A lass on the Facebook page asked for a comparison between the Colimacon et Cie and an Ellaroo. This was Savannah’s response. Since this relatively new-on-the-market wrap doesn’t have many reviews, I asked her permission to copy it here:
I LOVE my C&C M&M. It’s been my go-to wrap this past week or so.
It was pretty stiff right out of the box, but after a wash or two (and a machine dry!) it has softened up beautifully. I fee confident treating it as a workhorse because it’s practically pull-proof and can take machine washing and drying.
M&M is a very dense weave, but it’s not unbearably thick. I think the knot is a little smaller than Didymos Aqua Waves, but it feels a tad warmer because of the weave. M&M is the widest wrap I own, too; it has at least 3 inches on the Waves.
The closest thing I can compare it to is a pair of thin, really broken in blue jeans. I’ve heard it compared to a Storch Leo, too. I have an Ellaroo, as well, and they are two completely different animals. The Ellaroo is incredibly thin (shirt weight), where the M&M is thicker (skirt/pants weight). Ellaroo has blunt ends with fringe and has selvedge rails instead of hemmed, while M&M has a 6 inch or so taper and is hemmed with contrasting thread. They are probably about the same in terms of grippyness.
These Miel et Malice wraps come in a rainbow of vivid colors from the bold Tangerine Orange, Leaf Green, and Ripe Raspberry hues to the earthier Chocolate, Natural, and White. I love that they are available in so many sizes–every half meter between 2.5 meter and 6 meter lengths!
Inspired by Ada, my 8 year old daughter, who informed us–as soon as she was old enough to do so–that she is a fairy, and who sees fairies everywhere, and shares them with us by pointing them out, or the traces of them, their fairy homes, or other telltale signs, this newest Bali Breeze wrap is a deep forest green with bright fairies batiked across the greenery in a dance of light.
The yellow to goldenrod hue of the fairy design is perfectly mottled to suggest shimmer and movement. This wrap does have a bottom and a top. The fairies are all oriented in the same direction so that they will either be right side up or upside down when wrapped. The bottom edge of the wrap is bordered with thick flowering foliage in the same pale yellow to deep gold. Having the border on only one edge makes it easy to make sure you are orienting the wrap correctly, and also makes it easy to keep track of your rails (the edges of the wrap) so that you know you have not twisted the wrap as it comes around your baby or behind your back. One rail is deep green, the other is flamboyantly bright with branches and blooms.
A delightful effect of the single border design is that when wrapped with the border on the bottom, the wrap can have an overall green appearance and then when straps cross over it, those straps can be bunched to show the gorgeous golden design that contrasts beautifully over the dark green. Alternately, one can bunch the straps to hide the yellow if a more uniformly green look is preferred.
You might also choose to wrap with the print upside down if you are wanting to show off the striking contrast of yellow leaves on green, as having that border at the top makes it much more visually evident.
Ada and I are so happy with how the wrap turned out. Green is my faerie daughter’s favorite color, and the design of the wrap perfectly captures the lighthearted magic of fairies, and sunlight, and deep woods. We didn’t know it until after we named her, and we couldn’t have known at the time that she would grow up to be so thick with the elven folk, but her very name is a Spanish word for fairy. So there was no question what to name this light and magical wrap!
edited to add: the details of August’s giveaway are below, but remember I’m giving one wrap away every month so be sure to subscribe to the blog, my newsletter, or like my Facebook page to get the news on how to enter each month’s giveaway. Also, I love you guys, one and all!
Babywearing Groups are so important because they can spread the babywearing bug throughout their communities like the internet never will. The local groups are the village that new parents are looking for. Not just an article or a blog post, but people with smiles and babies and toddlers and busy lives, wrapping their children up right in front of you, showing you what’s easy–or hard–about it, talking about how it has affected their family. They can show you how to do it, let you try it with your baby, show you if there is something you could change to make it safer or more comfortable, give you tips specific to you.
I will sheepishly admit that I think babywearing can change the world. It may not be THE SOLUTION, but it does start new families out staying close, meeting baby’s AND parents’ biological needs, listening and communicating closely, and sharing lives together. It is the beginning of raising human beings whose lives are imbued with love. And that can change the world.
