Little Bow Ties for Little Boys

If you had told me ten years ago that I would be sitting down to type a tutorial on how to make bow ties for little boys, I would have said something along the lines of, "HAHAHAHAHAH!! HOOOHOOOHOOOO!!! THAT'S HILARIOUS! THERE'S NO WAY I'LL BE WASTING MY TIME WITH THAT!" But I say to you, past Miriam, "It takes all kinds. And don't dye your bangs black in a few years. It's not as trendy as you think."

Let's begin!

What you'll need:

• Sharp scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Alligator or hair clips
• Double sided fabric tape
• 1/3 or 1/4 yard fabric (I recommend Hobby Lobby - their fabric is cheaper and usually more adorable)
• Felt (an 8 1/2" x 11" piece should get you through about 5 or 6 bow ties)
• Iron and ironing board

Cut your fabric about 3 inches wide and the length of the fabric, forming a long rectangle. Fold and iron down all the edges so they'll be nice and fray-free. I fold over a little less than 1/4" if you need some measurements.

You'll be making nice clean corners too, so fold the ends to get them ready to tape down. Fold down the corners just like you're wrapping a present.

Place the tape on the fabric above the crease and press down firmly. Peel off the back of the tape and fold the corner down. Make sure you press down firmly. 

Do this to all four corners and you'll end up with something like this:

Ah. Nice clean corners. Now, fold the fabric into about thirds, or however you long want the bow tie to be. If you're using 1/3 yard, you should be able to fold it into exact thirds. 

Scissors for scale. I like to iron it just for a few seconds so I have some creases that mark the length when I unfold it for the next step.

Cut a piece of felt to fit inside the fabric rectangle you've just created. This will help the fabric keep its shape and will make the bow tie a bit beefier. Which is a good thing. Close the fabric back up so it's ready for pinching.

Next, cut a small strip of matching (or not matching, I don't judge!) fabric and fold and iron down the long sides. This is going to be the middle of the bow tie; the tie of the bow tie, if you will.

Find about the middle of the large piece and pinch the top and bottom together to make the bow. You can adjust this later so don't worry if it's not perfect.

Wrap the small strip of fabric around the middle.

Here's a nice preview of the bow tie. Adjust as necessary. I'm terrible at guessing the middle of things so I usually have to move things around quite a bit to get it just right.

Now comes the permanent part, so make sure you're happy with your tie before you move on. Flip the bow over and put a nice little glob of hot glue in the middle. Open your clip and put the bottom half of the clip in the glue. Then fold over the small strip of fabric so it covers the bottom of the clip. Close the clip on top of it.

It should then look like this:

Wait for it to cool and then snip off the extra fabric from the top strip.

Open the clip again, and put another glob of hot glue, smaller this time, in the middle so you can tack down the bottom strip. Fold up the bottom strip and then close the clip. It should then look like this:

Wait for it to cool and snip off the extra fabric from the bottom strip.

Flip it over (DUH!) and voila! You have one adorable bow tie for one adorable boy.

We moms of boys accessorize where we can, and bow ties are one of my favorite things for little boys to wear. Thankfully my 2 year old loves wearing them, because in the immortal words of the Doctor, "Bow ties are cool."

And just in case you want to pin it, here's a nice little graphic:

Pictures and Perspective

The other day Josh remarked that I hadn't written a blog post in a while, and that I should remedy that. If this doesn't completely shock you, then it should. Josh is about as pro-internet as a hermit living in Siberia, which is something I really love about him. So, honey, this one's for you. 

Here's a summation of our activities in the past few months:

We've been reading lots of books. LOTS. Sometimes when James isn't looking I skip a few pages on the books that I find completely insufferable, but he's starting to get wise to that trick. Most of the books are pleasant, and I don't mind re-reading them a thousand times, but there are a few that I just can't handle, namely I Love You Forever (James always asks why I'm bawling by the end of it), The Cat in the Hat (I guess I'm a wuss when it comes to tongue-twisting prose), and any of the Thomas the Tank Engine books (Uh, Sir Topham Hatt needs to get himself some reliable engines STAT if he wants to make any money at all).

