Shoes

We bought Rose new shoes about three weeks ago. She no longer fits them. I don’t know what the heck is going on, but her feet are growing like mad! So, yesterday we grabbed the cheque book and went out to buy yet another pair. We went to a one of those boutique childrens’ shoe stores in Haberfield, recommended by my friend Petra. Rose had a lot of fun running around grabbing shoes, and I Chris and I had a lot of fun looking for the most expensive pair. “Hey, look over here – these Spanish sandals are $130!!” Fortunately, we managed to find a reasonably priced pair of navy mary janes, and a pair of regular shoes for half off (old stock). We also bought them in the largest possible size that we could manage without Rose’s gait being seriously impaired.

After the shoe errand was dispatched Chris set off to find some Italian pastries (did I mention that the best Italian pastries in Sydney are from Haberfield?) and I took Rose over the road to a small park. As we were approaching a little boy of about two years ran up to the fence and said hello. We stopped to talk to him. He stuck his hand out to Rose from between the bars, and Rose tentatively took his hand.

She proceeded to strike up quite a friendship with this young larrikin, named Luca. (I say friendship, but I’m not sure what friendship means to the under-two set.) It was great fun watching her pick wildflowers with him (she picked them one by one, he grabbed whole fistfulls) and play peekaboo in the playground tunnel. They giggled and giggled. A lot of Rose’s interactions are with adults, and it was nice to see her engaged in some non-directed play. When it was time to go, Rosie waved and said, “bye bye” and Luca did the same. It’s always a bit sad to go home after a fun day.