summer walks with kindred wrap

It's been too long since I've talked about babywearing here, hasn't it?  I figured it's time we fix that.  These past few weeks, I've been lucky enough to host woven wraps from Kindred Wrap.  Kindred is a fantastic company based out of the Pacific Northwest by way of Hawaii, and my goodness does that show in their design.  I am a bit of a babywearing snob, preferring patterns that are subtle and modern over those that are childish or rainbow centric - if you are a wrapper, you easily understand now why I prefer Kindred and only a few other brands.  

I should preface these reviews by quickly saying that we don't wrap much anymore.  Claire has gained a fierce level of independence since learning to walk and starting daycare and I rarely choose to stop her exploring.  She has free reign of our tiny apartment and the lawns in Tower Grove Park, but little legs need help on long journeys and that is when we wrap - I will take snuggles over stroller pushing most any day.  Even when it's hot - especially when it's hot - Kindred's wraps are up to the challenge.  

Since I had both for a bit, it's natural for me to compare the two.  Where Tiburon is dry, Montauk is not.  Where pear's weave is relatively flat (surprising, considering its intricate pattern) licorice has a lot more dimension in texture from the dots.  Both are relatively light & easy choices for summer walks, but considering they are the same blend of tencel and cotton, it's amazing how much cushier Montauk felt on my shoulders.  I feel obligated to tell you I much preferred it with a toddler on my back.  

While Tiburon is more my aesthetic visually, I appreciate that Kindred is doing polka dots in black and white - simplicity was sorely missing from the wrap world.  Tiburon's pattern is inspired by the curtain "play clothes" from The Sound of Music, and that certainly tugged at my heartstrings a bit.  

Neither wrap has intense grip, and passes fall into place easily but this benefit also has a potential downside - it's important to be precise with your wrap job and tie a solid double knot, or the carry could begin to sag a bit.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  Beginners more often than not find that their struggle is getting the wrap to go where they want it to, and that won't be the case with either of these - I never felt swallowed by fabric or like I was "stuck" on a step.  

Both wraps took us to the splash pad and back, to get ice cream and eat it too.  Anything carrying Claire can't be too precious, so I appreciate the "wash and wear" factor of Kindred's fabric blends.  I can't really stand to let my carriers hang to dry - what if I wanted to take only one on vacation?  I need something that can be spilled on and used as a blanket, then easily washed and used again and again, both of these fit that bill.  

Thank you so much to Kindred for letting us test them out!  Both wraps shown and tested here are a size 6.  

And if you're curious about anything we're wearing....

Outfit // Tiburon Pear: Shirt/HERE and on clearance for less than $40! // Jeans/HERE, my favorite ever.  // Sandals/HERE // Sunglasses/HERE

Outfit // Montauk Licorice: Dress/Similar and under $50 // Sandals/HERE

splash baby

 

 This summer we have lots of plans, but this weekend, for two glorious days we did not!  Which worked out well, because our teething baby needs lots of attention, and it was good to just enjoy a sunny weekend as a threesome.  We woke up early Saturday (I mean, we wake up early every day because BABY) but didn't much mind since we had plans to hit up the farmers market for dinner ingredients and most importantly, coffee.   I put Claire up in the pretty Kindred wrap I'm testing out, which we both loved. 

 

Last year right after Claire was born we went to the market pretty much every weekend.  We needed to get out of the house a little each day, but not TOO far our of the house.  The park was always the perfect destination for a sleepy newborn, a postpartum mom, and a dad learning the ropes. 

We used to see the kids at the splash pad and think about how much fun it would be when Claire was old enough to run around in it.  How cute they were, and how much we'd love sharing breakfast on the steps of the pool pavilion and drinking coffee while we watched her.  Those conversations were so vivid in my mind as we tore up our food truck crepes and sipped on iced coffee.  Afterwards I let Claire out of her stroller and she made a beeline for the water. 

It didn't take us long to ditch the dress, it was pretty much in her way.  At 9 am the temperature was perfect, and it wasn't too hot or sunny yet. 

She was so brave!  Easily the youngest kid there by probably about 6 months and she was practically leaping into the sprays.   There were a few careless big kids that almost knocked her down, but Darrell grabbed my forearm every time as if to say "she's fine, let her figure it out."  And of course being the independent kiddo she is, I had no reason to worry. 

around here lately - it's spring!

How good is that feeling on the first warm day?  When you have totally forgotten (completely!) how it even feels to be that warm, how delicious it is.  We fairly lived outside this weekend, brunching, lunching and walking all over St. Louis for as long as Claire would stand it.  

