Alright, I give in...it's not the shoes, it's the boy

Colin got his first pair of shoes on November 6, 2010 when he was just over seven months old.  And no, I didn't record the milestone in his baby book (which is still blank for the record), I determined the date based on the picture I snapped on my blackberry.

From that day on, Colin has never outgrown a pair of shoes.  Every single pair has been replaced due to wear and tear.  He's a boy - he plays hard. 

Colin's first pair of shoes

So for the last year and a half we've made the trip out to Stride Rite every other month to buy a new $50+ pair of sneakers. Since Stride Rite has about three boy shoes to choose from vs. 1,000 girl shoes, Colin's had the same pair (figuratively) for the past 10 months.  In reality he's had about seven pairs of the exact same shoe.  Let's not even get started on the dorkiness of boys clothing and the limited shoe choices.  I'll save that rant for another day...

I don't really mind plopping down $50 for a pair of sneakers I know he'll only get a month or so out of - as parents, we're used to that. Kids outgrow and stain clothes immediately.  You put your child in a white top and it's guaranteed to be spaghetti day at day-care. That slightly expensive polo is a midriff shirt after one trip through the dryer. And why bother buying hats, mittens, or sunglasses - those get lost or stepped on within minutes.

But the last pair of sneakers lasted two weeks.  Seriously.  Two weeks.  After 14 measly days it looked like they had been crammed down the garbage disposal and then dragged behind a truck for 20 miles.  Holes, tears,  and toes poking out. The velcro was frayed and refused to stick together. It was pitiful.  And, I was ticked.  How could they only last two weeks?!?  I was about 10 minutes from calling the manufacturer and giving them a piece of my mind...

Last summer at work, our group spent hours perfecting a dynamic, and (what we thought) was an easy to use, fool-proof budget file.  Each country simply had to enter the data, return the file, and we'd be able to covert currency, review a few check figures and load it.  Things didn't really go according to plan.  People added rows, deleted tabs, changed formats, entered debits where credits should have been.  It was chaos.  And we were back to square one - loading budgets differently for each and every entity while trying to figure out what the $%&# they did to our perfect files. 

I suppose Colin is the same way - he doesn't tread carefully to avoid getting a speck of dirt on his shoes. He sees a mud puddle and runs into it.  He drags his feet, picks at the rubber soles in the car, and uses his sneakers as brakes when he's running after his toy cars. He doesn't follow directions - he does things his own way.  He has fun.

As a little experiment, I documented the first week of his latest pair of $50+ sneakers. After seven days they are already looking a little rough around the edges.  There are tears, the rubber is peeling back.  Let's face it, their days are already numbered... Colin's knees are skinned, his cheeks are slightly sunburned, but there's a huge smile on his face every time he plays outside.

While I grimace as I fork over another $50 for a pair of disposable sneakers, I find some comfort in the fact that my Amazon Prime membership will ensure that Colin's toes only have to poke out of the tips of the shoes for another 24 to 48 hours! 

Sneakers out of the box

Sneakers - Day 1

Sneakers - Day 7