I love spreading babywearing love across the internet and I value the internet as a tool that can spread wonderful ideas in a way that couldn’t happen before. But once someone finds out about it, or even buys a wrap from me, I want them to find their village. So I am compiling a list of local groups. It is far from complete. I could probably have a fulltime job just maintaining and developing this list. Since I am wealthy in love, health, and happiness, but not so much in money, I have to ask others to please email me any information you have about a local group so I can make this list as helpful as possible: LOCAL BABYWEARING GROUPS
And, in order to make the groups themselves as helpful as possible, as valuable as they can be to families in their communities, I would like to give away some wraps for lending libraries. Again, referencing my financial limitations, I can’t give them to everyone. But I can do one wrap a month. So, beginning today, the middle of August, I will post a monthly giveaway. This month I’m asking for pictures from your babywearing group. A group shot, or an action shot of one particular baby getting wrapped up, whatever you’d like. I would love to get a shot for each state in the US to put on the page of groups for that state. And one, I will pick to receive a wrap.
Email pictures to me at diana@wrapyourbaby.com. Send them by the last day of August 2012. Include a short note that I am allowed to use the pictures on my website or in other promotion. I may use them in other ways than the babywearing lists, such as in my newsletters, or even on a product page if it happens to be a nice shot of a wrap I sell. I plan to use several pictures, not just the one chosen to win. The winning group is chosen by me and I get to pick however I want đ
If you are in an area that doesn’t have a group, and you want to form one, I am so excited and appreciative! Contact me and I may be able to help get a lending library going. I can’t say I’ll give a wrap to every new group because I don’t know how often I’ll be contacted. Maybe I’ll keep a waiting list and give them out as often as I can. Or I may be able to refer you to someone who can help, or ask for donations on my facebook page. I’d like to help however I can! And maybe you’ll find this post helpful for getting started.
If there is not a local babywearing group close to you, there should be! It’s a resource every community should have as babywearing has the power to strengthen families and nurture the children who are the future of the community!
You can absolutely begin your own group and reap all the benefits while providing those same benefits to others.
If you are not an expert, think about this: if you can carry your baby or toddler in a carrier enough that it is helpful to you, then you have skills that could change the lives of other moms. Being an expert doesn’t mean certification or having mastered the entire field.
Being an expert means there is at least one thing, no matter how small, that you know how to do. Just one thing.
Also keep in mind that when you start seeking out other babywearers you may find others who have more experience than you and would love to be part of a group. Being the one to start it does not mean you have to be the one who knows the most!
Lending Library or Demonstration Library
Most babywearing groups have a library – a collection of baby carriers that can be tried out by the local community to help parents understand the choices that exist and find out which will work best for them.
These are the two main models.
Lending Library: members can try out carriers at a meeting but can also rent carriers to try out for extended periods at home.
Demonstration Library: carriers are available for trying out during a group meet-up but cannot be checked out to take home. Â Carriers are only used under supervision.
Which model you follow is up to you.  Some groups prefer not to take on the liability of loaning carriers that can be used without supervision, and these groups stick to a Demonstration Library.  Others find that the Lending Library model provides an invaluable service to the community and also provides more help to lower income families.
To manage the library, you will want to keep a log of all carriers, and all the members who have it checked out, as well as the date checked out and the date due. To ensure the carrier is returned, many groups will ask for a check to be written for the replacement value of the carrier.  The check will be returned uncashed when the carrier is returned intact.
Be sure to get the contact info from anyone borrowing a carrier. Â Decide whether you will require the borrower to wash the carrier before returning it, or if you and other group leaders will launder the carriers in between loans. Make sure the borrower knows whether they are expect to wash it or if you prefer that they don’t and specify washing instructions and acceptable detergents if you do require them to wash it or in case of accident that requires washing while it is on loan.
Also specify the date that the baby carrier must be returned, whether carriers can only be returned at official meetings or if they can be dropped off in between, and to whom.
How to Build a Library for your Local Babywearing Group
Baby Carrier Donations for Your Library
If you have a local baby carrier store or a natural parenting store that sells baby carriers, definitely make a connection as you can benefit each other and your community together!
The store may have a space you could use for group meet-ups and those meetings will bring new potential customers into their store so everyone benefits.
