Hello! Elephant Ears, Public Speaking, Ann Arbor Babywearers and Family!

Hi Everyone! I don’t have very much time these days with Ann Arbor Babywearers and Elephant Ears so busy but I thought I’d post a few pictures just to keep everyone up to date.

Everyone is working extra hard at Elephant Ears to prepare for the coming holiday season and the influx of new products that we found at the ABC Baby Products Expo. All of my amazing employees are excited to be working and babywearing and helping parents!

My wonderful Judah is the most beautiful little mama ever these days.

 

Elephant Ears Diamond Wave Exclusive Heaven on Earth in now instock and it’s beautiful!!!

It is a beautiful half green and half blue design with a deep purple weft and earthy stripes to help beginners know where to adjust the wrap.  More in a Dedicated Post.

Here I am last weekend teaching at the Crittendon Hospital Baby Fair.

 

Here I am helping mamas try on carriers after my talk.

Ann Arbor Babywearers was full of beautiful parents and babies on tuesday. Here is a beautiful couple in a girasol #27 ringsling by Sleeping Baby Productions.

A Beautiful borrowed Babe in Ellevill Organica Olai

 

And Finally, One of our beautiful Volunteer Babywearing Educators in an Oscha Starry Night Juliet.

 

 

 

The Babywearing Institute Course in Ann Arbor, Michigan

This is a group shot of us in the cabin in Ann Arbor starting our Babywearing Institute Certification Course.

We had so much success teaching and learning wrapping and all forms of using baby carriers.

Front cross carry in a zara

My own father even stopped in for a little wrapping lesson.

He was thrilled with the result.

Almost everyone’s children were in and out all week, and it was the usual family friendly environment.  Lion and I in Amsterdam Hoppaditz

Learning back carries is hard, but learning to teach back carries is harder!

Wiggleback carry in Rasta mama girasol.

We learned many special and useful things from our teachers.

this is another beautiful combination carry

3 Babies. You go girl!!

Thank You Susan from The Blueberry Tree for the beautiful gift of this amazing Zara Curry ringsling by Comfey Joey. We are forever in love with it.

Thank you so much to The Babywearing Institute for the wonderful week of Babywearing Knowledge!!!  This class was full of exciting and inspiring mamas from all over the country, but especially  the midwest.  I am looking forward to getting to know all of them better over the years.  Look for more certified babywearing educators in this area soon I hope!!  The Movement is growing, and that;s exciting for babies!!!

Life is a Busy Beautiful Blur of Bellies and Babies

say that 3 times fast

Talking to this group of Childbirth educators from around the southeast MI area at The Center For The Childbearing Year was a highlight for me this spring.

 

They had so many wonderful questions and they were one of the most engaged audiences I have ever had the pleasure of talking to. The Center was kind enough to video me giving the talk, so look for Becca on you tube someday! I promise I’ll update the blog with a link.

 

When I g to give a talk, i usually put on quite a show. I have many real-feeling weighted demonstration dolls that help me show people how to use carriers properly, as well as demonstrate spine health and airway safety.  The green suitcase full of carriers has been my hallmark for years.

3 Beautiful Bellies at a beautiful summer outdoor Baby Shower.

This is my favorite baby shower activity, decorating onsies for the soon to arrive baby.

They always come out so fun!!

The celebrated mother-to-be (now mother proper) was showered with colorful elephant ears gifts of all sorts!

 

She was happy and glowing and having fun, celebrating and having fun with friends and family.

May of my wonderful Elephant Ears custumers are transitioning into parenthood beautifully and confidently and it is inspiring to see, every day.

Inspiring and beautiful, right? this is Girasol colorway #36

Babywearing can bring another element of beauty and confidence into parenting.  

Here is #36 again wrapped on another one of my amazing customers from Elephant Ears at Ann Arbor Babywearers, where the magic is nonstop.

Its here in the middle of these moms and dads that I feel at home. Look at this mama rocking a Traditional African Kanga!

Help and Support! Thats what it takes to learn to wrap, and thats what we have a ton of at Ann Arbor Babywearers! This is our Lending Library’s BB Slen Paprika.

