Mondays

I'm thinking Mondays are going to end up being hard-to-blog days. I hang with the little ones (twoK and Three-a) in the morning, then I work all afternoon, then I got to aerobics (45 minutes), then dance class (1 hour 15), then prepare for teaching dance in oNe's class. Did I not tell you all about that? I wrote a post, or most of one, about teaching dance to first-graders, but then never finished it. I'll try to put up some information about it soon.

Today's subject.... Three-a's feet. (You can scroll back a few posts to see how cute they are with red toenail polish. However, we're not going to discuss toenail polish today.) Today, we're going to talk about Three-a's tendency to toe-in. (Warning: This post may be a little dull, but I needed to record the information.)

First, some background. When I was a kid, I was labeled "pigeon-toed" and had to wear HORRIBLE BRACES for several years. Then, all through elementary school, I had to wear "prescription" shoes. The prescription shoes had to be made from a certain kind of shoe, and boy, were they ugly. I hated them. I was teased by the other kids. (I am mostly over it.)

When Three-a and I went to visit my Mom, two of my family members pointed out how Three-a "toes-in".

Um, okay.

My family has thought each of the girls was pigeon-toed.* Apparently, they expected me to pass on this horrible deformity. The result of the comments resulted in me monitoring Three-a and how she walks. After observation, I have concluded she does have a slight tendency to toe in, but it's not too bad. It seems to be exacerbated when she wears some very inexpensive shoes from P*ayless. They are super cute, and she loves them, but I think it's probably not a good idea to let her wear them any more.

Saturday, I did some googling. I had googled this in the past, and I didn't learn much new but just so you know, and so it's recorded for posterity, I don't think her case is bad enough to warrant treatment. In addition, Three-a doesn't look like either of the pictures really. As I said above, I think it's more lack of support (arch support) in her cheap shoes that is causing her to walk on the inside of her foot and making it look more toed-in than it really is. (Also, from the pictures and the description, I am pretty sure that I had excess femoral anteversion. Note, for most causes, doctor's don't do anything any more. (Think of all the trauma I suffered, and it was probably needless.))

I'll discuss Three-a's feet and how she walks with her doctor at her 4-year-old well-kid check (but that's not until August). In the meantime, as I said above, she won't wear her cheap shoes any more. No sense in having her wear shoes that make the problem worse (or even just look worse). Maybe Three-a's been walking toed-in because she just wanted new shoes. Saturday, we went shoe shopping. I got her some shoes that have better support. She does walk "better" in them--much less toed-in-y.

Because of the "issue," we went to the really expensive shoe store. The place I never go and buy shoes unless they are on sale.... (Actually, I bought all of the "first shoes" there. It seemed important to have a little ritual for our new walker, but otherwise, sales ONLY there.)

So we went there and I checked out all the shoes. I found some I thought would be good. The very knowledgeable owner was there. He's a really nice guy, has kids of his own, and LOVES shoes for kids. He spotted what I was doing, and offered some suggestions. He helped us pick out a pair of shoes that do what I want them to do. (BONUS, I don't think they were THE MOST expensive shoes in the store.)

So there you go... The story of Three-a's feet and her new shoes.



*Yes, my family made me paranoid about twoK and oNe as well. I monitored both twoK and oNe for this and never saw pigeon-toed walking from them.