For the same reason, a local store will sometimes offer a standing discount to the local babywearing group members and might even donate a baby carrier to your library as members who try out the carrier will often be interested in buying one.
If a babywearing or natural parenting trade show or convention comes to town, you may be able to visit several baby carrier vendors to tell them about your group and ask for donation. Â Business cards can be very helpful in showing that you are a legitimate group who would be using the carrier for the benefit of the community.
Otherwise you can email baby carrier manufacturers or vendors asking for donations or discounts for local Babywearing Group Lending Libraries. Â Expect to hear no more often than yes, but know that the more letters you send, the more you will hear yes. Â To improve your chances of hearing yes, write a thoughtful letter that explains the role of your group, how big it is or how many members your library services, and how the donation will be used. Â Mention what you like about their particular carrier and why you think your group could benefit from having one. If you have community outreach programs, mention those.
And be sure to let the vendor know how the donation will help them:
offer to promote their business on social media
offer to blog about the company and their generosity or
blog about the product and how it can help parents
promise to share pictures of members using the product
offer to include the vendor on a list of resources for group members
Group Library Fundraisers
These fundraiser ideas have been successful for existing babywearing groups. Â Use them as a jumping off point and add your own ideas!
Babywearing Classes – find a qualified teacher who will donate their time to teach a babywearing dance or exercise class.  Charge each participant and use the funds to buy carriers for your library.  Be sure to let participants know it is a fundraiser and that their $5 or $10 fee doubles as a donation toward building a library for the group.
Photo Mini Shoots – see if there is a professional photographer who will donate time to doing a day of mini-shoots for local families, each family pays a small fee and gets one or two priceless family photos, while your group gets funds to buy some carriers.
T-shirt or Decal sales – use your group’s logo or run a design contest in the group for a design that can be printed on t-shirts or made into car decals which can then be sold to the members in your local babywearing group with the proceeds going toward lending library carriers!
Auction or Raffle off a donated baby carrier – if a group member has a nice carrier to donate, or really any other thing that is likely to be of interest to a large percentage of your group, you can auction or raffle it off to raise funds for carriers.
Membership or Rental Fees
Some groups charge a yearly membership fee which gives the member access to borrowing from the lending library all year long (or a certain number of times over the year).
Some lending libraries charge a small fee for each rental, such as $10 for a two week rental.
With any fee based system, I encourage you to consider having a policy in place for need-based scholarships or waiving fees to allow access to families across the economic spectrum.
Where to Hold Local Babywearing Group Meetings
Small groups can meet in someone’s living room, but if your group is open to the public you may want to choose a public place for safety reasons. Try the park during nice weather. Ask your library or church about using a room as a regular meeting place. Ask local businesses, especially those that cater to babies, children, or families (your presence can bring them business, after all).
It is a good idea to have a regular meeting place that does not change so that it is easy to find and familiar and comfortable to the families attending. Look for ample parking, a place where noisy children will be tolerated, someplace with toys or where you can bring a pile of toys to play with, and where there is not too much for kids to get into trouble with (you don’t want vases, shelves of books, electronics, etc because your mommies will be too distracted keeping kids out of that stuff to enjoy themselves or learn anything)!
When to Hold Babywearing Group Meetings
How often you meet will be determined by the interest of the group members and community. When you meet depends on what works best for the most people. If you find your group consists mostly of stay at home moms, weekday meetings will probably work best. Working parents will do better with weekends. Evening meetings are certainly an option but keep in mind that babies will be more cooperative in learning to be carried if they are not tired!
I recommend regular meeting times, whether weekly or monthly, so that members always know when the next meeting is and don’t have to look it up or risk missing it because they didn’t know. Go with something easy to remember like, every Tuesday at 11am. Or the first and third Saturday each month. Or the first Monday of each month. You get the idea.
If your group grows to the point that it can support more meetings, you might have a weekday meeting and a weekend meeting to accommodate different schedules, or have a schedule of meetings over a wider geographic range to make it convenient to families in different parts of your county.
How to plan meetings
There are many ways to arrange your group format and it is really up to you and what works for the community you are putting together. But you should examine the form you want your group to have.
Decide whether your group is open to all parents or if you want it to be open to only certain groups: attached parents, or gluten-free parents, or members of your church, etc. Remember that you will reach the most people and help the most people, and potentially learn the most yourself if your group is open to all parents.
