Baby Update + His First Pair of Shoes

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Stride Rite for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine, just like always. It is always fun to partner with brands I’ve loved since I was a kid…especially when it involves tiny shoes 😉 

This little man has decided its time for his top teeth to start coming in and I feel like I need a second pair of hands around here all the time. I also think he’s figured out that laughing is almost as good a way to get attention as crying because sometimes when he’s laying on the floor and I’ve gotten distracted, he’ll just start giggling and look at me. If I start to look away, he giggles again. He may be as smart as he is cute. Hashtag biased mother.

Anyway, fun story:

Growing up in Tokyo, my family spent two months each summer visiting relatives in the States. It meant lots of fun with the cousins, plenty of time at the cabin in southern Utah (along Texas and New Hampshire), and epic back-to-school shopping because it was so much more expensive if we needed to get more things in Tokyo throughout the year. In addition to getting a new wardrobe, part of the ritual was heading to Stride Rite. Each of us got two pairs of school shoes (one in our size, and one in half a size up because they needed to last us all year long), and a pair of church shoes. I remember the shoe shopping just fine, but what I can’t figure out is how my mom got ALL of that back to Japan.

I also remember my mom insisting on that shoe store or something because they needed to last us all year long. So, I thought it fitting that Lincoln’s first pair of shoes is from Stride Rite’s new Surprize line for Target (a childhood staple + a current shopping go-to).

^when I first put these on him he was SO curious, as if to say “new toys on my feet, mom?”
^we can pretend he was excited to open a box of shoes…and not just to be playing with a box…


^I died over these little winter boots when I saw them at Target …so I got them a bit bigger and can’t wait for him to wear them just as he starts walking sometime next winter
^not that he needs them right now, but those rubber toes would be awesome for running + playing and not wearing out (they also have flexible outsoles which let your kids have a natural step as they learn to walk).

^he also just decided he liked grass while I was snapping these pictures…
^a boy’s first bite of grass documented 😀