With each passing day, I find myself trying to solve some new challenge with raising four toddlers, aka “quaddlers”. They are a cunning lot who inspires a little ingenuity on my part (and George’s) just to manage day to day life. While my ideas are born from being surrounded by four toddlers, I think many of them could be helpful to any parent of little ones so I’m sharing.
Before the quads could walk, I rarely bothered putting shoes on them. I figured that shoes at that age were primarily for admiration. Once they began walking, we did start going out more often, but the weather was warm then. I had no problems whatsoever putting sandals on their tiny feet.
The game changed with cooler weather and different shoes like boots and tennis shoes. My favorite baby shoes are the magenta Converse given to us by my cousin, Jennifer. However, cramming baby feet into them is an all out Olympic sport. I typically unlace them to the first row of eyes and try to cajole their feet inside. It’s absolutely frustrating. I know what you’re probably thinking…don’t put high top shoes on a baby because it’s not practical. BUT- I LOVE these shoes and I like enjoying things gifted to us. I knew there had to be a better way, and joked about getting a baby shoe horn. I didn’t expect they actually existed, but they do! Day after day, I forgot to search Amazon for one (Amazon is almost the sole provider of stuff in our house these days). There isn’t technically a “baby” shoe horn, but I did find a small one and we tried it today. It worked like a charm! It took a little convincing to get it to work, but it was a vast improvement over the other times Rylin wore these shoes. I think I’ll add “small shoe horn” to my list of baby gear suggestions.
hugs!
Amber
Four to Adore 
Ah, THAT’S why I never needed a baby shoe horn! I have a blanket ban on impractical shoes. 😉
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Lol! True, I believe very practical shoes would never need this.
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Great idea! It warms my heart to see the hand me downs being put to good use! She looks adorable in them!
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I thought you’d like seeing this post! It doesn’t look like Tay wore these much, and I’m betting it’s because you didn’t have a shoe horn!
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I love this idea! Those shoes look hard to take off, and I imagine when you have eight little feet running around, leaving shoes here and there, shoes that stay on would be a blessing. And let’s not even mention in the car…I don’t know about your toddlers, but mine loves to take his shoes off in the car and throw them, since there’s nothing I can do about it when I’m driving. Shoes like that look quite practical to me! And now if I ever buy some, I’ll know how to get them on easily. 🙂 Thanks!
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You know what- they DO stay on! They figured out how to undo Velcro so other shoes do come off, and one shoe was even MIA for several weeks. Harper ended up wearing just one shoe into Cracker Barrel because the other was lost in the van. These converse are easy enough to remove when unlaced, but toddlers lack that dexterity , thankfully.
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Back when the girls wore the white Buster Brown high top leather shoes, we used a teaspoon or tablespoon to help get the shoes on, works just as well as a shoe horn! Necessity is the mother of invention! 🙂
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Haha, Susan! I’m thinking you need to be writing these.
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Great idea! When shoes frustrate me I must admit I just use the leather slip on shoes… Maybe I need to invest in a small shoehorn (or a teaspoon, lol!)
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I never tried a teaspoon, but it’s worth a shot. Anna pointed out that the effort with high tops helps prevent toddlers from removing them. I like how she thinks!
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