Then decide what sort of a meeting to hold. Are you having a social meeting to hang out with other babywearers, or are you offering instruction? Do you have a space that will accommodate older siblings?
Some groups plan a topic for each meeting so that one week addresses newborn babywearing, another toddler wearing. Or one week might focus on ring slings while the next week is all about woven wraps. Or hip carries one week and back carries the next. I personally think that the best format allows for the people attending each meeting to have their questions addressed. Maybe I need help with a woven wrap but don’t want to wait for the September meeting. In order to help me now, your group might meet with no particular agenda, then find out what most interests that week’s attendees.
If you really want to foster community, you can add other activities to your group. You can have regular meetings and/or other get-togethers such as a babywearing walk (babywearers meet together and go strolling or hiking together for fun), park dates (babywearers meet at the park for a fun playdate), weekend barbecues (great for getting dads to meet other babywearing dads and families), etc.
How to coordinate and communicate with your group
My favorite platform for this is Facebook. It is easy to post events, and it encourages group participation between meet ups with an easy place for any group member to put up photos (of the recent meet up or of their recent babywearing success in their livingroom), ask for advice, look for a ride to your meeting, plan side get-togethers with other members, share valuable or entertaining parenting or babywearing information, etc. It is also very easy for members to share your group and for new members to join. Your group could use a website or blog instead of or in addition to facebook.
How to find participants for your Local Babywearing Group
I saved the biggie for last, but the truth is it probably isn’t as hard as you think.  If you have a few friends who babywear, you’re already on your way. Get them excited about the group, and get them to spread word to others. Post about it on online mom forums such as mothering.com and thebabywearer.com (many of these have forums for people in different geographical areas).
Get some cards to pass out and give them to any babywearer you see, inviting them to join. And don’t forget to give them to parents who are not babywearing, because anyone with a baby or toddler is a prospective babywearer and you might change their lives!
Ask if you can leave cards or put up flyers at the pediatrician or holistic doctor’s office. Check with birth centers and chiropractors, give some to homebirth midwives, invite the members of the local LLL group or ICAN. Talk it up wherever you go.
You can also start with an online presence such as Facebook, and as you add members, discuss with them when you should hold your first meeting.
Susan was kind enough to send her thoughts on her new Colimacon et Cie wrap. It’s a new brand to Wrap Your Baby, and there aren’t many reviews yet, so I was very happy to receive her comprehensive review and comparison:
I just received my 3.5m Chocolate C&C wrap in the mail today! The color is beautiful! I measured it and it’s actually 3.87m long. Right out of the package it is pretty smooth and soft. I can tell it won’t need much breaking in. I’ll see what happens with the length and how much softer it gets after a machine wash and dry later today. It is for sure thinner than my brand new Storch Inka that I received almost 2 weeks ago. When I hold it up to the light I can see light through it. It is slightly thicker than my Vatanai Maruyama. I can see this being a great summer wrap for multi layer carries, but really great anytime of the year. My youngest child was sleeping so I wrapped my 6.5 year old DS in a pretty sloppy BWCC and he felt weightless (which is saying a lot since I’m 5’2″ and 24 weeks pregnant and he weighs 40lbs!). It was very easy to wrap with….easier than my new Inka. My new Inka still needs some breaking in so I find that the fabric is still pretty grippy, but this C&C wrap was very easy to wrap with even though it is brand new and I haven’t done anything to break it in.
Thank you Diana Rosenfield for deciding to stock such a wonderful and affordable wrap! I’ll report back later after I wash/dry it and maybe I’ll be able to get hubby to snap an action shot as well đ
And she did report back after washing and drying:
Alright, I put it through a warm wash and dried on medium heat. It went from 3.87m brand new to 3.52m after wash so it shrunk down to pretty much exactly 3.5m! It’s softer for sure and I think it’s already feeling pretty floppy! Now I’m curious how much softer it will get. I can’t wait to wrap baby #4 in this wonderful wrap!
