Footloose

Shoes are good right?

Shoes go on feet so that feet can do their thing;

like walking, or running, jumping, and heck, even dancing.

Nika asked me the other day (she's very into the who did what questions lately) who was it exactly who invented shoes?

She elucidated that in her bible book Noah is wearing sandals, but Adam and Eve aren't, so one can assume that somewhere between the snake and the boat someone invented shoes.

I can only think that like everything that was lost in the fall from Eden, so was lost our impervious and hobbit-tough feet. Hence the need for shoes. 

I love shoes, don't get me wrong- I'm female after all -but today I had a pretty singular shoe shopping experience that wasn't one to raise my dopamine levels.

Leo got his AFO's yesterday.

And man, there is nothing cut loose about them.

But the idea here is that they will help shape his ankles back into alignment, because right now he's got some pretty big pronation happening which is affecting him from his tootsies all the way up to his hips. They are supposed to even help with his walking.

He needs this.

It's great that he finally has them, but like any thing in the special needs section of the store, it comes with a complimentary dose of heart ache.

Not a lot, because in the realm of things AFO's aren't really all that tough. Although Leo screaming in the super sonic range every time I try to get them on does contradict that fact just a tiny bit...

And the fact that all of his shoes no longer fit.

Special needs shoes made to accommodate orthotics? Out of my price range. 

All that on top of some new issues at school makes this new development in Leo's life seem just a tiny bit tough.

So here I found myself, in the little boy's shoe section, trying to find shoes that would fit not only the little lion man's toes but also his AFOs. While Leo was blessedly distracted with the Thomas the Train sneakers box, I tried sneaker after sneaker: first seeing how wide the opening could get, wether or not the laces could be redone, or the straps, second, taking the AFO's out of my purse and sticking them into the shoe. Out of the myriad of cute little boy shoes, I found two pairs that might work. To Leo's disappointment, they weren't the Thomas ones.

Sure Converse are cool right? Especially when laced at the bottom with AFO's sticking out.

Definitely the start of a new fashion trend!

Right now he's wearing them on and off during the day to acclimate his skin to the new pressures and get him used to the new balance and posture of his feet and legs.

I think he (and I) have definitely had better days.

No biggie, I know he'll get used to them.

At some point..but probably not today. Probably not tomorrow either.

But after that? Who knows, little lion man might bust out some footloose moves of his own, because after all, feet are good for a lot of things, but in Leo's book, they are the best for dancing.