Magic shoes

One time Isaac had these jeans that he just couldn't outgrow. We called them his magic pants. They ended up fitting him for seven or eight months, which is a long time when you're only a year old and growing fast.

Isaac is three and a half now, and I mention these pants because for the past few months he has had magic shoes. Several pair, in fact. He is still wearing the Vans sneakers and Keen sandals we bought him an entire year ago! Worse, he is also still wearing the Stride Rite hiking boots and the rubber rain boots his paternal grandparents got him more than a year ago, in March 2008. I kept asking him if any of these shoes were getting too small, and he kept telling me no. When I checked, he appeared to be right. They still fit.

Was it possible that Isaac had four pair of magic shoes? Or were his feet just not growing?

Today I finally took him to the shoe store to find out. The sales clerk measured his feet and told us they were size nine and a half. That explained a lot. When his feet were measured a year ago they were size nine. Did his feet really grow just half a size in an entire year, even though he grew two inches in height and gained four pounds*? Or was he measured wrong last time?

Who knows? But perhaps he was only size eight and a half last year, and we bought shoes thinking he was size nine, which means we actually bought size tens -- to give him room to grow, you know. So for most of the past year the poor kid has been wearing shoes that were gigantically too big. To put it in perspective, last May we bought him Vans (which run a full size large) in size nine. We bought Vans again today, and what size did the sales clerk suggest? Size nine yet again.

I opted for nine and a half. I would have felt foolish buying the exact same size two years running. Why not just keep wearing the old size nine Vans, which finally fit him? Because they are totally worn out.

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*It's shocking to realize how much faster Laurel is growing -- she has grown five inches and gained six pounds in the last four months!