Babywearing: Not Just For Babies

I made my first Mei Tai carrier when Lukas and Jasper were 13 months old. I entertained a brief fantasy that I would become a WAHM (work-at-home-mom), making and selling baby carriers for a living. I decided that I would call them "Happy Baby Carriers" because they made for very happy babies. Here I am modeling the hot-off-the sewing machine first ever Happy Baby Mei Tai with 13-month-old Jaz:What I didn't know at the time--what I couldn't even imagine--was that babywearing was something that would outlast diapers and nursing and the toddler years all together. Tonight I cooked dinner with Jasper in that very same carrier, which perhaps should now be called the "Happy Five-Year-Old Mei Tai."The mei tai has always worked to bring each of my 3 kids into a calm and centered mode. And I guess that because I never stopped wearing Lukas and Jasper (though I did stop wearing them at the same time when I got pregnant with Zeben), the magic never stopped working.
This evening, Jaz was acting particularly defiant and obstinant--and ran across the street to play with our neighbor despite my just having asked him not to. He then continued to run away from me, and I had to chase him down with a scrambling Zeben under one arm and Lukas holding my other hand. Not fun. Jasper's "punishment" was 1/2 an hour on my back while I made dinner.
It really is amazing how well this works to mellow him out and remind him of our connection. After a couple of sulky minutes, he started asking questions about what I was cooking, and by the end of the carrier time, he was happy and snuggly and kissing my head. He ate a most excellent dinner and was exceptionally pleasant for the rest of the evening.

Lukas often needs some carrier time in the morning before school, so I'll pop him on while I make the kids' lunches. It gives him just the confidence boost he needs to happily get ready for school and leave the house without a fuss.

Do you think it will still work when they're 13?

MockHawk at Work

I just received this photo of my brother-in-law, Max (The New Papa), wearing baby Tucker in the Mei Tai that I made. I am so glad that it's working out for them so well, and I love how Max looks wearing his baby boy. I am feeling newly inspired to make more Mei Tais and spread the babywearing love around.

I am hard at work on a non-baby-related sewing project (well, I guess it's somewhat baby related), and hopefully I'll be finished and have pictures to share soon!

Procreation creations

I always notice pregnant women everywhere at this time of year. The winter coats disappear and the bellies that have been tucked away all winter are suddenly walking down the street in broad daylight. But this year it really seems like there are an especially large number of pregnant women in town, and some of them are actually friends of mine! So exciting. One of the most exciting parts about it is that I have great excuses to make all sorts of tiny things for these new tiny people.

Gilly birthed her gorgeous baby boy, Eamon, a week ago, and today I dropped off a tiny tee for him and a playsilk/Super Big Sister Cape for Gilly's 3-year-old, Miryam.


For whatever reason, I seem to have been born with an especially large dose of pro-procreation programming, and nothing makes me happier than seeing pregnant mamas and mamas with new babies. I've been fascinated by them for as long as I can remember. And, really, who can blame me? When I was 4 or 5 months pregnant with Zeben, I went to an Ani Difranco concert. She was newly pregnant herself, and her hormonal state made her especially lovely that evening. It was my first time hearing her sing the song, "Reprieve," which includes this repeating line in reference to women having babies: "To split yourself in two is just the most radical thing you can do." And that line comes through my head every so often and I just feel it so strongly. How amazing and true.

A visit to baby Tucker

Yesterday was Patriot's Day, and Lena had the day off. Luke and Jaz still had preschool, though, and we happily dropped them off with planns to take full advantage of a rare opportunity to experience the lives of parents with only one kid. We packed Zeb into the car and headed out to Boston to visit Addie, Max and sweet baby Tucker. It seems like it was just a couple months ago that Addie and Max were driving out to our place to meet newborn Zeben for the first time. I can't believe it's been long enough since then for them to go through the whole process of deciding to get pregnant, getting pregnant, and birthing their own baby! Here's Addie (holding 5-day-old Zeb) and Lena back in November of 2006:
And here they are again, 17 months later, with a whole new person in the picture. Doesn't Zeben look absolutely huge compared to 10-day-old Tucker?
So far, Zeb seems to be quite taken with his new cousin. He can say his name quite well, "Tuck-er," and was especially pleased to watch him nursing (and felt inspired to do the same). Addie and Max and Tucker are all doing very well indeed, and Tucker is just the cutest little baby. I have total baby lust after hanging out with him for just a couple hours. It was so great to get to visit their sweet new family without the impact of our wild and rambunctious five-year-olds. What a nice treat for us all!

