Bringing together parents, caregivers and babies to learn and share knowledge about babywearing.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Compendium of OOOOLD Posts

Just like me to forget to take pictures!!!

Elaine came and demonstrated how Mantas are used to carry anything, from your groceries, to your baby! And of course, I was so enthralled, I forgot to get out my camera. Oh no!

So, to make up for that, I searched up a few videos on traditional carrying in different cultures. Most cultures use a simple piece of cloth (SPOC, we call them), of varying shapes and sizes. A Manta is rather square, a rebozo narrower and rectangular, etc.

Here is one video using the Manta, somewhat differently from what we saw at our meeting (different areas within one country have different ways to tie, as well).

Sorry I can’t seem to include more than one direct video in here, but you can follow the links to see the others.The Honduran Cradle Back Carry is the carry I was remembering. Turns out its from Honduras, not Peru. But its still very cool!This is an African Carry that is pretty much the same as whats done in Indonesia with Simpang/Selendengs. And also almost the same as how Mexican Rebozo carries are done.

Here is an African Torso Carry, using what I believe is called a Khanga. This way of carrying is so amazing, because there is absolutely no weight on your shoulders.

Coming more local to home, for us, is how to Amaaq your baby in an Amauti!

And lest we not forget… we were practicing the High Secure Back Carry today with our babes. I encourage everyone who was trying this out to watch this video a few times while you practice. I think the dad in that video actually invented this modern carrying method, if I remember correctly. It is a wonderful way to get a back carry in a wrap.

I hope you all had fun today!

Manta me, Mommy!

Lol. That makes no sense at all. But I was trying to make a creative title for this post about our upcoming meeting. On April 21st, join us, and Elaine, while she demonstrates the ancient tradition of wearing babies in a Manta. I’m sorry I couldn’t find much information on the internet to link to, about Manta’s. How sad. Mantas are a traditional carrier, somewhat like the Rebozo in South America, or the Mei Tai in China, Podegi in Korea, Amauti to the Inuit, etc…

Here are some pictures from Elaine.

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I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, and taking some more pictures of our meetings to post on the blog.

Adria the Artist

Adria came on April 7th to speak about her wonderful colouring book and the good causes she is raising funds for by selling it. She gave the lovely story about how the Free Babywearing Art Project was begun, and what it has evolved into.

If you’d like to purchase a colouring book for your children, visit her Etsy shop, aTHOUSANDjennifers. They would also make great gifts! While your there, check out the awesome portraits she does. What a great gift for your family that would be, huh? Alternatively, Adria left me with a stack of colouring books to sell, if anyone couldn’t make that meeting. So if you come out to a future meeting, send me an email to remind me to bring some for you to see and buy. They are $10 a book, which is a 20% savings specially for CMC members!

The meeting swiftly digressed into a wrapping frenzy, with everyone needing help with their wraps! Wasn’t I happy? (Wrapping is my favorite method of carrying at the moment). We practiced Front Wrap Cross Carry, High Secure Back Carry, High Ruck with Tebetan, etc. I thought this photo represented how I felt. A whirlwind of trying out carriers and wrapping. It was all a blur! (Realistically, I was just trying out my new camera, and don’t have a clue how to work it yet).

Oh, and the superman toss! Our lovely resident German mama was so brave! She just tossed her little one right up there, without a moment’s hesitation (once she figured out which hand goes on which arm, of course). I love how all the European mamas are so much more willing to toss their babes, lol.

Pamela was all into the demo’ing, showing another mama how to ruck a newborn! Pamela, you ROCK the ruck :)

Oops

So, I made a mistake this week. I set up our meeting and accidentally made a setting which limits the number of RSVPs to 12!!! And I only noticed 1 hour before the meeting. There were numerous people on the ‘Wait List’ and I apologize profusely that you couldn’t come.

Whats the silver lining here? We ended up with a small and cozy meeting, where I was able to get to directly help a lot more mamas and babies. It was nice to have a smaller meeting once in a while. I forgot what its like when there isn’t a huge crowd of people. And there were a few new faces, and a lovely discussion of Elimination Communication. Pamela, who hosted the meeting, is a mentor with Diaper Free Babies, so we even had a resident expert there for the conversation. There is a Yahoo Group! for DFB-Ontario. And here is a wonderful store for any ‘equipment’ one might need for EC’ing - The EC Store

And of couse, a gratuitous infant pottying picture!

This is Temima at 3 months old, her first time on a potty, at my first DFB meeting!

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I hope everyone else had as nice an afternoon as I did. Sorry there are no pictures, because, while I brought my camera, I forgot to take it out!

