It's A Girl Thing

John has never understood my obsession with shoes. I have more pairs of flip flops than he has total pairs of shoes, and at one point, I owned over 50 pairs of shoes. Sadly, I've become a little more picky as I age, and have not been a fan of certain kinds of soles and heels, so the only shoes I have bought in the past year have been new running shoes and a pair of clogs from LL Bean. Long story on the clogs, but I'll just say that I've been eyeing them for several years, thinking that 40 dollars was a little much, when they were discontinued and slashed down to 16 dollars.

Anyway, I've discovered a new way to get my shoe fix: my daughter.

For Christmas, Maureen wore a beautiful dress that was a birthday gift and she really needed shoes to cover the seam on her tights, so I bought her a tiny pair of black patent leather Mary Janes. They are not only the cutest thing ever, but go with a lot of her clothes.

Last Tuesday, it was seventy degrees (in January! But I'm not complaining...) so we spent a couple of hours at the playground. A lot of the other moms had the same idea, because there were a bunch of other kids there. Besides Maureen and another baby, there were six kids, all around age 3 or so, and they all played together beautifully.

In the course of the afternoon, three of the other mothers commented on Maureen's shoes. "Ohmigod, look at her SHOES! Those are the cutest things EVER! Where did you get those?" One mom even called her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter over to look.

Now, as far as my husband is concerned, the shoes are doing the trick if they keep her feet safe and her socks clean, fit well and don't cost a bomb. But he could care less if they match her outfit or if the little flower on the side coordinates with her shirt.

Johnny only has a few pairs of shoes (including snow boots), because his tennis shoes go with mostly everything. But the black Mary Janes, while adorable, don't go with everything.

And that sounds like a perfect excuse to go shoe shopping.