Fancy footwork

There's nothing like announcing, "it's a girl!" to bring out the Carrie Bradshaw in everybody. Pud received six pairs of shoes within a few days of her birth. So far her feet are too tiny to wear any of the shoes so I can't review them just yet. But I can offer a piece of advice, hold-off on buying baby shoes while you're pregnant. Newborns don't need shoes and you'll probably receive shoes as a gift once you have your baby.

Also, shoes are one of those types of baby items that are almost always gender-specific. So if you don't know the sex of your baby, you can't really start baby's collection until after his or her sex is determined. Except of course if you live in East Vancouver - then you're buying your kid Chuck Taylors.

Here's a snapshot of Pud's shoe collection so far:

While I was still pregnant and Pud's sex was undetermined, my mum put these shoes, pictured below, on hold at a baby store once she heard that the baby had a consistently high heart rate...old wive's tale proved right or lucky guess?

Green, snakeskin, bejeweled Falcottos.

When I found out I was pregnant I tried to knit the Caramel Diezel booties. But the pattern was deceptively challenging and I never figured out how to make the straps cross. If you're a knitter you can find the pattern on Saartje's knitting blog. Try it out, let me know how it goes.

Hand-knit Padraigs and Caramel Diezel booties.

The first pair has no label so I don't know the brand but they're basically Robeez knock-offs. The navy-blue pair of Mary Jane shoes are Smaller by see kai run, and the white shoes are by Robeez.

OK, so I lied. There are lots of non-gender-specific shoes. I received both of these pairs, below, before Pud was born. On the left are a pair of Serbian slippers my youngest brother brought home from a recent trip to Europe. And on the right is a beautifully hand-made pair of leather shoes by my good friend Melissa (besides being a cobbler, she's also a bee-keeper!)