Wow! 20 or more in a teeny cafe! What a meeting…

… and it was great to be back. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but it was amazing to see how many parents, strollers, babies…. and of course SLINGS could fit into the Bisogno Espresso Bar.

With our regular hostess (Yay Taz!) on vacation, we needed a different venue for our meeting this week. So, back we went to an old stand-by, the ever so friendly and welcoming cafe. Von’s selection of fine coffee type drinks (excuse me for not being up on the various latte, slim, tall, espresso, etc… lingo), and delicious snacks, and let me not forget to mention the kid friendly toasted bagel with cream cheese on top - is delicious. His cafe features a huge dining room table, so that customers can mingle and make new friends (I love that!). He keeps a box of toys and kids books around as well, and you’ll often find his own son there entertaining the customers with his impish questions and smiles.

20 or more adults were there, not counting the profusion babies. Seriously, where did you all come from? Was it just to see the new baby we have? (Lindsay!!) It was like Mamas and Papas were popping out of the woodwork. We all fit in (somewhere), and Von seemed to be happy we were there again (its been a long time, maybe a whole year since our last meeting there). I’m pretty certain we squished out a few of the regulars… but I had so much fun! It was so busy and packed, there was no hope for giving over my planned demo, because everyone just jumped right into the pile of slings, and started talking. And that’s ok. Some meetings are just better off that way.

Next week? Another meeting! This time at Pamela’s lovely party room near St. Lawrence Market. We’ll be having a more traditional meeting, sitting in a circle with our babies, and having a discussion about the use of different slings at various “Ages and Stages”

As always, if there is something particular you want to try out, check out our Library, and send me an email requesting anything in particular to be brought.

Baby Arrives!

Friday Feb. 13th, a baby boy arrived!

I know you’ve all been wondering and waiting for the news ;) Religiously visiting our uber active blog to see if the news was posted yet, lol. Well, to satisfy your undying curiousity…

Yehoshua Elchonon was born Friday the 13th, hopefully NOT destined to be a freaky baby ;) He was 7lbs 6oz, 19″ long. Labour was 3.5 hours total, and intense. I didn’t have time to use the birthing pool we rented! He’s a great baby. Temima loves him (somewhat dangerously)!

And we are having a great time slinging :)

More Carriers for Sale!

I’m still pregnant. 3 Days overdue today. And although I haven’t felt up to hosting a meeting, I have been just bored enough to try to keep the blog alive :) So, it seems there are two new items which have been added to the For Sale or Trade page, which is linked above in the links bar. A lovely Bamberoo mei tai from CMC’s own library! And a Didymos wrap from a local mom! Everyone should know that FSOT (For sale or trade) is a negotiable kind of thing. So if you see something you like/want, but can’t afford the price, don’t be afraid to make an offer! You never know. The worst that might happen is you don’t get a new carrier, haha.

And just for fun… I know some people find the right carrier and never need to move on from there, but for some of us, this can become quite an addiction… so for your viewing pleasure, a bit of my own personal ‘wrap stash’ to share with you all. And I’ve got one more waiting at the post office to pick up! And these are just my wraps! I’ve got a ring sling, a mei tai, and a buckle carrier of my own as well!

On the left is a blue/white contrast Indio by Didymos. Its a ’shorty’ because its abotu 3 meters long, and is used in a more traditional ‘Rebozo’ style of carry, from Mexico. I haven’t quite mastered this length of wrap yet.

Under that is an undyed Hemp Indio, also by Didymos. Indio is the weave, by the way. Its a size 5, which means about 4.1 meters long. I can just barely do a front-wrap-cross-carry in it, when I’m not pregnant that is! That is the carry that I show most of you when you first start with wrapping, for reference :) I’m thinking about dying this wrap a different color eventually.

On top on the right is Earthy Rainbow, by Girasol. Its about 4.2 meters as well. Girasol makes very light but supportive wraps. They have lovely color combinations. This is my favorite. Its a very popular ‘colorway’ in the ‘wrapping’ world (which means the fishbowl that is thebabywearer.com chat forums).

Underneath ER (Earthy Rainbow) is a different Didymos weave, called ‘waves’ because it looks like waves. This one was originally a silver color, but was dyed by a previous owner to a chocolate color, which I love. Its also a shorter wrap, about 4.2 meters. (Raspberry Rouge sells some waves).

Next down is a Laguna, by hmm… let me think. Its a less well known manufacturer and it has skipped my mind. They make some of the same colorways as Ellaroo’s wraps, but with a German weave instead of the lighter weave that Ellaroo does. The Ellaroo colorway that corresponds to this one is called Christiane (www.pookababy.ca sells those I believe). Mine is a long wrap, at 4.6 meters. That length is considered to be a very useable size by a wide range of parents. So, if you are petite, or tall, you can probably get use out of that length.