For those of you who don’t know, we are a traveling family. We’ve been at our homebase, in Clearwater Florida for a few months where most of our friends and family are, and today we set out again. We move slowly, about 2 hours a day, because we’ve got the kiddos strapped down for the whole drive and kiddos only want to be strapped down for so long before they turn into terrible, miniature hulks, burst through their straps, and start tearing up the RV…
We got to Gainesville, Florida today. We’re headed for North Carolina where my wonderful and musical husband–David Rosenfield–is attending the SouthEast Folk Alliance Conference, and then for Texas to enjoy good company and good music at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Yee-haw! This is a short trip, and we’ll be back in the bosom of our family by the end of June.
The wrap business comes on the road with us. Precious cargo space that should be dedicated to our clothing, toys and possessions is instead taken up by stacks of wraps waiting to be sold. So please, keep ordering wraps! I will keep shipping. We’re somewhere new everyday, but every town has a post office and you can keep tabs on us by checking the postmark!
We have internet, too, so please, keep up with me on Facebook, feel free to email me, and keep sending your pictures, stories, and questions. It wouldn’t feel like home without them đ
Do you see too many babies in bucket seats? Harried mothers carrying a baby in one tired arm and pushing an empty stroller in the other? Wish your sister, and cousin, and your BFF knew how much easier life can be with a baby wrap, and how many benefits there are to babies over âcontainer parentingâ?
Be the change you want to see in the world!
Babywearing groups are great and I wish there was one available to anyone. But sometimes there’s a mom that has skills and willingness to help, but does not have the time or energy to create a babywearing group. I want to tap that resource for brand new wrappers everywhere because nothing makes wrapping easier than one on one assistance!
Our Facebook community had created a database of individuals, listed by US state or by country, that would be happy to help a new wrapper learn the basics or troubleshoot wrap difficulties. The database was lost during one of Facebook’s many restructurings, but I saved the info before it disappeared. Now the information sits on my hard drive, not helping much of anyone…
So it’s time to put up a new database, not hosted by Facebook or another entity that gets to change the rules whenever they want.
I’m going to create the list on my website, and ask all of you to be brave enough and proactive enough to volunteer your name and contact info so that when a new mom springs up in Somewhere, West Dakota*, and learns about wraps, and starts to think, âthat looks too complicated for meâI’ll just use a stroller…â we will be there to say,
âWraps are easy with practice, and here’s a list of friendly and experienced mamas in your state who wish you would call them so they can help you get the hang of it!â
Because parenting is easier with a wrap, and the babies seem to like it too đ
All of the companies I work with are small enough to remain very much in tune with customers’ needs and wants, and so it should be no surprise that wraps are sometimes discontinued to make room for new colors and designs as they emerge. Here’s a look at some of the changes over the past year:
Seattle EllaRoo
I was disappointed to learn recently that EllaRoo has discontinued their rebozo (2.7 meter) size wraps. I loved EllaRoo rebozos for quick carries, loved the thinness, and the fringe. I have only one remaining EllaRoo rebozo in stock: Seattle. The brand I have in my store that is still available in rebozo size is Storchenwiege, and luckily, they have many colors to choose from. They are thicker which is nice for a cushier feel on the shoulders, and should still not be too warm for a Summer wrapping solution as a one-layered rebozo carry admits plenty of air flow. Reports are that the organic Bio Louise Storchenwieges are thinner and cooler than the other weaves.
In the beautiful world of Bali Breeze, brought to us by the GypsyMama, we have seen several new colors this year, and said goodbye to several more (Gaia, Haumea, Whitman). The latest wrap to be added to the discontinued list is Alice, which has been a pretty good seller for me, but I am consoled by the fact that she is always coming up with new beauties to replace the old and I would hate to miss out on new artwork just because I couldn’t let go đ I still have some Alice wraps in stock (if you don’t see your size, email me as I may be able to get one), but there will be no more manufactured so these are the last. Here’s Alice:
Alice Bali Breeze, with mother and baby Mynah birds
And in the world of Storchenwiege, we have two brand new Leos (the famously soft, supple, cuddly, and beloved weave exclusive to Storch wraps)–Bordeaux and Cafe. Which makes for seven gorgeous Leo colors now available in all sizes!
Leo Bordeaux Storch
And I’ve got my own plans for releasing an exclusive to Wrap Your Baby wrap. But that’s not news yet. You’ll just have to wait…
NOTE: the term “rebozo” in wrapping is no longer used to refer to a short wrap (or any kind of wrap pass or carry) because a rebozo is a traditionally woven cloth used in some cultures for babywearing and other uses. I have changed the title of this old post to reflect that.
