An Ode to Rylee's Shoes...

This post is dedicated entirely to Rylee's love obsession with shoes. Typical of women, though a bit earlier than I expected, Rylee is absolutely captivated by shoes. From the first time when she was maybe eight months old that she brought her little pink shoes to me and insisted that I put them on her, Rylee has spent more waking hours finding shoes, carrying shoes, wearing shoes, removing shoes, and providing shoes for others, than any other activity she has ever been involved in, bar none.

If she doesn't have shoes on, she finds a pair and brings them to us, holding them up with sincerity, begging us to put them on. If we don't have shoes on, she will go to the closet, where all the shoes are piled up on the floor, select a matching pair, (flip flops for Mel, tennis shoes for me) and bring them to us, throwing them at our bare feet with an insistent squeak that we immediately don presented shoes. If she finds a pair of our shoes laying around, whether she has shoes on already or not, she will try to stand in them and, if she is succesful in getting her feet in them, will then shuffle her way around the house in her new prizes. If she finds someone else's shoes laying around, especially if it's a style she's never seen before, she will study them, pick them up, test them, try them, and then either wear them herself or set out to find the rightful owner who obviously is unaware that they should still be wearing them.

So here are a few pictures from throughout her lifetime wearing, playing with, and exploring: Shoes.

-Josh