These shoes were made for walking

After everyone at daycare besides Avery came down with hand, foot and mouth disease there was one day 2 weeks ago where she was the only "baby" in Infant I. The normal transition age to Infant II is 10-11 months, but there was a major backlog from toddlers on down, so Avery stayed in Infant I until she was 1 week shy of 14 months. She was so over the little babies, she wanted big kid friends to walk and talk with. One of the teachers in Infant I said there had been so much talking and the teachers there aren't used to any baby-talk because the babies usually transition before they really start chattering. Avery and 4 of her closest compadres have just transitioned into Infant II. This is a work in progress, especially since she's been out sick this week, but I digress.

One fun thing about Infant II is they get to go outside and play a couple of times a day. The day when she was the only survivor of HFM, her teacher Alma took her over to the big kid room and she got to go outside. She had to borrow another little girl's shoes because I had never brought shoes there for her. She spent her first 13.5 months barefoot. So we realized she'd need to be getting used to shoes before she really transitioned to the next room. At Avery's birthday party, her little friend Ava had the cutest shoes from Babies R Us, so we set out to find her shoes there and ended up buying the exact same pair of velcro-on, pink flowered, rubber-soled shoes. So cute.

Whenever we would put them on her, she would sit down and touch the shoes and look at them and forget that she knew how to walk. A few days ago, Jon took Avery to the park with Quincy in her new shoes. She sat for a few minutes and he eventually coaxed her to stand and start walking. It's not easy walking in shoes after all this time barefoot. She fell a few times but did not want to stop walking. The very next day, Jon was getting ready to take her and Quincy for a walk and he put his shoes on. She had an epiphone, walked over to her own shoes and picked them up for Daddy to put on her feet. She wore them proudly as they walked down our favorite little neighborhood street. Neighbors came out to see her walking all by herself. This after she has spent the last 14 months in a sling on these walks. When they returned home she refused to take off her shoes. The next morning when she woke up the first thing she pointed to were her shoes. She is in love with her little pink sneakers and in love with the independence of walking down the street or path on her own. She doesn't want to hold a hand, or heaven forbid, be picked up. She is on a mission to walk, walk, walk and we wish her many, many miles and soft, grassy landings.