Happy Feet

This was somewhat of a major milestone for our little guys and gal, so I am posting this even though it happened a while ago!

Since the kids are getting therapy to help reach their developmental milestones (to help catch-up, really), we had been getting advice on when they should be getting shoes, what kind would help them, hinder them, etc... So, the advice garnered was to find the old fashioned kind of baby shoes...the cheap, ugly (but great, apparently!) old, plain baby shoes. Thinking they should be easy to find at a major retailer, I set out to find 3 pair. Well, wouldn't you know, they were impossible to find! I searched for weeks, with the urgency of needing shoes and their first birthday impending, I was coming up with absolutely nothing.

Lucky for me, I had an ace in my pocket! Actually, that makes it sound like I planned what happened next, but it was sheer luck and love from our wonderful family. My mother-in-law had decided that since the kids all had very wide feet (the Ertel feet!) coupled with the fact that they needed good stability in their first shoes, her and Dad Ertel wanted to get the kids Stride Rite shoes for their first birthday. Wow! I was thinking, what an awesome gift!

We set out a week before their birthday to the mall, hoping to find a good pair of walking shoes for all three. I was a little worried how expensive they might be, after all, Stride Rite was a great quality brand, but pricey. I didn't want Mike's parents to spend so much money on something so transient!

We arrived at the crowded mall, Mike's dad proudly rolling the stroller through the masses. Up in the elevator, the "oohs" and "ahhs" and "how do you do its" abound.

Proud Papa


We make it to the itty bitty Stride Rite, only to realize that our massive stroller doesn't fit into the store with so many people surveying the shelves. We laughed a little and went in to "sign up" for a fitting. So many customers, we had to be put on a waiting list. Yikes! The moment of truth had finally come...the price check.

Waiting our turn


Picking up the first shoe I see, my mind is screaming at me, but I keep these few thoughts to myself. If anyone has ever shopped for or for a moment even been in a Stride Rite store, you know just how expensive a piece of leather can be. It is downright sickening. Did they have to strip the leather from a rare baby cow in Istanbul? How can they be this expensive??? Now, I am a girl of simple things. I like garage sales, consignment stores, freebies. In other words, I am seriously cheap. I just about fainted when I saw the price of the first pair I picked up! Simple, plain white baby "prewalkers". $22 a pair. Times 3. Whoa! For shoes they will grow out of faster than you can blink! I need to sit down. Then I picked up the next pair. Holy Moses! $48 freakin' dollars! WHAT?! I felt like I was going to throw up, casting away any social pressure to dampen the shock and disgust I was feeling at that very moment. Eyes wide with shock, squealing at Mom Ertel in protest.

I kept asking...are you sure you want to do this?? I was worried before we even left the house that this was too much to spend, and now that I know the price was more than double what I was expecting, I felt immeasurably guilty. Sweat beading on my forehead... feeling queasy in my affluent surroundings. Looking around at all of the other patrons who were purchasing 3 or 4 pair for their 8 year old kiddos...just because they liked them. Not for the merit of quality shoes to help them learn to stand and walk (what I am telling myself is the only reason we are buying!)...just because they were cute. Heck, if I could afford everything I thought was cute, I'd also be able to afford 3 nannies and a summer home in Southern France. Sign me up!

I was whirling with the thoughts of so much money and the envious people watching when we were called to be fitted. A nice lady helped us to learn the sizes of our babies with the standard foot measurement gauge. The boys, we already guessed, were a Size 5, Triple E width. I had no idea a foot could be that wide! On top of wide, they are also thick and puffy on top, making for a difficult fit.







So, she gave us our options for our wide foot boys, which were a whopping two different kinds. White or blue. Wow! I guess that made our job easier, though! I was getting a little nervous about the choice, since they have so many kinds of shoe. Besides different colors and styles, they have velcro or laces, prewalker, standing and walker! Can't they be all things for that price? I wanted to ask this question so badly, but decided it might sound a bit belligerent and bitter. So, I held my tongue and chose white for Cole and blue for Braden.

Braden, showing some leg


My new blue shoes!


Cole's turn


Showing off his new white beauties...


Grandma, wrangling the other two


The beaming boys


Alex, on the other hand had normal feet! My family's feet are nothing but normal, so we will see what happens as she gets older. The boys already got the Ertel Foot Curse, so Alex will most likely get stuck with the Collins Foot Curse. lol... Big feet, big toes, and lots of problems. Let's hope she stays the way she is now! We chose the darling white with pink flowers. So cute.