A lovely 8 foot tree that James adored. He was great about the ornaments this year, and none were broken by the time we packed it up! Whew! Although he did have problems waiting to open presents until Christmas. On two occasions I found him sneaking presents, and it was incredibly difficult to not laugh at him when I walked in the room, caught him red-handed, and he yelled, "AH! Go away Mom!"

I had a birthday and to celebrate we made a fort in the dining room. I'm now 27 and plan to make celebratory forts every year from now on.

We blessed Rupert in church, and he was an angel child. He didn't make a peep and kept his wiggling to a minimum. Josh gave him a lovely blessing which included a blessing that he will always listen to his mother. I'm hoping he remembers that when he's 16. There's a picture all the way at the end of this post that is a great size comparison of James and Rupert in the same blessing outfit.

Tummy time is a family affair.

More books. Books in bed, books in the car, books in the bath, books on the potty.

Lots of holiday baking happened in our house. James and I made our weight in sugar cookies for church functions (and our own consumption), and I was a cool mom and let him lick the beater. Baking with a two year-old has got to be the most patience-inducing activity on earth. I had to remind myself about 168 times that he was little and uncoordinated, and that's ok. Children make messes and that's ok. Two year-olds don't care about the perfect thickness of sugar cookies, and that's ok. But in the end it was pretty fun for the both of us. 

We went to go see the lights at the Mesa temple and James was less than impressed. He mostly spent his time running up and down aisles of chairs. He was interested in all the nativity scenes and we walked the circuit five or six times making sure we had seen all of the baby Jesuses. We talked about Jesus a lot this Christmas and how this time was the time we celebrate his birth. While I don't think he's able to comprehend that much, he does talk about Jesus a lot in our conversations, and I'm good with that for now.

This expression is common on Rupert's face. Whether he's being enthusiastically loved on by his brother, or the witness to one of James' meltdowns, there's usually something to be alarmed of in this house.

All my boys. I love being able to say, "My boys." There's something very satisfying about it.

Even James has trouble getting through a Thomas the Train book.

James on the left, Rupert on the right. And they're both the same age here. I'm worried about them when they're about 11 and 13, and Rupert ends up being four inches taller and thirty pounds heavier, and they have a disagreement about something. Yikes!

I'm finishing this post up a few days after writing it, and I'm definitely having one of those moments of mom bliss. I was rocking James to put him down for a nap and I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude (GAH! There I go with the tears!) for these two boys. I know everyone always says it's a struggle, and they're absolutely right. Sometimes I can't stand being a mother - children know how to push your buttons in the most annoying way possible, but far more often I feel an immense joy and sense of responsibility. I'm intensely grateful that I get to hang out with them on a daily basis. Ok, wiping the tears off my keyboard and pushing publish now.

Baby time!

Both of the kids are sleeping right now (it's a miracle!) so I'm going to hammer out a lovely little blog post about Rupert's birth and the ensuing couple of weeks. Allons-y!

These pictures are going to be way out of order, so I'm just going to pretend that it was on purpose and that I'm doing a cool modern-artsy thing.

This is Rupert. You'll learn more about his entrance into the world later on.

My mom came down for a week and we decided to go to the Butterfly Atrium up in Scottsdale one afternoon. This lovely lady on the left tried to show James a buckeye that was sipping some nectar off the sponge in her hand, and James repaid that kindness by completely melting down and sobbing about the fact that a stranger had approached him with a butterfly on a stick. The poor guy is in the throes of stranger danger right now, and he's still a little wary of butterflies. We're working on it.

This is my wonderful friend Whitney who put together a little postpartum baby shower that was absolutely delightful. Fun games, delicious food, good company, what more could you ask for?

Rupert is a fantastic snuggler! Picture taken by my highly-skilled photographer mother.

Can you get over how incredibly cute this kid is? I can't either. It's ok.

While Nana Sue was here, James rekindled his love of the community splash pad. Unfortunately it gets turned off the first of October, so we'll have to wait until next April to enjoy it again. Hopefully he remembers how fun it is.

These two could play together for ages. 

Best day ever.

Ah! We've come to the part of the pictures where Rupert joins our family! Here are the boys on our way home from the hospital.

Here I am three weeks before giving birth. Holy cannoli, look at that midsection. I actually had a woman ask me if I was having twins. I didn't gain much weight after this picture was taken, but I did get bigger, as evidenced by the reactivation and growth of my stretch marks left over from James. Wahoo.