Magic Squishy Sleep Face!!  (in Didymos Labyrinth)

Just to reassure everybody, our wrapping life is still as strong as ever. Here we are in Nebbia Fish by Didymos. We are all in love with Z’s beautiful hair.

 

 

The Great Cloth Diaper Change – April 21st, 2012

For those of you that dont know what The Great Cloth Diaper Change is, please read the details here: http:\www.thegreatclothdiaperchange.com

Elephant Ears was an official host and we were so proud to be raising awareness about cloth diapers and trying to make the record books!

Before The Great Cloth Diaper Change, set up and roped off,  in the baby registry department of Elephant Ears.

 

So many wonderful families came from all over to participate, and Liz, our cloth diaper specialist worked hard at making sure everyone had an appropriate diaper and a safe place to change their baby.

Before the change everybody holds up their diaper!

Afterwords, all of the bums are squishy and cute.

Lots of activity means tuckered out babies.

Zephyr fell into that category.

This beautiful mamas was wearing a Beco butterfly. Her bub was so happy in there!

 

Thank You to everyone who signed up and made The Great Cloth Diaper Change at Elephant Ears an amazing and fun event!

 

 

 

 

The ABC Show, April in Las Vegas

In April I attended the Las Vegas ABC (All Baby and Child) Conference/Trade Show.  It was so wonderful to see our vendors and meet with some of the wonderful members of the BCIA (Baby Carrier International Alliance).   It was wonderful to have a meeting discussing how to safely sell baby carriers.

I really enjoyed all of the time we had with the Onya Baby Family as well!  They are such groovy wonderful innovative people!  3 Cheers for Babywearing Taking Over the World!!

I saw this beautiful mama and baby in their babyhawk outside in between the educational sessions.

The Executive Director of the BCIA Vesta Garcia did an excellent job introducing the retailers to the basic principles of babywearing safety, with help for her beautiful model in a Maya Wrap Ringsling.

Thank you to the wonderful panel of retailers who were their to answer product specific questions.

I stood up for a moment and talked about how to tell if a baby was properly positioned and breathing freely. Thanks so much Vesta for the wonderful opportunity.

There was a ton of this for most of a day.

Tons of this networking jibber jabber in the evenings. I got this pic from a photographer they had hired to be at the ACB Conference.

And a little Trade Show fun at the end. This play yard by Joovy is pretty big and purple, eh? The unconventional shape made it very big inside.

Babywearing With Becca and Attachment Parenting International, API Downriver/Detroit

Last week I had the honor of going down to talk a little bit about babywearing health and safety at API Downriver/Detroit.  It was so much fun to meet new mamas who are excited about babywearing and being close to their little ones!

We were at a wonderful location called The Guidance Center. It was an amazing facility!

Their leader was a beautiful sweet patient mama. She fell in love with a Scootababy, pretty much as soon as I arrived.

These mamas had all kinds of beautiful carriers, and tons of wonderful questions! This mama had an Easycare #1 Ringsling by Sleeping Baby Productions, and wanted to try it on her back.

We had wild success. These Mamas were so into trying new things! Ringsling Back Carry is actually the first video I made, with a little baby Judah and it was fun to teach it again

This beautiful mom-to be gravitated toward a ringsling. This one is Rastamama Girasol, my very favorite. Then we all started in on the ring sling love!

Ringslings are still awesome past the age of 1. So snuggly!!!

This mama had this beautiful Earthy Rainbow Sleeping Baby Productions ringsling, but wasn't happy with it when she walked in to the meeting. Tweaking how you use your ringsling ever so slightly, can change how you feel about it entirely. These 2 were in heaven after a few tips. Check out my video series on ringslings on the sidebar if yours is giving you trouble

Did I mention that I had such a great time with all of these smart interesting mamas? I can't wait to go back downriver and see them all again!

Teaching Babywearing, Car Seat Safety and Crying Prevention in a Classroom Setting.

I am loving my chances to teach in a classroom setting.  These are 2 different classes that I have been guest speaking in lately around our town.  Thank You so much to The Center for the Childbearing Year, for all of the fun lately!

