Walk with me

Stardust has been strafing around furniture for the last 6 months, and for the last 2 months, he walks holding onto my hand for balance. He will probably be walking independantly pretty soon!

We have tried to let him learn to walk barefoot indoors as long as possible, in order to encourage healthy foot development. However, when we are out, Stardust has been getting increasingly more restless in his stroller, trying desperately to stretch his legs by wiggling and kicking them in the air. I would love to let him run around barefoot outdoors, but the cement pavements can be too hot for tender little trotters and with our tropical soil harbouring all sorts of deathly nasties, it is probably better to have some form of footwear as protection.

So, I have been dragging the little boy all around several shops looking for a good first pair of shoes. Although I was loathe to spend a fortune on a pair of shoes that will be quickly outgrown, the shoes would have to meet the following criteria:
1. They have to be comfortable (that is, after walking in the shoes for a few minutes, there should be no red marks on his feet caused by rubbing against the inner lining of the shoe)
2. They have to have non-slip soles suitable for walking on wet or smooth surfaces
3. They should not impede his sense of balance

Looking for good walking shoe for beginners was much more difficult that I expected. I tried the usual places: Bubblegummers, Clark's, Colettee...but the results were all similar: the shoes, even with rubber soles, caused him to slide around the floor and lose his balance. Some of the shoes didn't even wrap his feet well, so he could kick them off and send them flying across the room. There were other baby shoes that were much better, but these were expensive and had suede soles that did not appear the least bit waterproof.

In the end, we found a great pair of shoes at Metro, Paragon called Pedipeds. These shoes were not only the only pair of shoes that did not cause Stardust to fall over, but the foot support was so good that he even tried taking a few independant steps. They did cost almost as much as Clark's shoes, but I noticed that the workmanship was much finer - all the outer parts were handstitched!

The only drawback, as far as I could see, is that there is such a fabulous range of incredibly cute designs that I found it really difficult to choose just one pair!