Here I am, in labor.

Here's how it went down: I had been having extremely sporadic contractions for days, so I didn't really pay attention to them any more. The only time they were coming one right after the other was a few Sundays before Rupert was born. I called a girl at my church and told her I was was having some pretty exciting contractions, and that she would have to find some subs for Nursery, as Josh and I wouldn't be there. Somehow that turned into Rupert's impending brith being announced over the pulpit. This explained why when several members of our congregation saw me later in the week, still pregnant, they looked extremely confused.

My water broke at home on Thursday the 29th around 12pm (3 days overdue), right after I had put James down for a nap (tender mercy!). I called Josh and informed him of this, and he left work and picked up our babysitter (the fantastic Whitney mentioned above) and headed home. Since I was induced with James, I had not experienced going into labor spontaneously before, so I had a tiny little panic attack. After hyperventilating for a few seconds, I called my friend Allison, and she told me to calm down and start packing the last-minute things for the hospital. I am ever so grateful for her advice. I put the last few things we needed into our hospital bag and waited for Josh to get there. Strangely enough, I had no contractions. Not even one. If this was labor, it was awesome!

Since I had tested positive for Group B streptococcus, we had to head to the hospital right away so they could start me on penicillin. We arrived at the hospital, still having very few contractions, and they started the penicillin. A couple of hours later I still wasn't having contractions, so they started some Pitocin to kickstart the whole birthing process. All I needed was a little activation energy, and I started to progress quite nicely. To pass the time, Josh and I watched Dr. Who while I squeezed the bujeebies out of his hand during the contractions. Around 7pm I had a lovely epidural that didn't work all the way on my right side, so I still had to breathe through the contractions a little. I actually preferred having it not completely numb, as I could feel when to push. I got to the point where I felt the urge to push, but the doctor was finishing up an emergency c-section at the time, so I had to hold him in for about 10 minutes. Not pushing is even harder than pushing, surprisingly. The doctor arrived, and I started pushing around 9:25, and Rupert was born at 9:39pm. He was delivered by Dr. Vaziri with no complications, and thanks to him, I only tore a small amount on my previous episiotomy scar. 

He was 9 lbs, 9 ounces, 21" and very healthy. That's a huge baby. Huge. I didn't think I would have a bigger baby than James at 8 lbs, 13 ounces, but I was proved extremely wrong. The measuring of his length was a bit off, as he was 22.5" at his 2 week checkup, but that's ok.

We named him Rupert Hugo, because we just liked the name Rupert. It's classic, but still unique. He was given the middle name Hugo after his great-great uncle on Josh's mom's side. He was a kind and loving person to Josh's family, and we wanted to honor him for that. Plus, we really liked the name Hugo too.

The literal fruits of my labors. Well, he's not an actual fruit, but you know what I mean.

Still not sure about this whole out-of-utero thing.

One proud papa. Josh was wonderful through the whole birthing process. He was supportive, and tried to make me laugh when the contractions were especially rough. He wasn't always successful, but I appreciated his effort. Also, look at the size of Rupert's massive noggin. Whoa.

Just look at those cheeks. They go on for miles.

James wasn't sure about Rupert for a whole week. Then one night he asked to hold him, and they've been inseparable ever since. He gets frustrated when I can't pay attention to him all the time, but that frustration is never aimed at Rupert. 

Nana Sue is also an exceptional snuggler.

Guess who got into mom's makeup bag while she wasn't looking! This kid.

This is how most of James and Rupert's interactions go. James loves on Rupert, and Rupert gets sad because he's usually being picked up or poked against his will. 

First smile.

Our two children are basically identical. Rupert is just a little chunkier, but they have the exact same mouth and nose. The eyes are a little different, but not much. However, their personalities are very different. James was a difficult baby, but Rupert is a dream. He eats extremely well (also because nursing the second time around is a bajillion times easier), sleeps well, and doesn't cry unnecessarily! He's a wonder child!

Look at that face! So cute!

Being a mom of two is harder in some respects and easier in others. I've mastered the art of grocery shopping with tow children, and honestly, that was what I was most worried about. Since the weather is cooler now, we go to the park or the desert, and it's been wonderful so far.