shoes

When walking is new, you want a shoe with a soft, flexible sole so they can really feel their feet on the ground. Unfortunately, a lot of the really cute baby Nikes and other hip shoes have really hard, thick soles. My favorite of the soft sole "early walker" shoes are Robeez, Freshly Picked and Old Soles. Robeez has a lot of designs that don't jive with me on a personal level, but the shoes are well made, they stay on, they are great for early walking, and not all the designs are that bad. Freshly Picked is a little ubiquitous, but still super cute. Old Soles are a little more expensive, but I love the design and they are probably my top pick in this category. Once walking is more established, you want a real sole (the early walker shoes will get totally destroyed once you have real toddling), but you still don't want anything too firm. My top picks here are See Kai Run and Native, both of which make good looking shoes that strike a great balance between being lightweight and flexible, but a more substantial shoe.