And my last wrap, on the bottom right, is a special one that I bought for the new baby. Its called HSW, or Hellblau Silk Waves. Yes… you guessed it right! Waves indicates that it was made by Didymos as well! Hellblau is just the color (very pale blue). I don’t know how I feel about the color, but I really love the texture of the silk mixed with cotton. Its a very long wrap, at 5 meters. I’m very excited to try it out with our baby, if it ever decides to arrive!

And just so you know, none of these wraps were bought new! Yes they aren’t cheap, but I definitely saved a lot of money buying them used. I’m sure I’m the 3rd or more owner for some of them. So, my recommendation to you is to look out for used wraps, as they are a great buy. Wraps really last a long time. And they hold a lot of their value, for future resale, although that has changed some in the current economic market :(

Hope my next post will have a baby to show!

Shira

For Sale or Trade! Sell your local carriers here!

Ok, so for convenience of this group, I’ve set up a small-time for sale or trade page here. Please feel free to visit it and see if there is anything you can use. I’ve started it off with a listing of a babywearing jacket that I have on loan from a friend. CMC’s carriers that go up for sale (when ever they do), will end up there as well. Hope you all have fun finding what you might need (or just lust after, lol)…

Apologies on the last meeting

I would like to extend an apology to anyone who tried to attend our last meeting. Lindsay, a wonderful CMC mama, volunteered to facilitate, but got the flu just in time! So, I sent out a message via meetup.com to advise everyone of that, and to say that anyone who still wants to meet up could show up and see if anyone else comes. I’m not sure if anyone made it in the end, but if you did, I hope you weren’t too dissapointed, and I hope there was someone else there for you to hang out with!

Maybe facilitating should be done in pairs or something, to ensure at least someone can come… except there is only me… haha :)

On to the next meeting I guess! I’m hoping to get a calendar set up on the blog soon for future meetings and start the transition over from meetup.com

Meeting of Jan. 13, 2009

A new year! Yay!

I made this my last meeting for a while, and I even had to leave my daughter with someone in order to make it. I just couldn’t handle all of it at once, haha! But it was a wonderful meeting. There were 3 new little babies! And we had a parent coming to research carriers for their future adoption! Isn’t that wonderful?

Lots of interest in the Beco Butterfly, which has now been recovered for the library (it got a little lost out in babywearing land). Here is one CMCer with her new baby girl testing out the Beco.

The blog is coming back! I hope…

Hello everyone,

It’s been a long time… again. But I’m hoping to start using our blog again, and maybe cancel our Meetup.com subscription sometime in the future. That will force me to use the blog, which will mean more good, or not so good, reading for all of you. The meetup.com site also eats up quite a bit of CMC’s $$$, which I would rather use to spruce up the sling library!

A few things aren’t working quite right, and need to be updated, so I am going to work on that. Hopefully I’ll have some time to continue when the baby is born (did I mention that we are expecting in the next few weeks?). :)

For example, the links at the top don’t work, so don’t be frustrated. I’ll get them fixed as soon as I can figure out how!

Some plans I have: get some kind of RSVP thing going on the blog, for meetings, post the meetings here, find some more guest speakers to come to meetings, plan topics, find some group members to take over leading meetings sometimes, or help in other ways, etc…

I hope everyone is having a happy new year!

Shira

Oh baby… its been a long, long time…

Well, I have been very negligent on keeping this blog going for the group. Really, it is a great resource, and should be kept up-to-date! So, this is my goal, for today at least, to share the group news with everyone.

First, I love how the group has been growing. We see new moms nearly every week! In fact, we outgrew our meeting space (again?!?!), and are now planning to have meetings in the park, weather permissing. Please check in at our meetup.com group to see the upcoming meeting calendar. And take note of our BABYWEARING PICNIC, coming up on August 17th.

If anyone knows of a location we can meet for free, indoors, come the cold weather, please please please send me an email!!!

In other news… because of the groups growth, and my daughter, Temima’s, growth, I have decided that some of the work of running the group is going to need to be delegated. I am working on some ‘job descriptions’, and seeking any interested volunteers to help out with the group. None of the jobs should be terribly time-consuming, so no worries! I post later with more info.

Breaking news!! This fall, join CMC in celebrating International Babywearing Week 2008!!! We are very excited to be participating in this brand new event, the first time ever. Although… we’re not sure exactly what we are going to do yet! I’ve been having dreams of a small babywearing conference, fashion show, party, shindig, parade, what-have-you…. So please stay tuned for more exciting information.

Well, thats it folks. I’m off to work on the job descriptions, and post them up.

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