My daughter recently learned to walk, much to my excitement (and consternation). As a first time mom, I kind of thought that she would take one step, then another, and then be off and running. At least, that’s what everyone kept telling me. Turns out walking is much more of a process than I had anticipated.
Phoenix would hesitantly take a step or two, then drop right back to her knees. From the time that she took her first steps, it was about a full month before she started walking around consistently.
Once she started wanting to get around on her own, shoes suddenly became very important. I had mostly not bothered before. For one thing, all she did was kick them off, leaving me constantly searching for the other match. And they were a pain in the butt to actually put on her feet. Why spend money on something that would just be more trouble than it was worth?
So that left us needing to find shoes that were cute, well made, and that would actually stay on her feet. Yeah, right.
Luckily, that’s when I received an email about these cute shoes from Ikiki, a company that believes that toddler’s shoes should be made for toddlers. Most kids shoes are small adult shoes at best, and completely non-functional and unsupportive at worst. These are designed to help your child actually learn to walk better by taking a heel-to-toe step. When they do, the shoe rewards them by squeaking (which I swear is NOT AT ALL annoying and actually super, super adorable, I promise). And just in case it’s not, you can turn the squeakers off.
Phoenix loves her squeaky shoes, and smiles at me every time I put them on her. The squeaks make her giggle, and she (now!) runs around comfortably in her shoes. I try not to do a lot of pink in her wardrobe, but I thought the Princess Sakura shoes were too, too cute. I would definitely give these as a first birthday gift!
You can check out Ikiki’s lineup, including the squeaky shoes, here.
I received no compensation for this post, just the product for testing. As always, all opinions are true and 100% my own.
