Babywearing Through the Years

 contests, Parenting  20 Responses »
Nov 102008
 

Steph over at Adventures in Babywearing asked to see our favorite babywearing pictures in honor of International Babywearing Week. There is absolutely no way I could choose just one. In fact, the eight that I included in this collage don’t even scratch the surface of my list of favorites. I’m pretty camera happy whilst babywearing. And, so, I present to you my Babywearing Through the Years collage.

Easy reference: left side shows BigBrother and the right side shows LittleBrother. In detail: top row, wearing BigBrother in our first ever mei tai back on The Farm, LitttleBrother in his few weeks of pouch sling wearing in a Gorgeous Baby pouch sling; small square pictures, l to r, wearing BigBrother in our all camo mei tai from Mei Tai Carrier on the 4th of July 2007 while pregnant with LittleBrother (I’m awesome, no?), taking a hike in our local state park with BigBrother on my back (I’m a tree hugger, get it?), LittleBrother’s first ride on my back in yet another mei tai from Mei Tai Carrier, and cuddling up in our Peekaru Babywearing Vest; bottom row, winter babywearing BigBrother in a MaM Babywearing Cover and more early days of babywearing with LittleBrother in yet another one from Mei Tai Carrier. (Yes, we have four. No, I can’t say enough about MTC. Seriously.)

(Also? That collage could also be named: Look at FireMom’s Numerous Hair Changes in a Two Year Time Span! Right? And it’s even different now than the Peekaru picture. I am a hair chameleon.)

I was introduced to slinging just before BigBrother was born. We had a mass-produced sling that worked just fine for getting him to sleep in those early (and somewhat cranky!) days. When he was a bit older, I bought a Snugli having done no research on babywearing itself. We quickly departed from that and switched to an Ellaroo Mei Hip. From there we discovered Mei Tai Carrier and never looked back until LittleBrother was born. With him, we did fully discover the beauty of ring slings (none of which made it into my collage, humph). He did not, however, enjoy our pouch sling(s) and so Ivy of The Trivial Pursuit of Happiness got my favorite one (it’s also pictured more throughout her blog). (But more on her later this week!)

When BigBrother was younger, I said I couldn’t live without babywearing. As the mother of two boys who are two years and one week apart, I can honestly say that I couldn’t survive without it. Like the day that I had to take two huge containers of fire truck shaped cookies to BigBrother’s preschool and FireDad was at work? I put LittleBrother on my back, got BigBrother out of the truck, grabbed the containers of cookies and had BigBrother hold onto the mei tai strap while we walked to the school and up the stairs. Other things like raking the lawn or even taking a nature walk without the stroller make it very clear how lucky we are that we discovered babywearing when we did.

Anyway, Steph is hosting a giveaway over on her blog post and you could win a sling from Nonny & Boo. Not that we particularly need another sling in the Fire Family but I’m  hoping to win as a gift to a dear friend of mine who is expecting another baby. (You know who you are, my love!)

And I just reviewed a great book about babies today. I loved it! Go see!

Our First-Ever Themed Halloween!

 blog blast, Holidays  2 Responses »
Nov 022008
 

I’m a sucker for a theme. I like the gifts that I give to have themes. I like it when we all match for family pictures. And it should come as no surprise that TheBrothers had a theme for their first Halloween together. It didn’t start out that way. LittleBrother was going to wear BigBrother’s old first-year lion costume and BigBrother was going to wear whatever I found at a reasonable price. I know everyone expects us to go with fire costumes for the boys (which BigBrother was last year). Then I remembered something.

I asked my Mom if she still had the Sebastian (Little Mermaid) costume that my paternal Grandmother made for my (much younger) little brother in 1991/1992.  She hunted around and found it, cleaned it up and delivered it to me. It fit BigBrother just fine. So, at that point, I was going to have a lion and a crab-lobster. (The costume is technically a lobster but we used it to represent Sebastian as I had a homemade Little Mermaid costume that year.) But Mom really wanted that theme to happen.

She started hunting for a Flounder costume for LittleBrother. She hunted high and low. She kept losing auctions on Ebay. Turns out the thing has been discontinued and so getting your hands on it was like, well, getting your hands on a slippery fish. Eventually she found one. In England. It arrived in time (even for the party we attended on the 24th) and, as luck would have it, we had our theme!

I’m sharing all of this today because the Steelers don’t play until tomorrow night (Monday Night Football) and the Parent Bloggers Network is having a Halloween costume blog blast. And the prize is a Blurb book. And, man, I love me some Blurb books. And so I’m entering the boys in the contest.

First up: BEST HOMEMADE COSTUME! BigBrother as Sebastian the Crab/Lobster. (Made by Grandma in 91/92. So, if there was a best vintage costume category, we could also go that route! Paired in 2008 with red tights and red clogs.)

He’s showing you his pinchers in this costume. And, yes, his hands were closed in. Which? Was a great costume “flaw” as it kept his hands warm and kept him from taking candy by the handful. The antenna are actually the original pipe cleaners from the 90′s. Who knew those kept that long?

Second: CUTEST COSTUME (2 and under)! LittleBrother as Flounder.

Also note that he’s standing on his own in this shot. Win! I’m sure some cute little girl in something frilly will win “cutest” costume, but, come on, folks! Boys! In costumes that aren’t big! and! scary! are most definitely the best! thing! ever!

Third: CUTEST PICTURE! Titled: Interspecies Love.

I wanted to put in a picture of the boys together but, honestly, they weren’t ever looking and smiling at the same time. Not exactly a cute picture. (Except for that one where LittleBrother is trying to pull off his hood and falling over. Classic.) So, I chose this picture of BigBrother kissing his girlfriend, A-One (her sister is LittleBrother’s girlfriend and is A-Two). A crab and a cat. You don’t see this kind of cuteness everyday.

And, there you have it. The cuteness of Halloween was overwhelming this year. Which does my heart good. Someday I am sure that these two boys will want to be big! scary! things! and I’ll just have to deal with it. But for right now? They are fine being cute. And I’m fine with them being fine with being cute.

I hope you all had a safe and happy weekend. I also hope you changed the batteries in your smoke detectors. Happy November (birthday month here) to all!

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