NO-ONE WARNED ME . .

. . . about shopping for children's shoes!! Alice has been wearing shoes since February, every trip to buy leather shoes has been a challenge.

Ugh.

Dreadful.

Stressful.

Only partly successful.

Alice had her feet measured on Monday - that shoe shop could only fit black shoes, school shoes - she's going to have enough years of wearing shoes without starting early, besides which those shoes were nasty - embellished and bling, ugh.

So yesterday we went to Bristol to continue the search. We started off at the department store, now I know the first department to visit is children's shoes to get a computer generated appointment. This time we had a 60 minute wait, we browsed the girls' clothing department, took some things for a refund (!) and went off to the other shoe shop (luckily only next door). They had lots of black shoes, lots of patterned shoes, not many plainish shoes and no navy ones. They couldn't fit a pair for Alice - the ones we tried were too narrow and her feet bulged in the opening. We were advised to try 'T-bars'.

Back to the department store - in previous visits they've come a poor second to the shop that had already failed, I didn't hold out much hope! Then someone queue jumped and just asked for shoes - as she 'knew' her child's size, I wasn't happy and complained loudly, I was served almost immediately after complaining.

The sales girl brought out many pairs - I was impressed with the number of shoes she had in Alice's size, until I realised that she'd brought each style in the size of each foot!! Unfortunately she hadn't listened to the request for plain 'T-bars' so nearly all were unsuitable. The 'Mary-Janes' didn't fit as they bulged - just like they had in the previous shop. Eventually we found a very plain pair in navy - great on both counts, unfortunately though they were the only ones to fit they were only a 'reasonable' fit, after over 90 minutes (on this trip) of shoe shopping and reassurance that we wouldn't necessarily find a better fit, I bought them! £34 (or over $65), ugh. Also they are velcro fastening - I'm not a fan as Alice fidgets with them when she's bored in the pushchair or the car.

As an afterthought I mentioned shoes to wear for Alice's Christening - simple, £9, only 3 sizes available and luckily 1 was only a size bigger than Alice measures, we tried it and they fitted - let's hope she doesn't grow too quickly in the next few weeks.