 We are ALL about the bonnets for summer to protect this baby head, although we really need to get better about sun-screening her sweet face because dodging to stay shaded once she fell asleep and hung her head wasn't really working for us! 

 

(I just thought this ^ picture was cute!) 

 

 Back napper in our sling at iTap in Soulard!  This sweet face just kills me.  

Some daddy/daughter selfies while they waited for me to pick up ice cream!  I know, I'm a terrible blogger for not getting pictures of this, but she looooooooved it.  Although not the solid frozen bites - baby brain freeze! - she licked up every drop of the melty spoonfuls we fed her.  

Mommy/daughter selfies just to even things out - this little one has fallen a bit in love with her own reflection lately!  She practically launches herself at the mirror, and it's not hard to get her to smile for a baby selfie.  

  

 Look at that teeny tiny ponytail!!!

 

And a few more sweet smiles just because.  I'm so thrilled for baby sundress weather!   (Claire's here is from Old Navy.) 

everything's coming up daffodils

Life had really thrown us some curveballs lately in the form of some financial roadblocks (of our own making maybe, but still) health crises, and just a serious lack of time + sleep deprivation.  Being a parent is hard, didn't they tell you?  But there's so much joy in the hard (SO MUCH JOY!)  I'm a firm believer in life coming in waves - they crash down showing you how good the good times are, and how bad the bad times are.  Eventually it all adds up to a lot of beauty, but you have to come to the surface to see it sometimes, you know?  

Friends, I think we have broken through to the surface - come out on top into that warm spring sunshine place, where the days are longer and the flowers start blooming.  See, all the "ick" we wade through has shown me how to really pay attention to the good stuff.  The potential of something happening to my baby rattled me to my core, but it taught me to put my damn iPhone down when I'm feeding her and pay attention.  To how she twiddles her fingers in her shirt hem, and what she looks around at distractedly.  To take joy in those 4 am feedings when she's heavy in my arms after filling up her little tank, and feel that deep satisfying weight of a baby just on the precipice of no longer being a baby, but a toddler.  

I'm scooting closer to my husband on the couch during our weekend Netflix marathons, and holding his hand while we go on after dinner walks once the baby falls asleep in her sling, talking about the houses we'll never buy and the newly blooming daffodils we've been desperate to spot for months. 

On a much less serious note, I'm finding some joy in getting dressed and ready again - I was so sick of my winter clothes, a half jumbled closet mess of things that fit me when I was losing the baby weight and things that sort of fit now, but not in the way you need them to fit while breastfeeding if you know what I mean...

There's a little more color in my skin, my hair finally getting long again, a loose tank top and light cardigan sweater with the most perfectly perfect jeans I've ever found.  Some delicate jewelry with Claire's name in cursive now that she's finally old enough to understand the word no, regardless of how many times I've got to repeat it - usually upwards of 20.  Some coral lipstick and braided hair, moving forward into the season where we all feel the most alive. 

I'm looking forward to outdoor yoga again, feeling the sun hit my face when I raise my arms up in salutation, and remembering what it feels like to really be in my body (and work on improving it, because swimsuit season and weekends at the lake aren't far off - although one-pieces are the suit of the season!  huzzah!)  Soon we will eat dinner on the patio, I'll start picking up bottles of rose wine and bundles of peonies & ranunculus at Trader Joe's.  I'm going to start reading again, don't laugh, I really am!!! Something that isn't a parenting book maybe?  I've heard good things about this one?  

So okay dreamers, have a good week.  Take stock of all the good in your life.  Do some spring cleaning.  Hold your babies for their naps.  Buy some flowers - that's an order! 

And in case you need a little Friday distraction, here are a few of my favorite links lately:

Why "bro country" is offensive and "Girl in a Country Song" is genius.   I have to admit, country is almost worse than rap lately as far as misogyny goes.

How to make vegetarian dishes *pop* with umami flavor. 

Completely obsessed with this shop's bonnets for summertime. 

I've heard amazing things about this book and am hoping to start it this weekend. 

This is a genius product - need it! 

So obsessed with these sandals from Madewell (although admittedly waiting for them to go on sale, because yikes!) 

around here lately

Oh, have you been wondering what we've been up to lately?  Really nothing too terribly interesting, but since you're here...

We were sitter-less again on Monday but we made the most of it, this time.  There was much more snuggling and much less crying.  Call me a crazy hippie, but those amber teething necklaces are really magic.  I swear.





#alltheselfies

One of Claire's funnier quirks is her obsession with anything and anything crinkly.  She loves (in no particular order) plastic bags, bubble wrap, aluminum foil, saltine cracker packets, potato chip bags, and half empty water bottles.  My mom has joked that perhaps she'll grow up to be a packaging designer - sure, why not - and here she is in her happy place, being heavily supervised while getting more joy than any human possibly ever has from a ziploc bag filled with Hersey kiss wrappers.  Also, I have no idea who ate all those Hershey kisses!!