Anyone up for a rebozo challenge? I love wraps, but I’ve hardly used rebozo carries at all. The rebozo back carry works for me pretty intuitively…but the front carries need some work. They remind me of the very beginning of my babywearing career when I was struggling to make a Maya Wrap ring sling work. I never did get that right, and I switched to wraps, which were easier for me from the start.
Well a rebozo front carry is a lot like a ring sling carry and there’s a hump I’ve got to get over. It’s just so hard to bother with, when there are so many carries with a longer wrap that are easy, fast, and comfortable! And yet, the challenge of it!
And what an impressive skill! Tying your baby on with a long piece of cloth is awesome, but the ability to do it with a short piece of cloth, that would make you unstoppable, wouldn’t it?
So…are you up for it? Shall we become mistresses of the mighty rebozo? Report back to each other so we can’t get lazy? Or if you are a rebozo expert, will you give me your tips?
Have you dreamed of owning the totally stylish and flattering European MamaJacket or MamaPoncho, but can’t justify the price tag? You’ve shown remarkable restraint in the face of really beautiful, and practical, wares, and now you are being rewarded with a significant savings: Don’t miss this price!
20% off all MamaJackets and MamaPonchos through 15 December 2011!
These are easy to get on and off yourself and your baby in a front carry or back carry with a wrap or most other popular baby carriers. They are beautiful and sophisticated wool garments, in gorgeous colors, made in Europe. Both are suitable as maternity wear as well, and the MamaJacket is a beautiful jacket for when you go out without your baby as well, so it is really three-in-one!
Don’t get caught out in the cold this Winter! A babywearing coat makes it easy to keep you and your baby warm while babywearing without being frumpy. Going out won’t be such a chore!
I canât tell you how excited I am to roll out a few new, beautiful gifts Iâve been working on for YOU! Talking with the Wrap Your Baby community on Facebook helped me pinpoint what sort of things would be appreciated and I was fortunate enough to get tons of feedback from the wonderful ladies (and occasional gentlemen) there so I am confident these will be just what is needed and wanted . . .
A magnetic picture frame for your moment of baby wrap triumph!
My gifts to you:
A cool magnet: pop out the inner magnet and the outer portion becomes a magnetic picture frame on your fridge. Print a photo of you (or your husband, or your mom) wrapping your baby and voila–instant WrapStar!
Some babywearing info cards to help you out when you get the inevitable questions about what your wrap is, where you got it, and how you use it. Also nice for informing people who are worried about the safety of your wrap. If you are part of a babywearing group or any other group that is a good resource for babywearing, write the contact info or meeting place and time on the back of the card. If not, and you are willing to help out newbies yourself, put your own phone number or email address so that people you hand the card to can find local babywearing help!
Your own babywearing bumper sticker! Tell the world that you are keeping your baby close to your heart!
A pair of beautiful koala earringsâŠand, of course, the koala is babywearing!
An instructional wrapping DVD.
All the gifts will be included with any wrap or baby wearing coat/outerwear order between now and Christmas.
If you want to have a magnet, bumper sticker, or info cards for yourself or a loved one (stocking stuffer?) without placing an order this month, send me an email requesting them and Iâll try to get it out. I say âtryâ because I canât predict the volume of response, and I donât want to make any promises I canât keep (busy mom with three little kids over here, you know)!
I love the idea of a tandem costume. You know, you and your wrapped up baby (or toddler) are something together. A Kangaroo and a joey (as sported by Alyson Hannigan in the above photo). An owl in a tree. A two-headed monster.
Whether you’ve got older kids to take trick-or-treating, or you’re dressing up for a party, I want to see those tandem costumes! Post your photo on the Wrap Your Baby Facebook page next week to join in. We’ll count up which photo gets the most “likes” and I’ll send a warm fleece babywearing cover* to the lucky tandem pair!
But just for participating, winner or not, you will get 10% off a purchase from my store! Just send me an email with a link to your photo on Facebook, and I’ll send you the coupon code!
