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2 Years Old and Legacy Wraps

David & Cassidy a couple of months before he turned 2.

My baby turns 2 years old tomorrow.  This time two years ago I was quietly sitting in bed and smiling because I knew I was having a baby.  My husband’s mother came over to stay with our sleeping girls, and David and I sneaked out of the RV, where we lived, and into the living room of our house that was for sale, where he set up a birth pool, my mother and the midwife were called, and baby and I got on with the business of birth.  (Would you want to know if babies were born in the house that you are buying?  3 babies were born in this one.)

When the sun came up, and the baby came out, he was a little boy named Cassidy.  It took a few months for things to settle down enough to start to get to know him.  Is that awful?  It was crazy trying to coexist with a newborn and a 1 year old, plus the 6 year old, while David was releasing a CD (I missed the CD release party when Cassidy was 2 days old) and still working his full time day job while we transitioned to living on the road like a pack of wild dogs or dirty gypsies.  Thank goodness for family, in which David and I, and our children, have all been particularly blessed.

But I’m getting distracted by reverie.  You can read his birth story here (I don’t have to write it again).  My point was that Cassidy is two years old, and I don’t expect to have any more children.

We did a photo shoot a couple of months ago to get some wrap shots for our family business and I am so glad we did because the artist at Remarkable Photography (also known as Lee Anne) captured some of the best shots of our family, the only professional photos we have, and I didn’t know it at the time, but only a few weeks later Cassidy would become too grown up for wrapping.

My family, photographed by Remarkable Photography.

He’s so grown up now, his big sister (3 years old) is more likely to let me wrap her up.  “Please,” I’ll say.  “Please let me wrap you up–we can make a wrap video!”  Nope.

big sister Annabelle, 3 years old

He was sick this week though, and that won me permission to wrap him a couple of more times.  This morning we were going to go for a walk and he just wasn’t up to walking.  “David,” I said, “Cassidy’s asking me to wrap him up–I think we’d better make a video.  Quick, before he changes his mind!”

Cassidy not feeling well, wrapped up in the Breeze Ada wrap

But over the past month, I have rarely wrapped at all.  I celebrate every moment of his independence (at least, the ones that don’t make me want to cry or tear my hair out), but I do feel a twinge about the fact that wrapping is slipping into my history.  And it got me thinking about my wraps.  What should I do with them?

Grandbabies.  Yes, once your youngest turns two, it is officially time to think about becoming a grandmother.  I don’t want to sell or give away my wraps.  I want to give them to my children to wear their babies.  And I will absolutely be borrowing them when I babysit.  I am suddenly in exuberant anticipation of something that is about 20 years in my future.  Oh, the future is bright and cuddly!

EllaRoo Mary was my first wrap, and I have wrapped all three of my children in it. That one’s a legacy wrap for sure.

Cassidy and I wrapped up in Mary EllaRoo

Annabelle takes a break from nursing to let me gaze at her 3 years ago.

Ada, age 4, taking a break on daddy's back at Busch Gardens

My Breeze Ada, the fairy wrap that my daughter Ada and I designed together.  That one has been used to carry Annabelle and Cassidy, and that one will go to one of my children.

Cassidy on my back in Breeze Ada, in the North Carolina woods

Annabelle and I in our fairy wrap

And…the Inka Storchenwiege that I sold to a friend a few months ago because I didn’t need so many wraps anymore.  How could I?  What was I thinking?

Nursing Ada at the beach 8 years ago in Inka

It’s not the same Inka that I wore Ada in 7 or 8 years ago.  But when I had my second baby, I missed having a gorgeous Inka and I bought another one–one that I wore both Annabelle and Cassidy in countless times.  Interestingly enough, the first Inka I had was bought used, and then I sold it back to the original owner who had seller’s remorse for sentimental reasons.  Hmm….

I emailed Lynnde, begged her to trade me, and today, just in time for Cassidy’s birthday, Inka came home, complete with the note you see in the picture.

Inka comes home!

One day I will go through all of our digital pictures (and all our actual photo albums when it comes to Ada’s baby pictures from before we had a digital camera or phones that took pictures) and do a tribute post to Inka, because that wrap has been present for so many wonderful family moments.

Annabelle loves Inka, too!

Cassidy and I swinging in an Inka swing Easter 2012

Cassidy snoozing in Inka while the girls play in the Mississippi mud

In the meantime, Happy Birthday darling Cassidy, sweet little gentleman.  I love your curls and your laugh, your face when you’re being tricky, and your voice when you tell me you love me.  I love the way you talk to your sisters, your agreeable nature and sunny disposition.  I love your little round nose and your little round toes, the songs that you sing, and the way you flap your arms when you run through the house.  I love to wrap you up, and I love to nurse you down.  I love putting your shoes on while you sit on my lap and kick your legs.  I love dawdling through the parking lot so you can read the letters and numbers on every license plate.  I loved bringing you into this world, and I love every day we spend together.

Cassidy and I this Summer