How To: Make Skinny Jeans

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this feeling. Baby jeans can sometimes be related to old man, baggy butt pants. I'm not the biggest fan. As I was putting Forest boy in his threads for the day, I just found myself all exasperated at the blob of denim that was somehow gracing the bum of my son. NO. I'd had enough, so I got my sewing machine out. Sometimes I'm in the mood for the loose jean look, other times I'm feeling the skinny wave. So, the following is what happened yesterday. Enjoy!

You can find baby jeans to play with at second hand baby stores, garage sales and thrift stores. I had these extra hand-me-downs. Another thing I've found out-if you have a boy, check out the girls section for leg wear. A lot of the girl stuff is more fitted and is very unisex with solids and stripes. Infant girls' jeans are more narrow btw. These are boys jeans.

1. I took the extra baggy pair and pinned them to the width I so desired them to be.

2. I then proceeded to stitch the new inside seam, matching it to it's new size.

3. I turned them inside out and instant amazingness. *Sigh of relief. * It took a whole 10 min. and I was so pleased. I was told by some friends that Baby Gap has infant skinny jeans. They are incredible and some will be arriving at my doorstep soon. But, if your shinning pennies like most of moms do, this is a cheap, easy way to get the look for your little stylin' babe.

11 Weeks

Forest Káel, you are getting so big so fast. I find myself having those age old feelings of not wanting him to get bigger, or change. I want him to snuggle forever. But, at the same moment my heart is insanely in love with each little new stage he achieves. He officially gnaws on my fingers. He grabs things and waves them around like crazy. He loves the ceiling fan at Jessie Mathis' house. His greatest contentment now is when he eats or you hold him up allowing him to stand "on his own". *wink* He LOVES that. He lets out true giggles and belly laughs. Grabbing my hair has been a new thing, I'm not so jazzed about THAT.

His daddy, I swear is his favorite person on the planet. When Sam comes home from work, Káel lights up, stares at him and smiles his biggest, most flirty smile. Sam will be doing something not even making eye contact with Káel and the boy will bust out the most heart melting, full face smile with a giggle. It's so cute. Daddy is the bomb to his little heart. I agree.

The little guy eats enough to fuel a steam engine twice over. He still eats 6 oz ever couple of hours. PLUS, he breast feeds. We were told in his 2 month check up that he is in the 96% in height. So, out of 100 boys his age, he's taller than 96 of them. He's average in weight. My boy is a long thing. No wonder he's been scarfing down the goods.

He certainly looks all stylin' and mister hot stuff like in his duds. Skinny jeans, Diesel high tops, and an EGG windbreaker.

I took him out to our wonderland of leaves to let him "play" and put down in the Gatlyn history books this week of his adventurous little life. Enjoy.

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Sweet heart, I love watching you sleep like you are doing right now. It's amazing how you've overtaken mine and your daddy's heart. I cry just watching you dream. One day, when you are big, blogs might be considered old school, and all these memories and pictures will be fun for you to read and look at. You'll probably laugh at the stories I will tell you. To me they are live memories that I only get to experience once and after that they are only to be remembered. You laugh so much and get so excited over the littlest thing. You help me remember who I am when I look at you. I love you more than my life. You are the most wonderful kiss God has ever blown your daddy and me.

Sweet dreams my love.

momma

Love This

Song she wrote for her little boy

Mornin' Sunshine

Yesterday morning was like a sweet kiss blown my way. I woke up, fed little Forest boy, who then was completely out afterwards. The morning sunshine was temptingly peaking through the closed blinds in our bedroom. I rolled out of bed and put him down so that he could get some extra snoozes. I grabbed one of Sam's flannel shirts, my guitar, a blanket, some spiced apple cider and headed outside. My back porch was my cathedral. All the woods were towering over me and surrounding me like a big room. The light was coming through all the colored leaves and made me feel like I was looking up at a stained glass ceiling. For 3 hours I wrote some new tunes and sipped on cider. I sang with the birds and felt so very alive as the the crisp air made me curl up a little tighter in my blanket. Occasionally, I crept back inside to see both my boys utterly exhausted and deep in dream land. I would sneak back out to my haven of Jess-ness and smile. It was so glorious. You need alone time every once in a while, specially when you are a mom. Time to just listen and think.

Later that morning I skyped my mom and had the best time showing her new songs, planning for the holidays and sharing my heart. Káel woke up and I brought him outside to feed him, then laid him on the big porch swing with me. He giggled, and made noises as he looked all over the place at the light. Samuel joined me and we planned our day. It was a perfect morning for me.

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Daily Duds

My little cabin in the woods.

Dress: Anthropologie

(this was one of the dresses I got while I was preggerz. it's a great cross over dress.)

Sweater: Target

Skinny Jean leggings:Target

Sweater socks:Target

Boots: Ugg

Belt: Free People

Necklace: I made for Sam from some sort of shell stone that I found while on our "babymoon" at the beach.

Shirt: Urban Outfitters

V-neck:Urban outfitters

I love my man so much. Our days are full of laughing and listening. We are constantly learning from each other, our baby and situations that pop up. I love how Samuel will tackle me and just tickle the fire out of me when I'm trying to get ready, after having a little melt down. We will chase each other through the house, screaming and laughing. All the while Káel smiles or sleeps. No mater what is going on, we try to make sure that we enjoy each other.

