Today, I present to you another guest post from Nicholas Stirling. Here, he writes about his adorable daughter Abby and her squeaky shoes. I confess that I used to find these shoes annoying, but have completely changed my mind once I became a mother and began to see their usefulness, as well as the joy that they bring children (even if they’re not walking yet!). Enjoy!

 Please look at this:

This is my daughter, Abby. She is seventeen months old, and she is wearing shoes that squeak. 

Someone, somewhere, thought that it would be a good idea to make these. I mean, who would ever get tired of hearing their children squeaking from place to place with every step? It’s brilliant. You’ll never lose your child again. She’ll be the most popular toddler in the neighbourhood. Dolphins will flock to her.      

When my in-laws brought the squeaky shoes over, I did question their judgment. They have been known to make terrible purchasing decisions in the past, and I figured that these shoes would be one of those things that we would laugh about twenty years from now when I had forgiven them, something that would come up when we talk about their Bettie Page sexy nurse print or strawberry daiquiri machine.

I have since changed my mind. All you need to do is look at my daughter as she runs laps around my living room. This is the running of a child filled with joy. This is a happy sprint. 

If anything, she’s even happier wearing them in public. Abby is a girl that loves attention; when she is at the mall, she will wave at everyone that passes her by, and she makes a point of running up to store clerks to give impromptu hugs whenever she can. Put a pair of squeaky shoes on her and people can’t help but look in her direction. Squeaky shoes put my child in her glory.

I think it would be fair for a passerby to be annoyed at Abby’s shoes, since they are loud and some people are easily bothered by such things, but that isn’t important enough for me to deny Abby the chance to smile like that.  The shoes, as a result, have become a standard part of her wardrobe.

Squeak on, my dear. Squeak on.

About the Author:

Nicholas Stirling wants to be a writer.  However, he also wants to be an educational theorist, a stand-up comedian, a university professor, the first man to successfully net the Loch Ness monster, and Batman.  In the meantime, he enjoys being a teacher and raising his little girl, Abby, while frequently baking chocolate chip cookies with his wife.  He has been published on Cracked.com and in Morpheus Tales, has a 2^nd degree Black Belt, and once ate an entire package of bacon as a meal.  He blogs regularly on Exercising Monsters, a site that he originally started to stave off cabin fever while he was unemployed and desperate to be a novelist.