So, everyone who posts a picture gets 10% off, and one winning photo will get a free babywearing cover for winter! It’s a win-win-win situation! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
*if the winner is outside the US, I will have to ask you to pay shipping–sorry!
Some costume brainstorming ideas from the community at large:
I wish I could send a prize to everyone! I am not kidding when I say this was hard. In the end I practically just tossed a coin because I couldn’t stop going round and round on these great photos. I had photos of children learning about the world from a wrap, babies were snuggling in perfect contentment on a parent’s chest, mommies babywearing and daddies babywearing, infants and toddlers, broad smiles, wide eyes, and sleepy grins, wrapping in the water and in the snow, in the orchard and in the city…
It’s just what I wanted: the variety of where wrapping takes you, but I didn’t realize how impossible the choosing would be. There were also some really stunningly beautiful photos that would win a photography contest, but I was looking for context, too: all the places that wrapping can take you, how much of life you can experience with your baby!
Do you feel sorry for me, yet? No, you just want me to shut up and show you some pictures, already! Okay, okay, here’s what you want:
The two mommas who have a free babywearing pendant coming their way are:
Candace, who so epitomized “mommy” that the very description of her photo won the hearts of so many of you–like April who commented, “A picture of how babywearing brings joy and simplicity to what could be drudgery. We all have babies, we all clean up messes on hands and knees, with mussed hair. No matter the ethnicity, the creed, the country. We are ALL mothers!”
And Amanda, who gave me scores of photos of her family wrapping with multiple parents and through multiple children (sometimes both kids at once) across years in the snow, in orchards, on hay rides and firetrucks…so here’s just a sample:
I’m going to make these photos into a movie about baby wrapping, but in the meantime, here’s are a few of the others I had to choose between:
I asked for photos of “where wrapping has taken you” and was flooded with beautiful pictures of happy wrapped babies đ
One winner was already chosen, but I promised three, and I’m having a hell of a time choosing those last two winners. Narrowing it down has caused me an entire Saturday of agonizing, and now I seem able to narrow no narrower:
Do I pick the breathtaking moment of sibling bonding in the woods?
Or the mom with baby on back peeking through leaves in an orchard?
I’m sorely tempted to choose the photo of a mom on hands and knees, cleaning up a mess, grinning up through mussed hair with a happily undressed baby on her back–you know, the one I can relate to most of the time!
But then there’s the way wrapping brought a little Native American baby to her first powwow…
So help me out, here. Based solely on my descriptions, which photo do you choose?
For the past two and a half months we’ve been traveling (those of you ordering wraps may see varying postmarks!) and the wrap has taken us everywhere from way out in nature, to the Staten Island Ferry. We haven’t missed a step.
I can’t say it’s more helpful than when we’re at home though, because I use it just as much when I’m being a domestic stay at home mother and housewife type.
And conducting business on the road? A little tricky because the internet connection and electricity are not reliable–we’re not in hotel rooms, but in our motorhome. And it’s a very little motorhome so we have to take out the kids’ carseats when we get an order to take a wrap out from the underseat storage. This hasn’t been too bad, since we just pretty much do this once a day before we drive, and the carseats are taken out every night to change the seats into the girls’ bed anyway. We sure could have used some of that storage space for clothes, though. Or craft supplies!
But we’ve kept up relatively well with customer communications and we’ve maintained a speedy shipping rate, and I think the experiment could be summarized as a success!
We’re back in Florida now, where all the grandparents are, and where our house is still under negotiations. Still under negotiations means it still belongs to us, so that gives us somewhere to park and plug in while we’re here. And we’re staying a while because we want to have Thanksgiving with our whole family, since we won’t be here for Christmas. And we’ve got plenty to do before we leave around the first of December. I would love to get some work done on the Wrap Your Baby business, including but not limitted to:
picking photo contest winners (from the contest I held a few months back)
compiling a photo montage from the contest entries and sharing it with the world
making a super quick “nursing from FWCC” video
making a tandem babywearing video
putting together a pregnancy wrapping video
updating my mailing list
adding gift certifcates to my website
adding a couple of products for sale on my website
adding some sponsorship to my blog
We have a lot of goals that are not Wrap Your Baby related, too, so we’ll see how much gets done! But as always, I’m available by email, on Facebook, and we are shipping out orders every day. And at least I’m not bored!