This is a Newborn Care class at The Center For the Childbearing Year, in Ann Arbor, taught by Barbara Robertson IBCLC. I had such a fun time visiting and talking to them about babywearing, spine health and development, airway safety, and car seat safety.

 

I find that people feel really connected to the information that I give them and really get into the hands on portion of my visit.

I try to be goofy and good natured, and we always have fun.

This was a course for Douls Certification on helping mothers choose carriers and troubleshoot using carriers, as well as a little car seat safety and the other fun stuff I love to talk about. It was a big group!

I always have fun at this course, it's full of passionate people. We are always careful to stress with training doulas, that we are there to support the mothers choices, not judge or correct them.

 

International Babywearing Week 2011!!!!

This is how we celebrated International Babywearing Week here in Ann Arbor!!!!  This is my first year organizing events and next year I will do much better.  We had an event every day of the week last week and it was awesome!!!  Babywearing International sent each of their chapters an awesome package full of goodies (read:carriers ) and our attendance at Ann Arbor Babywearers Grows weekly!

Our Monday event for International Babywearing Week was a Mall Walk at Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor. It was well attended and fun! We started at the playplace

I made everyone take a group pic before we set off Sometimes I feel like a bit of a nerd

I think We looked AWESOME walking around the mall.

I ordered some IBW stickers from Cafe Press and we used them a ton at all of the events. Malawi Fish and a sleeping baby and the Babywearing International logo. Its too cute for me!

Tuesday we had our Regular Meeting,(see sidebar for link) but I added a twist of posting on Facebook that the ladies could Buy/Sell/Trade with each other, which is normally discouraged in abundance at the meeting for fear of distraction.  It is a Fun distraction though!

There were tons of pile of carriers of all kinds

We also had 2 new moms pregnant with twins!

Because we have so many VBE's and senior members and experienced mamas, everyone who comes for help to try carriers always finds it.

 

The Onya Baby finally came in at Elephant Ears and everyone else seems to love it as much as we do! This babe is 1 year old. sniff sniff, where does the time go!

Wednesday’s Event was Farmers Market Day.  We all went to set up a table at our local Farmers market and promote Babywearing and Babywearing Safety.

Everyone did an Amazing Job!

Here's a look at our table up-close. We gave stickers to lots of people and safety brochures

Stylish Babywearer Alert! This is a Petunia Picklebottom Special Edition Ergo

I love Ann ARbor Babywearers! Thank you so much to our Hard Working Voulnteer Babywearing Educators! (in an Onya baby carrier and and Easycare #1 ringsling by Sleeping Baby Productions)

 

We have such an awesome fun diverse group!!!! Thans for all of your hard work on the long day of farmers market day all!

Thursday was DIY day at Lindsay’s house.  DIY stands for Do-It-Yourself and Lindsay really can do it all!  I wasn’t able to attend, (I had to work 1 day this week right? ) But I hear Lindsay talked to people about making Ringslings, wraps and Mei-Tais.  Many of my favorite links for DIY can be found on http://www.sleepingbabyyproductions.com

Friday was a Stash Party and Snack-Fest at my house!

Friday I hosted a get-together at my house to share my collection of Babywearing Art and Artifact as well as my carrier collection.

I tried to put everything out. I have over 60 brands of carriers in my collection. I should make a list, I know, but with what time??

Lindsay Brought the Box from Babywearing International! Thanks BWI!!! Geckos Mauvien 7, hubba hubba!!

Nati Linen Swallows

 

Vatani Valensole

Judah slept in my Toddler Bambaroo Wrap Conversion. Its awesome! Kiss to Millie!!

4 awesome purple wraps. By total accident. I just love purple!!! Geckos Mauvien, Zara Purple, Viola Ellipses and Latemeria Fish.

Barb was the first to try on the chocolate nougat silk ellipses. She is really an amazing wrapper.

They are really stunning in person. The mama, baby and wrap

Then , the ultimate surprise, for the woman who didnt get back to her computer to see who actually rsvp'd that they were coming to her event, my long time online friend Traurweiden from TBW!! Barb and I were so happy we giggled, and it really was a wonderful meeting. Such a sweet mama!

