clothes and shoes

It should not be this hard to clothe my almost 3 year old daughter...but it's a huge frustration.  Today we trecked over to Springfield to the children's shoe store, Luers. It's just about the only place I can find shoes to fit Lucy. She has a very wide foot - extra wide to be exact-  and  finding fall/winter shoes to fit her is so difficult. I'd love to be able to take her to Target and buy her the cute little shoes they have for girls, but I'm forced to go drop $60, yes, I said $60 for one pair of brown casual shoes that will have to go with everything. I also had to have the lady order a pair of black shoes as well. The black are a more casual shoe as well, but they'll have to do for church and holidays this year. The black ones are going to cost $50! The thing that irrates me the most is that there are only a few styles of shoes that even come in the extra wide. But, I hear from friends alot about how their kids also have really wide feet and they also have to buy expensive shoes. If it's fairly common for kids to have wide feet, then why is there so little selection?? And the lady at the store told me that some of the brands they carry are not offering the wide widths anymore?? WHAT??? 
Sometimes I am able to find shoes to fit her feet at Payless. Luckily they carry a Champion brand tennis shoe that comes in wide and so far, we've been able to get by with that. Last year I was able to find her a pair of brown mary-janes at Payless that fit her foot, but the frustrating thing about Payless is that no store carries the same thing. I find myself running all over central Illinois to the Payless stores trying to find the one shoe that might fit. So, today I decided that with being 32 weeks pregnant and not having the time or energy to do that, we'd just bite the bullet and buy 2 pairs of expensive shoes and be done with it. Although, I will have to take Lucy back in a week or so when the black shoes come in and make sure they fit.

Our next issue right now is clothes. Lucy's a bigger girl. It's not that she's overweight, she is just big for her age. She very height and weight proportionate but at almost 3 years old she's wearing sizes 4-6 in the little girls section. We've pretty much moved out of anything toddler size. But, trying to find pants that fit in the waist that are then not 2 inches too long is hard to do.  Lucy can't wear anything with a snap or zipper...they
just don't fit her body. Everything has to be stretchy. Leggings are our friend!!
I have been having a hard time finding long sleeve items to fit her too. I picked up 2 cotton dresses from Meijer last week that I thought would surely fit. I went to put one on her this morning and I could not get her arm in the sleeve, it was soooo tight! Lucy does not have chubby arms... I tried the other dress on her and it was better, but I'm not keeping if cause if it shrinks at all, the arms will not fit her.  I then tried a Jumping Beans brand shirt from Kohls that I got for her a few weeks back and the sleeves were tight on that as well. All the sizes were a 5 and they were all too tight. UGH!!!  It's so much easier to dress Lucy for summer. Shorts, tanks tops, sundresses.... I have a much easier time finding those to fit.

So after our shoe purchase, we headed over to Kolhs to look at clothes again. It's so sad that I have to go to the little girls section to buy my 2 year old clothes!  I found a few more things and I am hoping they will work. I seem to have the most luck with the Carter's Brand...they actually tend to run a little big. We're going to be having a little fashion show/try on when she wakes from her nap.

I try hard to be frugal when I buy clothing for Lucy, but I feel like with her I am forced to buy what will fit and that sometimes means spending more than I want to.  I really don't see anyway around it though...she can't go naked.  I hope my twin girls won't have the same issues...I am not looking forward to having to drop $100 to buy them shoes!!