Apologies and Legwarmers

When I was really small, I had a book that I kept at my grandparents' house called "Wilma's Busy day," and my grandmother still laughs about having to read it over and over. It was about Wilma Flintstone, who spent an entire day trying to get a bath, but as soon as she put a foot in the tub, she'd get interrupted by the phone or the doorbell or something. I had a Wilma week this past week- I tried to do a blog post at least a dozen times, but as soon as I'd sit to write it, Baby M. would need me or the phone would ring or I'd realize the time and have to be somewhere in 15 minutes. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!

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Since the cold weather arrived (months ago now), I realized something I had no reason to even think about before, but it drives me crazy... why don't they make tights for little boys? It first occurred to me when Baby M. was christened, and I was looking for something for him to wear under his christening gown. We ended up going with a pair of plain beige Baby Legs to keep his little legs warm. Since then, there have been lots of times when we've gone for walks or it's been particularly cold when I would have loved to put some kind of legging or tights on Baby M. underneath his clothes to keep him warm, but I've yet to find any boyish tights in this city (I did buy him a pair of plain black ones, though). When I lived in the U.K., tights for little boys were an everyday common thing in kids clothing stores, and my nephew has a bunch of pairs from Ireland, so in the end, I found some cute pairs online (both striped; one gray and navy with a panda on the bum; the other green and brown with a lion).

In an effort to avoid spending $20 and up on baby legwarmers for her boys, my sister came up with a super easy and cute way to make them from a pair of long adult socks, which you can find in boyish colours and patterns (my sister, by the way, could have her own crafty blog if she wanted to, but says she'd have to call it "The Half-A**ed Crafter" since she has limited patience... LOL).

Here's how to do it:

Find a pair of knee socks- they're easy to come by at Wal-Mart or the dollar store.

Cut off the foot part at the ankle, just above the heel.

Cut out about a 3.5-inch section in the middle of the foot part.You won't need the other two pieces.

Fold the foot section in half widthwise, so you have a ring like this:

Put the ring on the end of the sock, the two raw edges at the bottom and lined up with the raw edge of the sock. If there's a pattern on both pieces, match them up as best as you can. A lot of patterned socks have a solid colour foot, so you won't need to do this.

Without turning the sock inside out, sew along the raw edge. Then turn the ring part - which is now the cuff - down.

If you like a wider cuff, cut the piece of the sock foot longer than 3.5 inches.

Et voila! Easy-peasy legwarmers that your boy can wear underneath pants to keep his legs nice and snuggly (I had to interrupt a very important phone call to snap this pic, as you can see). :)

For the end of Celebrate the Boy month, I'm going to do two giveaways: one for a pair of baby legwarmers, the other for another Munkeh! Leave me a comment telling me the best part about being the parent (grandparent/aunt/uncle, etc.) of a boy and which prize you'd like to have, and I'll use the random number generator again to pick two winners on Wednesday at 5pm (3:30 pm ET). If you want a chance to win both, feel free to leave two comments. :)

For me, the best part about being the mom of an adorable little boy is being able to watch him grow and learn... it's amazing to see him go from being born without the ability to focus his eyes properly to a baby who amazes me every single day with something new and brilliant he knows how to do. Of course, his little baby cuddles are the most awesome things, too. :)