Did someone say "new shoes"???

So... something that you may not know about Jasper is that he is completely, wholly, unabashedly addicted to accessories. More often than not, I get him out of his crib in the morning and the first thing he does is go to his "accessories basket" and pick out a hat and pair of shoes to wear. If you happen to stop by our house early in the morning, it would not be unusual to see Jasper running around in a diaper, hat, shoes, and nothing else (yes, I have lots of pictures of this favorite "outfit" of his).

If, on the rare occasion, we forget to pick out some accessories before breakfast, Jasper will suddenly look up from his bowl of oatmeal and say "HAT! HAT! HAT! HAT!!! SHOOOOOOES!" In other words, when it's all said and done, we never really forget to put on accessories.

Another thing about Jasper: there is no greater joy in his life than to see that momma (really, daddy b/c daddy makes all the big bucks around here) bought him NEW shoes!! Last evening I went through the process of switching over Jasper's summer wardrobe with his fall wardrobe, so one of the very 1st things Jasper saw this morning was not 1 pair of "new" (to him) shoes, but 2 PAIR!!!

This morning, he looked at the shoes, looked at me, he started grinning so large it almost cracked his face in half, looked at the shoes, looked at me some more, grinned huge, then picked up a new shoe and started frantically jamming it against his foot. He was SO eager to wear his new shoes; it melted my heart! He wore one pair of  new shoes during breakfast, then when breakfast was over, he ran over, grabbed the other pair of new shoes, and started frantically jamming those new shoes against his foot.  He. was. in. heaven. And frankly, so was I. I never dreamed I would have a 16 month old son who loves new shoes as much as I do!!

We put the 2nd pair of new shoes on his feet, and then he sat still. Let me repeat this: he sat still. My son NEVER EVER EVER in a billion years ever sits still. For anything. Period. But he got his new shoes on and he sat still and just stared at them in wonder and appreciation. I happened to have the camera handy (surprise!) so I snapped a few pics of Jas, rockin' in his nubby thrift-store sweat pants, wearing his new brown dress shoes.


Here he is, sitting on my lap, just staring at his new shoes.

Here he is again. Jasper had just stood up, then decided he wanted to stare at his shoes some more, so he bent over upside down and is staring in joy at his new shoes. He stayed like this for a disturbingly long time. :o)

Now, finally, Jasper decided it was time to play again. But the new shoes MUST stay on.

I will do everything in my power to make sure my little guy doesn't grow out of his accessories addiction! It's just the best! :o)