ailbhe | Shopping, shlopping, and shoes (Reply)

We went to the Farmer's Market this morning, and bought a sausage in a bun (me) and an egg ina bun (Rob). I shared mine with Linnea. then we foudn someone selling dairy-free carrot cake, and I bought some for myself and Linnea. And we found someone selling real cucumbers grown in the real ground and not in a supermarket somewhere. And then we bought An Enormous Parsnip, like in the fairy tale, and then we went painting.

Linnea painted a huge piece of paper, using her hands, feet, three paintbrushes, a polystyrene cup, and copious amounts of red, blue and yellow paint. then she painted the backs of my and Rob's hands in yellow. She also finger-painted swirls on her tummy, though she later rubbed them to splodges. She had a little tumble off a stool, so we washed her off and took her for her snack, which was the carrot cake. I got to eat the marzipan carrot on top because it wouldn't be good for Linnea, really, and besides, mmmm.

We have decided to buiy Linnea an easel. We were going to do it today, but we had other priorities.

First to John Lewis, who had one pair of shoes in stock that fit her. Her toes are at the very tops of her current shoes; after all, they are almost 8 weeks old. The shoes are boys' beige hiking-shoe style trainery things, only not soft like trainers, but hard like leather. We also bought a kitchen scales, a bathroom scales, and a smaller lunchbox, since Linnea's appetite has shrunk lately and the usual lunchbox is the size of several small states.

We went for lunch at Cafe Iguana; I ordered soup, which was so salty I couldn't eat it (Rob did) and Rob ordered black bean pancakes. Then Linnea napped while we did, um, something else - Oh yes, I got a phone upgrade. I am officially a Very Infrequent User, by the way. I basically call Rob and my mother, and that's about it. I occasionally call other people to say "Are you free on Wednesday?" but I rarely actually converse very much. If I was going to do that I could do it from my landline where thereception never cuts out.

After Linnea woke, we went to In-Step, the StartRite shop, and had her fitted there. We again found one pair to fit, and received a lecture about how she has to wear "proper shoes" because lightweight or canvas ones will make her walk rolling in on the inside of her feet, the way her father, mother, maternal aunts and grandmother, paternal grandfather, and paternal cousins walk. So it's got to be the shoes, right? This was diagnosed by watching her walk in rigid-soled shoes for the first time; "If she was used to proper shoes she'd be able to walk in them," said the fitter.

And that shop offered us trainers, either pink and silver, or black and silver, with a strong preference for Nike. There was one pink pair that fit Linnea to my satisfaction.

And there was a pair we didn't get to try on because Linnea had a tantrum. Then she refused to wear any shoes, or any socks, or go in the buggy, so we carried her around until she calmed down, and brought her home on the bus.

Hopefully, on Monday I will try Clarks and John Lewis again and they will be helpful. I might schlep all the way to the Clarks concession in Mothercare World. Think of me, with my meltdown-toddler, as you go about whatever tranquil, low-decibel activities you usually pursue before noon on a Monday.

(She objects when Rob serves someone else's dinner before hers. She carries her plate in to the kitchen and thwaps him with it, yelling the toddlerese equivalent of "Feed ME!")