I have been singing these words to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb...

Zo-ee has an att-i-tude

att-i-tude, att-i-tude

Zo-ee has an att-i-tude

and she has shoes to match!

My daughter Zoe discovered the little girls shoe department at Nordstrom.  I have seen my husband have shoe-gasms, and my step-son Dillon has the shoe gene too, and Zoe is no exception.  Alex is like me...give me a sentimental favorite pair of shoes and I can work them into my wardrobe with practicality and resourcefulness.  Not Pete, Dillon or Zoe.  Pete (hubby) has more than ten pairs of black formal shoes.  He has at least three cordovan pairs, four chestnut brown pairs, and one saddle color pair.  Zoe has limited shoes only because I have tried to tame this shoe addiction before it takes roots in her young psyche - "shoes make things better" ... but I had told her since there was a big sale, we would go to the little girls department for a holiday dress...and maybe shoes, since she had outgrown her dress up pair from last year.

The shoes she chose are like Dorothy meets Gwen Stefani.  Sparkly red sequins on a thick, black rubber sole that resemble Chuckie Taylor's, but are entirely upper crust.  The same shoes with the pink sequins were sold out in her size, but the red ones were readily available for a four year old girl, on the edge of five (I want to say the edgeof five-teen), who tells her Poppa "I ain't no holla back girl", hand on hip, finger pointed, but also sings "Popular" along with Glinda in the delicate tone the Broadway show tune requires...Zoe has the why-would-anyone-want-to-do-such-a-thing philosophy of Dorothy, but the get-the-hell-out-of-my-way verve of Gwen Stefani.  Zoe is just a girl...her Toto is a pit-bull Rottweiler mix named Terra, her ruby slippers newly purchased and worn everywhere but to bed, ready to take her anywhere her wanderlust desires.  Zoe's Kansas is southern California, Zoe's Emerald City is the rest of the world, starting with the hill at the top of our street where she motors to the bottom on her big wheel, catching air, fearing no scraped knee or bruised elbow, breathless and determined to let nothing keep her from another thrill.

She'll need a lot of sturdy, pretty shoes - and I'm sure she won't mind.  I can always blame it on my husband.

We know Zoe's free spirit will cost thousands of dollars.  I just can't help loving that about her.  I can't wait to see what she does in this world. 

There is no place like...where she feels like being right now.