{"id":7905,"date":"2012-02-29T23:18:39","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T04:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/?p=7905"},"modified":"2012-02-29T23:26:37","modified_gmt":"2012-03-01T04:26:37","slug":"first-pair-of-heels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/?p=7905","title":{"rendered":"First pair of heels…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, let me explain.\u00a0 McCanless’s BFF, Eliza, recently turned 8.\u00a0 Eliza’s mother promised her a big girl party in the ballroom at Prestwood Country Club. (And although it sounds like quite a swanky place, it’s really just a dated recreational room holding a lifetime of memories.\u00a0 Mel and I even danced our first dance as husband and wife in the ballroom by Prestwood Lake in May 2001.\u00a0 And I’m certain most Hartsvillians can recall many, many years of dance classes, wedding receptions, cotillion affairs, baby showers, afternoon teas and lazy afternoons of ping pong sessions at Prestwood snack bar at the far end of our beloved ballroom.<\/p>\n

Our own girls have already made plenty of memories within the gates of Prestwood Country Club.\u00a0 McCanless and Mary Clare have spend hours on the playground with neighborhood girls, at birthday parties by the picnic area and feeding the geese by Prestwood lake.\u00a0 Each summer we log miles on our golf cart traveling with picnic bags and towels in hand ready for summer days by Prestwood pool.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, McCanless eagerly explained to me how excited she was to attend Eliza’s birthday party in the ballroom.<\/p>\n

“Mom, everyone is wearing heels.\u00a0 We need to go shopping.”\u00a0 This was about 2 hours before the party and made me stop dead in my tracks.<\/p>\n

“Heels?\u00a0 McCanless, you are way too young to wear heels.”<\/p>\n

“Please mom.\u00a0 Pretty please?\u00a0 Can we go look?” she pleaded.<\/p>\n

McCanless did<\/em> happen to need new dress shoes for church…\u00a0 I’ve held off as long as I could, and realized that we wouldn’t be making it to Easter (as I had hoped) when we’ll trade in her black patent leather “Sunday shoes” and tall boots for cute Spring shoes and sandals.<\/p>\n

I’d have to suck it up and buy one more pair of sweet little black patent leather mary janes for her party.<\/p>\n

We only had time to zoom to the local department store, where we quickly learned that they no longer have a children’s section?!\u00a0 (When did that happen?)\u00a0 I saw McCanless eyeing the women’s section and I begrudgingly walked behind her telling myself that I would not buy her a pair of women’s shoes, especially not heels.<\/p>\n

There is no way she fits into women’s shoes.<\/p>\n

\n

She wears a woman’s size 5 1\/2.<\/p>\n

We compromised on a little pair of neutral wedges.\u00a0 Not too big girl, not “babyish,” according to McCanless.<\/p>\n

An hour later, in her Christmas dress, brand new “heels” and donning just hint of blush<\/em>, McCanless eagerly skipped into Prestwood Country Club for her first big girl party.\u00a0 The ballroom was\u00a0 filled to the brim with pink and white balloons and pom poms and was already thumping with music from the DJ.\u00a0\u00a0 She found Eliza and left me by the door.<\/p>\n

The photo above was taken when I picked her up at 9:00 pm, just after I stuck my head in the front door and saw her completely sweaty, running around playing chase, barefoot.\u00a0 I couldn’t have been more thrilled to see my big girl being the little girl that she is.\u00a0 After giving me a huge “this was the best night of my life” squeeze (in front of all of her friends), I asked her to put on those fancy “heels” for one quick photo.\u00a0 I’m almost certain she’ll never wear them again.<\/p>\n

She was so giddy and excited from her night.\u00a0 She chatted non-stop on the short ride home and as I sat with her in the bathroom while she bathed.\u00a0 She continued chatting away about her magical party until I tucked her into her bed.<\/p>\n

I hope she will always be as eager to share her stories with me.\u00a0 (I’m also hoping she’ll be as eager to throw off her “heels” and have fun with her girl friends for a long time, too.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, let me explain.\u00a0 McCanless’s BFF, Eliza, recently turned 8.\u00a0 Eliza’s mother promised her a big girl party in the ballroom at Prestwood Country Club. (And although it sounds like quite a swanky place, it’s really just a dated recreational room holding a lifetime of memories.\u00a0 Mel and I even danced our first dance as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7905"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7917,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905\/revisions\/7917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}