Naked Baby

I think one of my most favorite things about this beautiful weather we've been having is that, after the long, cold winter of long sleeves and long pants and long socks covering every inch of their skin, I am suddenly getting the chance to see so much more of my children. Seeing their exposed arms and feet on a daily basis taps into some primal mama love. This is especially true with the "baby," whose baby fleshiness is once again apparent for all to see. I still want to eat him.
I am hoping that hanging out naked a bunch this summer will inspire him to ditch his diapers, but I also just can't get enough of his milky soft skin.

I may never get him dressed again.

Backyard Beach

When I was growing up, my grandparents had an amazing house on Captiva Island in Florida. Until I was 15 (when they decided to sell the house), we spent this week of April (the school vacation week) at the beach. I have only good memories. The ocean is the one place I would happily pack us up and fly to for a vacation. But since that's not exactly possible for us to do, we took advantage of Saturday's 80° weather, and decided to bring the beach to us.

The combination of our sandbox and a 10 gallon bin of water provided hours of entertainment for Lukas, Jasper and Zeben, as well as a couple of kids from the neighborhood.

The main goal seemed to be to get the water from the bin into the sandbox as quickly as possible. At first I was resistant to this game, and encouraged them to water the flowers and plants instead. But eventually I surrendered, reasoning that clearly the sand would dry out soon enough, and that we weren't wasting too much water.

Even Zeben clearly understood the older kids' plan, and happily joined in the fun.

All in all, it was about as close to an island vacation as we can get at this point, and it was a surprisingly satisfying alternative. I imagined I could hear the sound of waves crashing in the background as I relaxed in the sun and took in the joy of five sandy and squealing kids.

Being Outside

Today was a gloriously warm, sunny day. The forecast had been for rain, and the surprise of instead having such a lovely day to be outside made it all the more spectacular. We walked into town for brunch around 11:00 and didn't end up leaving until after 3:00. We spent hours sitting in the park in the center of town, hanging out with all sorts of friends who were happening through, and also catching up with people who we hadn't seen since the last gloriously warm day of the fall. It felt so good to be outside. We all got a bit sunburned (I guess that means it's time to start putting on sunblock everyday), but it was the kind of sunburn that feels good.

When we did get home, Lena and I were pretty beat and welcomed the shaded relief of our house--a house that has been a little too cold all winter, but now feels perfectly cool. The boys, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with being inside. Luke and Jaz bounded in the front door, and then out the back door, pausing only momentarily to use the bathroom in between.

I had forgotten, in the loooong, cold, dark winter about how lovely Being Outside is for the kids. It's a whole different thing when there's no need for snowsuits and mittens and worries about snow getting stuck inside of boots. They are entertained for hours on end by sticks and dirt alone.

While Lena, Zeb, and I rested inside, Lukas and Jasper were busy working on their version of fairy land in the back yard. This is the fairy house that Jaz made:

Here are the Playmobil Fairies inside, eating their dinner. I love how he set the table up.

Lukas built the Fairy Hospital ("well, you know, because of course everyone needs a hospital").

Here he is tying the "ambulance boat" to the dock outside the hospital, after realizing that it would take the fairies a long time to get all the way across the yard from their house in an emergency. Especially if the emergency was a broken wing, or something like that.

When Zeben woke up from his nap, he wanted to go outside right away, and spent a good 45 minutes quietly observing a swarm of ants.
They really are fascinating. Ants. This is the kind of thing that you can forget about all winter long.
Hooray for spring.