This is a my-loss-is-your-gain sale. Here’s what happened: A tiny, unnoticed leak in our motorhome got to where my Bali Breeze Kimber wraps were stored. All of my Bali Breeze wraps are in one place except for the Kimber which just didn’t fit. So I’m fortunate that only the Kimbers were affected!
So I’ve washed and dried them and now my entire stock of Kimbers is in like-new, unworn, washed-once condition. Since buyers are supposed to wash these wraps before wearing them, I should really charge extra for the service, but instead I’ve decided to offer these wraps at a discount:
Now that I’m traveling fulltime in my wrap, I’m inspired by all the places it’s easy to get to with a wrapped up baby. You know, like the middle of a creek:
And isn’t it remarkable, the number of things you can accomplish with a wrapped up baby. Like feeding your older kids, or vacuuming. Even using the computer.
Wrapping makes life easier, and I want every new parent to know it. So I’ve decided to make a slideshow of photographs that demonstrate this. I need YOU to send me your pictures. Where have you been, and what have you done?
From all the submissions I receive, I’ll choose not one, but THREE people to receive a really gorgeous glass mother pendant like this one (or another from my store):
Send your photos to me at diana@wrapyourbaby.com
Send as many as you like, but they should show a baby/child being worn in a wrap (not other carriers):
in an interesting or difficult to access location
at an interesting/unique event
or while accomplishing a task/multitasking.
I won’t use every picture, but please include this line in your email: I give you permission to use this picture (or these pictures) in promotional material.
Not content to go on supporting a life we don’t love ecstaticly, we are making a BIG change. My husband just quit his day job doing construction, even though construction pays the bills. But that’s the thingâwe’re getting rid of the bills, too. We’re trading in work and bills for a life of freedom on the road, traveling, making music, spending our time together and showing our kids everything that’s wonderful in this wide world.
I can not tell you how excited I am. We’ve lived in this city for eight years and all three of our children were born here. Two of them have never been out of the state! June 17th, that’s all changing. That’s the date we drive away. It’s not a vacation, it’s a new life.
We don’t plan to do it forever. We have a long term dream of owning land and homesteading somewhere beautiful. The idea to travel was born of my husband’s musicâthis is a tour to sell his recently released album Son of Ojito.
Maybe a year. We’ll see how it goes. And we’ll also be looking out for our dream land as we go.
I am excited for Wrap Your Baby, too. Stripping our expenses as we are gives Wrap Your Baby an opportunity to really support us. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with a labor of love, but even better if it can buy groceries, I say! And that’s the point of this change. We want to live on the things we love. If music and babywearing can support our family, how cool is that? Utopian, even!
I’m going to chronicle our adventures at FreeRangeDreams.com where I hope by spelling out how we’re making it work for us, that we might get cogs turning in other people’s minds too. No other family will want to do exactly what we’re doing, but I hope to inspire some ideas about how to live an unconventional life of your choosing. I might even run contests: make a drastic and wonderful change in your life and win a prize! What do you think of that?
Are there others out there living wild and woolly? Will you leave a comment to tell me about it?
The Gypsymama has magiked up three new wraps, each as stunning as all her others. She is a remarkable woman, and for those who don’t know, she is responsible for the Bali Breeze wraps: breathtakingly beautiful works of batik art on gauze for the thinnest, coolest, babywearing around!
Bali Breeze Hope: same wrap job shown below
From her right side . . .
. . . and her left!
Although, most of the credit for the new rainbow wrap Hope has to go to Wendi Stemmons, who designed it and submitted it to the Gypsymama’s design-a-new-wrap contest. The public spoke, and Hope was born. This is my favorite of the three new colors and I think you’ll agree it’s a stunner! But lovers of gray or purple will swoon for Lily, and the pink-brown pairing in Lana has caught many a covetous eye. Aint it great to live in an age of such a wide color selection for wraps? The space program is cool, too, but really, there’s a wrap that matches almost any mother’s dream, and that’s nothing to cough at!
Bali Breeze Lily
Bali Breeze Lana
So, while Hope is my favorite, I believe it’s one of the other two that has been the most popular. Which is your favorite? Or is your dream wrap as yet just a dream? Feel free to describe your perfect wrap in a comment–I’d love to know!
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