New Shoes and Amy's Birthday

One of my favourite children's shoe shops, in Maling Road, Canterbury, was having a really great sale last week.  I picked up a pair of Spanish leather shoes for Tabitha at 50 per cent discount - I favour Spanish shoes for myself, and these seemed to have the same high quality.  She is nearly grown out of her current shoes - stepping up to a giant size 20! - so new shoes are on the shopping list at the moment.

They are a very cheerful shade of pink:

Importantly, they have a buckle - now that she can remove her own shoes with velcro or press studs, I am on the look out for buckle shoes.  Otherwise she removes them every time she is in the car or pram, and sometimes absent-mindedly drops them overboard.  The backs are also nicely padded around the ankle.  Until babies are really confident with their walking and running, it is advised to keep them in soft-sole shoes, so their food and leg muscles can develop properly, and they learn to balance best.  These shoes have a simple soft leather sole.

These are my three favourite pairs of Tabitha's shoes, so far in her thirteen months on this earth.  Left, you see her first pair - little Bobux 'pram shoes' with diamante-centred leather flowers.  In fact, I liked these so much that I bought another pair in a larger size.  Centre, you can see her little Marc Jacobs mousie shoes.  They are completely adorable, and she gets plenty of comments on them.  Right, are her new shoes.  I love them, and keep picking them up to feel their super-supple leather.

It may not be shocking to learn that one of her first words - after mum, dad, cat - was SOOZ, or shoes.  In fact, 'sooz' was also my first word when I was a baby, so it runs in the family.

Here is my little monkey eating her favourite lunch - avocado sandwich.  Accessorised with avocado smear on the chin.  I would say that Tabitha's favourite foods are avocado, fish (all sorts, including sardines, grilled salmon or white fish, tinned tuna etc), cheese, and rice pudding.

On Saturday, my best friend Amy had her birthday lunch at FOG in Prahran.  Tabitha joined our table of a dozen girls (and one honorary male friend) for a long lunch.  She was in a bit of a mood, and was quite cross that she couldn't get down and wriggle all over the floor, but overall she fared okay.

At any rate, it was nice to get together with friends and enjoy a glass of Champagne.  And when we got home in the late afternoon, I handed Tabby to The Daddy and ran myself a nice long, hot bath, by candlelight, to recover from the mild trauma of wrangling a toddler in a relatively chic restaurant!

Here is the birthday girl:

Tabby and Mumma - her hair was crazy fluffy for some reason!

Could you imagine three paler females?  This is one trio you will not spot baking at the beach this Summer.  We will be hiding in one of those sun huts.

Tabitha was handed a small digital camera, which kept her thoroughly amused for quite a while - she enjoyed peering into the screen as she moved it around, watching all the pictures.

I entreat all parents of small babies - please, take your babes out to restaurants as often as you can!  Because once they reach toddlerhood, it sure does get a little more tiresome...