stuff. Are these things I'm trying to teach her? Is this the best way to teach her? Should I feel bad about not dressing her in hot pink all the time?
And then I thought, Meh. They're just practical shoes. I'm a practical girl. At least, when I'm not overanalyzing everything, then I'm practical.
Anyway, she's so dang stinkin' cute, I think everyone would recognize my darling baby no matter what she was wearing.
So there's all of my musings on gender roles and teaching confidence and whatever. And you thought this was just going to be a post about shoes.