Leather Shoes + Me = Love

So, last year when a friend found these brand new (not anymore) pink and purple Stride Rites at a garage sale for 50 cents, I quickly fell in love.



They're all leather, I'm sure they're as comfy as they feel, and they stay on the foot. The velcro doesn't go anywhere, and I'm not kidding. I would love them for this reason alone. When Annika wears these shoes, I don't have to keep checking her feet for missing articles. But, as kids do, they outgrow things and so I've had my eye out for the next size shoes for Annika.

My search ended today with these and I'm so excited.



Another pair of beautiful leather Stride Rites, just perfectly big on her, and a whopping $11. I practically danced out of the store. Plus, the plain brown color will make them very versatile. And I'll save more than $10.50 by not buying things I don't need at garage sales. (No offense to you, Mr. Potato Head.)

A word for Keira

Keira and I have been working on sounds. Ah-goo, bababa, and Mamama. At some point I realized she's been totally ignored linguistically, so I'm trying to chat with her somewhat regularly. I say, "Mamamamama" and she says, well, nothing usually. But the other day when she wasn't getting the attention she thought she needed, she hollared out "mamamama!" Yay! Her first word. Of sorts.

Confession

Annika is adjusting nicely to her new bed, a twin mattress on the floor. The rule is, she stays in her bed until somebody comes to get her. So, yesterday morning, Andy went in to fetch her and she was sitting on the edge of the bed holding a kleenex.

Daddy praises her, "Good job, you stayed in your bed!"
She looks guiltily at her kleenex and says, "This on floor, I go get it."

My baby isn't a baby anymore.

And she's got 3 stitches to prove it. She climbed out of her crib the other day, all by herself. This didn't result in the concussion I expected, but she did slice open her chin. On what we're not really sure. But we got to spend 4+ hours at the ER. Keeping company with the child who had 4 dots of poison ivy on one arm. And the other child who came home from school with hives. I'm not kidding. Why doesn't the check-in nurse tell these people to go home so the suicidal teenager and the obese man with high blood pressure can be treated in a timely manner? Then, just to top it all off, Andy woke up the next morning with poison ivy on his arm. If he gets within 10 feet of poison ivy, it jumps out and bites him. He's so sensitive to the stuff. But that's another story. The conclusion of this matter is that Annika has a big bed now and Keira has taken over the crib. And my baby is now a little girl who can get in and out of bed all by herself and I don't like it one bit.