The Emperor’s first shoes

This past Monday was a day of firsts for us, as we not only discovered that our son had finally had his first tooth break through, but we also made the pilgrimage to the local mall to purchase his first pair of shoes. We realize he isn’t walking just yet, but he will walk along furniture or anything else he happens to be holding onto at the time. Besides, I just feel weird when we are out and about running errands and he’s only wearing socks. It feels like I’m doing something wrong as a dad and now that we have some cool kicks for him to wear when we go out I’m more at ease.

As with most purchases in our household the driving force behind the search for his shoes was driven by a coupon that was set to expire. Very rarely do we make a purchase, even for things we need, and I can’t find a coupon for it that my wife has stashed in the omnipresent coupon holder, which has now taken up residence in my suburban assault vehicle.

Maybe it is a guy thing, or even a single guy thing, but I can’t for the life of me remember ever hunting down coupons for anything, ever. Not that I didn’t like getting a deal on things, I just can’t remember ever consciously pouring through flyers in the off chance there would be a coupon for something I might need. Ever since I met my wife that has all changed and I even find myself sorting through things looking for deals. I’ll even try other brands or stores just because I’ve got a coupon. Don’t even get me started on two for one dinner deals, but before the kid came we were addicted to restaurant.com.

In any event, after the obligatory stops at the other children’s clothing outfitters in the mall we marched down to Stride Rite to look at baby shoes. As we entered the store I had a very surreal, out of body experience. It was almost as if I had been taken back twenty five years in time and was there to get my latest pair of shoes for school. What brought me back was that not only were the shoes much cooler than what I remember them being, but they were freaking expensive. I don’t think I paid that much money for my last pair of shoes, let alone for some that my son might wear for three months if I am lucky.

We looked at a number of different options and were helped by a very friendly and knowledgeable salesperson – a rarity in today’s retail world, just ask Circuit City. As luck would have it the store was running a buy one, get one half off sale that week and we were impervious to resist. I mean really, deals like that are like crack to the bargain shopper. So, about an hour later we departed the store with not one, but two pairs of shoes for little man. He seemed to like the ones for him to wear now so much that we left them on him with the second pair for when he is really tearing it up safely in their box in the stroller.

All in all it was a good day with the family. Little man was wearing his new kicks as we annoyed him by constantly peeking at his little tooth nub, my wife was relaxed after a long weekend working second shift and my doctor took me off the insulin injections during the office visit I had earlier that morning. We retreated to the confines of a corner booth at The Cheesecake Factory for a celebratory early dinner. The only kicker to the whole day? With the sale we never even got to use the coupon that started us on this whole expedition.