Thanks to everyone who came out to support International Babywearing Week.  I know I was so thrilled and impressed by all the support and comments we got from our community and I suspect we will see increased attendance!  Happy IBW 2011!!!!!

 

Doula training at The Center For the Childbearing Year

The Center For The Childbearing Year is a wonderful resource here in Ann Arbor Michigan for childbirth education and doula training courses.  The group that I spoke to 2 weeks ago was eager and excited to be working with moms and babies.   We talked all about airway safety ( http://www.babyslingsafety.blogspot.com/ ) and spine development.  Crying prevention as well as use of different carriers.  It was a blast. Thanks to The Center For the Childbearing Year for adding Crying Prevention and Babywearing Education to your training for doulas!

These 17 Doula's - in -Training were the perfect audience for my crying prevention education.

I had them practicing with a variety of carriers

I love my wrapsody

Thans C4CBY!! Looking forward to the next group!

 

The ABC Baby Products Show In Louisville, Kentucky, or How I got to the BCIA Annual Meeting and Sat Next to a Goddess for the second time

So, as the title implies, Zephyr and I have been on an adventure or 2 as of late.  In case you were wondering, Zephyr is awesome in an airport.  Smiling and happy as can be and everyone loves a happy baby.  This trip had 2 real purposes, to find out if there was an adjustable pouch sling on the market that I could get behind, and probably more importantly, to attend the Baby Carrier International Alliance meeting and see my classmate from babywearing school, Arie Brentnall-Compton of TadpolesandButterflies.com and the Canadian Babywearing School.  The trip went above and beyond my expectations.

Downtown Louisville, Kentucky was surprisingly fun and full of art and interest. Many people were complaining about the show's move from it's former Vegas location, but I was happy in Louisville, isn't this piece fun?

The Museum Hotel in downtown Louisville was beautiful and very hip and happening!

This room downstairs on the way to the bathroom looked like the biggest college dorm room ever.

This super sweet lady was one of our hosts at the Petunia Picklebottom/Ergo Mixer right after I got off of the airplane. As her hipness shows, she's the designer of the bags, and as my grin shows, I'm really happy that I won the bag on my shoulder in the drawing at the mixer.

Here we are with the awesome wrapping French-Canadian Mama behind Chimparoo Wraps and Carriers. She was wonderful and sweet and I can't wait to show off her new carriers when they come into Elephant Ears!

Because Z is a crawling crazy man, he wanted down in every booth in the afternoon. I just had to tell myself it was good for his immune system, but inside I was cringing. He didnt get sick though, and it's 2 weeks later, so maybe I did ok, right? At any rate, he was happy as usual

Here is Kristi, the Visionary who conceived of the BCIA, giving the welcome speech with her babe sleeping on her back

Neal is our liason with the CPSC, and he is a wonderful advocate for us in the government. I was so happy to meet him.

This is the newly elected board of the BCIA or Baby Carrier International Alliance. The Dapper man on the end is Daniel from Baba Sling in the UK. (see below)

The Baba Sling!! It's the adjustable pouch I've been looking for ever since the Kangaroo Korner became unavailable We LIKE it VERY much and I can't wait to have my hands on one and show you how it works!

I talked a ton with everybody about Crying Prevention and the curriculum I have been developing for working with new parents.

Thanks Baba Sling for your generous donation to Closeathandbaby of this amazing realistic teaching doll. It is going to a doula training course tomorrow afternoon and I can't wait for them to use it.

They were a few kids short of their whole clan, but you get the general idea of the sweet family behind Wrapsody baby wraps.

They are so fun and I was so happy to get to know them better.

These hair scarves Wrapsody makes sometimes come in (achem) bold colors Goof Baby alert!!

The morning that I flew out I had a beautiful inspiring breakfast with this Canadian Vixen and Kristi of Wrapsody. Developments to follow

Arie helped me to stay motivated to excel at my Lactation Consultant Certification Course this Month.  The coursework has been daunting, but I am certain I will be ready thanks to her motivation.

BCIA LOVE!!! Thanks for a great Annual Meeting Everyone!! I am looking forward to another year together forwarding the cause of safe babywearing all over the world!