Ooosh! Balkie! And Results!

Oh hey there. ... What am I doing, you ask? Oh, I'm just putting on my ooosh so I can go on my balkie, perhaps my fifth balkie today even.

What now? Who? What you ask? ... you know, Balkie! Get the stroller out, put my little Darlin in it, and go on our balkie after we put our ooosh on ...

All day long, starting from the time she wakes up, Taya says 'Ooosh! Ooosh!'and brings us various pairs of *shoes* to put on her. She then either proceeds to take them off & asks to put them (or another pair) on again anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes later .... OR ... she asks us to take her on a 'Balkie Balkie Balkie' - adding up to about a dozen requests per day to go on these *walks*. And if she's really lucky, we'll go en route to the park, where from 100 feet away, she starts saying 'Wee Wee Wee!' to ask to go on the slides. Well unfortunately for Taya, I can only drop everything in an instant and take her on a walk so many times a day (1-2 times right now - some are itty bitty walks). She makes sure to finalize her hints (pretty much demands) by bringing me my shoes, even if it is first thing in the morning & I'm still in my bathrobe.

I'm proud of this girl; this says A)She's got an interest in style B)She balances her passion for fashion with an interest in the outdoors C)She likes to stay active (sometimes she walks instead of riding in the stroller) & D)She's striving to fill big shoes (half the time she puts our shoes on).

DaDa's shoes will do just fine.

It's not always just shoes that Taya brings us to put on her; she loves the layered clothing look as well. See here? She definitely thinks she is ready for our walk. And me on the other side of the camera probably in pajamas or bath robe attire however, am NOT ready for our walk.

Enjoying her BalkieBalkieBalkie

Here's the WeeWeeWee!

While we're on the topic of shoes, how many pairs of shoes do you think the average woman has? How many do you have? And how many husbands do you think are under the impression that their wives' shoe amounts are gaspingly excessive? (yes, I'm making 'gaspingly' a word). I see this over and over again on my closet design work appointments: I tell the couple that after I measure the size of the closet, I will be tallying amounts of rod space needed, etc. & counting pairs of shoes for a basis for my upcoming custom design. The wife always immediately looks embarrassed or smug while husband & wife simultaneously tell me how the husband thinks the wife has waaaay too many shoes. Then as I go on to tell them the average female shoe totals I encounter, the wife dramatically sighs with relief of the validation she's been searching for her entire marriage, maybe even her entire life! And I smile, feeling a bit validated myself.

So how many do you think? I have my mental totals for what's a little for a woman, a lot, and just about average. After I get your votes, or even juicier - your confessions (if you're embarrassed, you could always comment anonymously), I'll add my totals and maybe find some official sources to compare against (since I know you're all dying to know womens' shoe total averages)!

Based on Taya's 'Ooosh' interest, I'm afraid she might be on her way to the gaspingly excessive end! (except probably not under our roof!)

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Post Edition just for you!

So as for shoe pair averages?  Here are my mental tallies according to my closet designing appointments:  

Women:  Low = 5-20, Average = 20-40 (especially 25-35), Pretty High End = 40-60, Really High End = 100 +/-

Men:  Low = 7 or less, Average = 8-15, Above average = 15-25

BUT, the highest tally of shoes I've ever counted in a closet was for a MAN!  He was a sports reporter & had dozens of suits & over 150 pairs of shoes.  

My internet search didn't turn up much, but the one main result I found said the average woman owns 19 pairs of shoes; do you believe it?  Are my demographics that off?  It's ok, just throw that number out the window if you want so that next time your husband rolls his eyes at your amount of shoes, you can say, 'Breanne counts shoes in her job & says this is normal!  I'm normal!  And my shoes need me like the desert needs rain!' - that last part is optional

So I started this original post one night; couldn't think of one of the parts of it that I wanted to write; well I put it to rest, then finished it the next morning, still forgetting the last part I wanted to include:  then in the comments Francesca took care of it for me - wonderful woman she is!  The real D) that Taya's 'Ooosh & Balkie' obsession says about her is that she adores Balki from Perfect Strangers and wants her first full sentence to be something like 'Don't be reedikoolus'.  C'mon, you remember Perfect Strangers right?  See our dear Balki friend here?  So that's the real meaning of this all I guess.   (?)

Man, I wish Paul wore red silk shirts like Balki. If only ...