Shoe Shopping

Dorothy has been wearing sandals and socks the past couple weeks that it has been cold (on the days she's not wearing my shoes). Really, she has. I had been perusing thrift stores and consignment stores like crazy, but I never found anything that both Dorothy and I were okay with. Let me explain what I mean by that last statement.

If Dorothy had her way, she would be wearing high heels in her own size all the time. She is also okay with obnoxiously pink, lacey, and sparkly sneakers, but her heart is really with the dressier, more grown up shoes.
If I had my way, Dorothy would have a cute pair of mary janes for church and dressier occasions, and a pair of generic tennis shoes to wear outside. Clearly, our interests clash. Though, I am the one with the wallet, and therein lies the POWER.

That being said, I finally got sick of hunting for a find at Goodwill and headed to Shoe Carnival, armed with my wallet and all the strength I could muster. As we headed to the toddler shoe section, we passed through the women's where Dorothy immediately saw heels and started grabbing for them. "No," I say, "we're getting shoes to FIT your feet." So onward we go, one of us optimistic because we've already walked past one hurdle, and the other one feeling rejected and down trodden already.
We browsed. I tried in vain to get Dorothy to put on a decent pair of sneakers, but she threw a terrible-twos-worthy fit when I even tried to slip one one. Then we found these.


Dorothy saw them first. She grabbed. She begged. They were clearly the most grown up shoes in the toddler section. I put them on her feet and she walked around the shoe section happily for the rest of the shopping trip... until I tried to help her into more sneakers. I bought them.
I actually really like these, they look like something I would wear. I don't like that they have a little heel, which makes her a little more unstable, but this is the girl who has safely walked around in 3 inch heels that are 3x as big as her feet. I'm really glad now that I bought them, because it's made getting ready to go out much much easier when she's happy to put them on.

On a side note, we did find one pair of sneakers she liked, but there was no way on earth I would buy them. Imagine these: Silver glittering faux leather on the toes and edges, pink sparkly lace on the sides, pink sparkly shoe laces, and glittering flowers littered randomly around the shoe. I like pink and all, but that's just too much. So instead, I bought a pair of simple white sneakers with some small sparkles and pink flowery details that are there if you look, but in no way overwhelming. She is mad when I put them on her for outside playtime, but she gets over it. Every girl knows you can't play on a teeter totter or go down slides in pumps, even toddler size pumps.