We went out recently one evening to some of our friends' Jessie and Mark Mathis' music show and it was fabulous. Listening to amazing tunes, seeing friends and getting out of the house was the biggest treat for me. It was late around 8-11pm, but we took our little man anyways. I wrapped him up in the moby and away we went to enjoy a night on the town.

After the show, we finished the night at a coffee shop sipping on hot chai and organic smoothies. Forest boy slept the whole time. We are trying to introduce him to some sort of a sleep schedule but, he is an all around night owl, which really fits right in with our lifestyle right now. So, it works and we just go with it. Sam and I have been determined to take Káel with us almost anywhere, as long as we can. We're hoping to plan a hiking trip to the mountains in the next week! That should be a blast! Little man will get a taste of a real forest. :)

Bath Time

Sam took some pics of me giving little Forest man a bath, which he loves. Usually, I put him in the bath with me, but this time I wanted to give his little "baby bath" a try. He loves water. He started kicking up a storm and once he realized that when he kicked it made a splash, he seemed to kick even more. It was tons of warm bubbles and lots of smiles. I love giving him a bath! It's SO fun to actually see the emotion of enjoyment on his face. A lot of times, I'll hold him in the water in a way that makes him feel like he is floating. With his arms floating all over the place, he just smiles and makes cute little talky noises.

My little guy has been melting my heart more and more this week. I didn't think more was possible. But, my little man always always seems to find undiscovered spots inside my heart that are made for him to melt. His interaction level has skyrocketed the last 10 days, which has made it even more fun than usual to have bath time! I've been trying to give him baths in the evening because it seems to relax him for bedtime. He's only cried once during a bath time and that was his very first one. All the others have been a blast.

After his bath, I put his new jammies from, "Life Is Good". The moment I put the little bottoms on him, he instantly started staring at his legs and cooing. All the little owls printed on the fabric were fascinating to him. After he was all dry and dressed, we headed in to the living room for a time of hanging with Sam. He enjoyed his new teething ring and smiled himself to sleep.

Oh, and did I mention that I have been obsessed with his little cheeks. I can't stop kissing them.

Hey, I want to take a sec and thank all of you lovelies who have enjoyed following our little adventurous journey these past months. Your comments are a joy to me and your support means so much to my heart. Thank you so, so much.

First Fire of the Season

Brrrrrrr! This past week we had our first chilly spell that called for the heat to go on and a toasty fire to be stoked! I have to admit, I turned Pandora radio on to the Christmas Jazz station. I couldn't help it. *giggle* I lit some candles, Samuel started a fire, and Káel was in heaven as we let him kick around in his diaper on his lambie rug in front of the yummy warmth of the fireplace. It finally felt like the holidays were actually here, with the crackling and flickering action going on. Finally, I had to put little dude's jammies on. But, I let him stay all sprawled out for a little bit longer. Sam played some Wii and I was doing some blogging stuff. It was a perfectly quiet, marvelous night.

If you notice, I have an obsession with clocks. When we move to a larger place, I hope to have a wall of random shelves completely covered in old clocks. They make me smile. Eee! I'm so excited to decorate for Christmas. But, I will wait a little longer. I'm going to enjoy every little ounce of this season.

When do you start to first listen to Christmas tunes? Or what really makes you feel like the fall season has really started?

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Tunes and Such...

When Káel was still chillin' in my mommy spa, (aka when I was prego.) I made it a point to sing to him several times a day. In the car, while I worked out, as I would drift to sleep... I would always sing 2 specific tunes, "You Are MY Sunshine" and a lullaby I wrote just for him. I had heard that when babies reach a certain stage in the womb, they can of course hear, but they also have a degree of memory. If you repeat a certain melody or series of words while they are still nestled inside, when they are born it will seem familiar to them. I was constantly singing those two songs to him. Even during my labor, I would sing either one in between my contractions. I think it was my desperate attempt to focus on him through some tough spots. I figured if I was having feelings of freaking out during contractions, and it was all new to me, he might feel the same way. Perhaps, if he heard momma's voice, calm and familiar-it might in some small way encourage and sooth his little baby heart. Or at least I liked to think so.

As I held him for the first time, I found my voice somewhere-all raspy, hollow and broken from all the pushing and moaning that had transpired. I sang to him his lullaby as I held him IN MY ARMS. If you have had a baby, most of you can relate to the feeling of "Let me hold my baby already!" So this song is very special to us.

My man Samuel, who is an amazing musician, singer, songwriter got out our recording equipment out the other night to record Káel's cooing, and happy giggles. Also the lullaby I wrote for him. We are recording the giggles so we can layer them into the lullaby. It has felt good to mess around with music again. Samuel wants to put the song on the CD project he has been working on the past several months, which was extended through my pregnancy. The project in a way kinda documents the journey of love featuring the development of a baby and the constancy of love. Sam wanted this song to have a very raw feel. So, we just set up shop in our living room, having a few goes at it. Káel loves music and responds so directly to it which made it fun. I thought I would share our evening with you.

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Káel will many times break out the smiles and the "I love you gazes" any time I sing one of these songs to him. It's complete heart-meltingness. I am so totally, lost in love with him.