There are some parts about Marfan syndrome that no matter how you spin it just are no good. Like our feet.

Most of us have huge feet. Narrow feet. Feet that were not made for shoes. In fact, now that my feet SHRUNK after having Menininho, I wear a shoe size that is not made by most shoe manufacturing companies; 10 1/2. I finally gave up, bought men’s sneakers for when I need to do a lot of walking and otherwise wear Old Navy flip flops.

So, when I found out Menininho didn’t have Marfan I was happy for his little feet. He would, I thought, have a life of careless shoe shopping from whatever store he wanted and for reasonable prices.

I forgot about my husband’s feet.

We affectionately refer to Mark’s feet as “hobbit feet.” They’re extra wide and all his toes are pretty much the same length. It’s kind of like his feet are bricks.

A few weeks ago we took Menininho to get his feet measured for new shoes. Lo and behold, he’s wearing a 4.5 XW. There is only ONE store that makes children’s shoes in an extra-wide, and it’s not just their sizing system because went to other stores and tried a size larger or a size larger in a wide and nope, still too tight. I’ve been trolling Ebay, Amazon, and Zappos looking for used shoes but nada. Time to buckle down and pay full price for a pair.

Apparently, if the shoe fits, the foot doesn’t belong to a member of our family. Poor Baby Smudge…s/he never even had a chance.