Princess in her White and Pinks


All in all, it was a very productive day...the kids love their new shoes and so do the therapists. The kids love to play with each other's, perhaps thinking that these are the newest toys of the month! The shoes do help them stand more surefooted and flat, give them more balance and challenge them to deal with them as they crawl. They are a wonderful investment and should last them the whole summer. Thank you Mom and Dad Ertel for this wonderful gift! We are truly grateful for this offer because it is helping the kids so much with their progress and it is something we would have never been able to do for them. And they are so darn cute!

Grandma and B


Papa and B


Grandma taking a picture of Cole and Cole!

For the Love of Avocado

I have to admit, I l-o-v-e avocado. Despite Mike's disgust, I cannot get enough of the great green goodness! I remember watching a popular survival show on Discovery Channel a few years back; one where the host was struggling to get back to civilization (purposely lost in some remote area), and "teaching" you; the viewer, comfortable in your armchair, how to get out of any sticky situation and maybe even live well amidst certain death. Each show amazed me; how he knew all the little tricks from making a raft of vines and driftwood to just how much protein is in an ant...I was pretty impressed with this guy. Even though he empowered you to remember these little tidbits (just in case), I never really wanted to be in the same predicament he plunged himself into weekly. That is, until one show...he was lost (again, deliberately - oy!), I believe on one of the Hawaiian volcano lava flows...barren...extremely hot...extremely dangerous...and then he happened upon a cluster of trees. An avocado forest. Oh. My. God. This wasn't survival...this was HEAVEN! Talk about the easiest show he has ever done! I think I would have just stayed there, gorging on avocado, building a rescue sign out of the peels and pits. Take your time!

Anyway, now that you have my general feeling for the amazing monounsaturated miracle fruit, I can continue (well, start actually) my story! Much to my absolute bliss, Alex has inherited the blinding avocado love gene. Yahoo! Someone to share the fun!

I have been a big believer that kids will eat and love pretty much whatever you put in front of them on a consistent basis. I have come to realize that we have a lot of control over their eating habits and food preferences. And I am taking this job very seriously! I have to believe that I, myself, do not love whole wheat bread and crave mac and cheese mostly because I grew up on all the "bad stuff". No offense to my parents, because they had no idea that high fructose corn syrup would end the world at the time, but I became accustomed to eating junk food, carb-laden comfort food, pop, etc. So, my thinking is that if I pump them full of anything and everything healthy and natural (while I can!), that they will never have to "re-program" themselves to eat right.

That being said, I have been giving them lots of good "funky" stuff to try - avocado, hummus, tofu - along with lots of fruits and veggies and lean meats to round out the meals! Braden is allergic to egg-whites...so that is also prompting me to go with as natural and as raw as we can find...so as not to worry about the hidden-egg ingredient discovered post-meal. His allergy has forced me to really start reading that sometimes long and scary ingredient list on the back of the package and after that, I want to change our diet as well. When I say scary, I mean scary. What the heck is BHT? It's in way too many things. And that is just the beginning of the need-a-chemistry-degree-to-know-what-I-am-ingesting "awakening". I have come to realize that it's actually just easier and better to eat something without a label. Like an apple. ;)

So, back to the avocado. mmmm....oh! sorry! Just getting hungry there... All three really like the avocado - swiping the cubes up faster than I can throw them on the tray. But Alex was even funnier - I caught her using both hands to greedily gobble up all she could fit in her mouth! I saw that her tray was empty, and she was about to put the last piece in her mouth, so I plopped a few more cubes down. Before her hands got to her mouth her eyes lit up and she scooped down for more, trying to fit more in her hand. I then noticed that she already had two pieces in each hand but she couldn't wait to get more! She dropped all five cubes and started kicking wildly, grunting in excitement and frustration. She wanted them all - and NOW! It was too funny...and she ended up getting everything on her tray.

They have all liked everything we have put in front of them so far - let's hope the trend continues! The only problem is that it's all starting to get so messy. Mike and I aren't really big on the mess..especially times three! We are both clean freaks in our own ways. (Most people who know me would NOT describe me as a clean freak, but it does bug me nonetheless!) It takes almost as long to clean them up as it did for them to eat! Braden has learned "peek-a-boo"...unfortunately, he loves to do it when his hands are smeared with jelly or spaghetti sauce. After the avocado tonight, he was close to resembling a giggling Incredible Hulk with 6 tiny teeth. ;) Try not to laugh at that.

The Hulk, green eyebrows and all....


Little Miss Alex, super messy girl


And Cole bug...actually not so bad today!