On Mister Rogers yesterday, the kid and I watched McFeeley make a visit to a children's shoe factory. I quickly picked up on the narration, "Shoes of made out of a material," and "Here, she cuts that material..." Of course, it was leather, but even a mostly non-grey Fred Rogers was sensitive enough to his hemp constituency's aversion to automatically equating "shoes" with "leather."

That said, thanks to Matt for reminding me about See Kai Run, a Seattle-based parent company which makes stylin' shoes--from leather--for pre-walkers and just-starting-to-walkers. Here's what Matt has to say about them:

We just got some for Fiona's first walks and they're very stylish, around $30, and even have a Prada-esque red stripe on the back sole. They're definitely lighter than anything we've tried on Fiona and they're flexible as all get out, the perfect thing to graduate to after a string of Robeez.

So if your kid's named Alex, Gretchen, Noah [above], Fiona, Koby, Diego, Audrey, or Karen Ann and is reaching the walking stages, check out See Kai Run today. If your kid is other-named [for self-esteem reasons, we don't like to say "disnamed" or "misnamed"], you can wait a season and see if some new designs come out, or you can just buy the shoes and throw in a little personalized license plate from the Sinclair station.

see See Kai Run for retailer info[seekairun.com]