Outgrowing Stages

Different people get sentimental about different things that their children outgrow.

For some, it's when they outgrow items, like a pacifier & bottle.

For some, it's when they outgrow milestones, like drinking from a bottle & crawling. 

For me?

It's when they become too old to wear certain types of clothing.

Heartbreaking. So Sad. Tears.

It first started with bubbles. I mean, I'm sorry, but I think a baby in a bubble is the cutest thing! (Robbie deeply disagreed & hated them.) Jake's going home outfit was a bubble. He was so cute & tiny in it (and proceeded to have a massive poop blowout in it during the 5 minute car ride home).

Robbie felt like once Jake was walking, I needed to move on from bubbles. I stretched it a few more months, but sadly, I gave up, agreed & packed away all of his cute little bubbles.

One of the last times he wore a bubble

Chunky legs coming out of a bubble?
Cutest thing ever (in my opinion, that I don't think many people agree with!).

Once Jake was walking good, I was SO EXCITED for him to wear white knee socks & Willits. Now, having a boy, there are not very many things you can get excited about him wearing. So forgive me, that the few things I could get excited about, I might have went overboard.

After chunky legs coming out of a bubble,
my next favorite is chunky legs with knee socks.

One of my other favorite boy's clothing? A jon-jon. Make it a smocked jon-jon and I'm in head-over-heels love. 

Not only are jon-jon's super cute, but they also worked really well for us. Jake is VERY hot natured and would pour sweat in the summer. Jon-jon's were the coolest thing he could wear. Plus the snaps at the bottom make diaper changing so much easier then pulling off shorts. It was a win-win combo.

I mean, if it's good enough for JFK Jr, then it's good enough for my kid to wear

Stick a peter pan collared shirt under it and turn the jon-jon into longalls and it could carry you year round.

 And then Jake outgrew jon-jons. And my heart wept.

So I moved on to collared shirts that button in the back. Preferably with a monogram or smocking.

 

 

And then came the sad day, after Jake's 4th birthday, that Robbie told me he felt like Jake was too old for that style. Again, my heart wept. Here he is at Christmas, his last time in an outfit like this.

And then lastly, it's the appliqued shirts & matching shorts. One of the few things that are cute on a boy. But sadly, I feel like Jake has outgrown this style as well. This was the last of cute little boy clothes. Tears.

Now, I realize that 99% of America does not agree with me & would think I was crazy. I realize that my dad some people would call the way I dressed Jake, as sissy. In my defense, it's not like I sent him to school in this. Just church, parties, special occasions, etc... I also felt like, Jake has the rest of his life to wear screen-printed licensed sleeveless tee-shirts and shorts in the color combination of green & brown. He'll want to wear stuff with a skateboard on it or skulls and nylon gym shorts. And that's okay. He's a boy, he's going to play hard, get dirty and not care about clothes. BUT, this small window of time, I can dress him how I want and dress him as a sweet little boy. So I took full advantage it.

 

To Robbie's credit, I know he didn't just always love the way I dressed Jake. But he picked his battles wisely, and for the most part, let me do it, because he knew that was important to me. He would have to be the one to politely remind me though, when Jake had outgrown a particular style of clothing.

 

And I always liked to remind him, that his mom dressed him like that as a little boy, and he turned out just fine.