I never buy shoes for the kids. Seriously. We do lots of barefooting, so shoes aren't totally necessary except when we leave the house. Because of this, each child has exactly 2 pairs of shoes, not including the ever-necessary pair of rubber boots. Call me neglectful--I'm okay with it.
The other evening, we ventured out to Peebles (our local department store: think Emporium) to find new shoes for spring/summer weather. After trying on at least 10 pairs each, we found shoes for the boys only. Pretty successful. Well, you can't even begin to imagine the uncontainable joy that Jon experienced. He wore the shoes to bed, all around the house the next several days (too rainy to wear them outside), everywhere. I've never seen a child, especially a boy, so happy about new shoes. How will he react when I replace his underwear?! And what about socks? The excitement is never ending at our house.