Her newfound mobility has gotten to where it REALLY wears her out quickly, and the child who used to take 2 naps a day now sometimes needs 4 little naps.  Where does she take those naps?  Not in her crib that's for sure.  No, Claire Olivia Hayes prefers to be strapped to my person while she naps, so we've gotten heavily into the wrapping.  She still sleeps in her crib, in case you were wondering if I ever sleep (although the answer is really, I could sleep more.)  I'm planning to start a series on baby wrap reviews, kind of similar to my sling posts, but we'll get around to that in a bit - maybe when it warms up a bit and I get brave enough to actually take some photos outside?



Her OTHER new big thing is pouches - yes, I basically convinced myself I'd never ever give Claire one of these things and we'd do Baby Led Weaning and I'd complete my circle of natural parenting, but just like she hated bed sharing, this one is just falling into the category of "whatever works."  Plus she looks SO INCREDIBLY CUTE eating them.



This is the face she makes when it runs out of juice:



Disclaimer - the brand pictured isn't my favorite, it was just a diaper bag emergency pouch.  I usually do my best to source out the organic/low sugar kind that you can only get at the fancy grocery stores, but such is life.  Sometimes you give your kid the peach sugary smoothie if it makes them happy.

She also says "mama" now (first world, I'm just the teeniest bit proud) but usually only when she wants me/is mad at me, go figure.



All in all, things are pretty crazy and wonderful around here.  Just riding out the last of the worst season of the year (I'm side-eyeing you, winter) until we get to all the fun we have planned in spring and summer - there are a truly obscene number of concert tickets sitting in Darrell's inbox, and we couldn't be happier about it.  

vienna sling share/volume 4: heather and garra

I'm excited to bring you the fourth installment in the Vienna Sling Share series today, with Heather Talladay & Garra Schulze.  

First up is Heather with her gorgeous family (including baby number three - a boy - on the way!)  She's wearing her daughter Briar in Vienna Springs Huckleberry for their trip to pick out their Christmas tree.  

Some words from Heather: 

"Some days, I look at my busy family (and down at my growing belly) and think about how I just really don't know how people do it without baby wearing. Now that my littlest is growing into her toddlerhood more and more every day I don't wear her around the house like I used to. But whenever we're out and about she still loves to cuddle up in the sling, my three year old is in the Ergo with daddy, and it makes doing things with two littles so much easier. When she was just a new little bundle, and I had a not-quite-two-year-old to care for, and a husband gone at night school a few nights a week...well we just wouldn't have managed without it. I love the bond that wearing my babes  has brought, and it just seems like the most natural thing in the world to keep them close. 

For the week that I got to use the Vienna Springs sling, we were preparing for Christmas and going to pick out our tree. It was bitterly cold out, but having my Briar close to me in the sling kept me so much warmer. I immediately fell in love with the sling. The color and quality is amazing!! Laura, the owner of VS is so kind and generous, just the sweetest soul. Her slings are wonderful, and so well made. We were walking through the woods, and then went straight to a small-town Christmas event. The sling was supportive and made walking around town and getting on and off hayrides so easy!" 

Next up is Garra & her daughter Kennedy!  In her words: 

"I never imagined myself as someone who would wear their child. I had a lot of different views before getting pregnant with Kennedy. I thought I would formula feed or pump only, instead of actually breastfeeding. I said I would never co sleep, that I couldn't/wouldn't be a stay at home mom. Then I got pregnant. My views changed.  I wanted to stay home, co sleep, and especially breastfeed. I first learned about ring slings through my friend Ashlee (creator of the 4th Trimester Bodies Project) and thought 'wow that looks really cool.'  So I bought my first one a few months before Kennedy was born. Let me tell you, it was a definite learning curve. I practiced on dolls/stuffed animals before she made her arrival and was so excited to be able to wear her, keep her close and be hands free.

Over the past 15 months, babywearing saved my sanity. I have been able to shop, clean, and just purely get ready for the day by having Kennedy in the sling.

On the particular day when Vienna Springs Huckleberry arrived, I needed to get stuff done around the house for Christmas but with a teething baby, we all know that it usually leads to lots of cuddles so we can avoid the tears.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to get anything done unless I put her in the sling. We hadn't been using them much lately because Kennedy is at that point where she wants to constantly be down crawling around and would 'pop' her seat (a term for when babies straight their legs in the sling.) But because she wasn't feeling great she actually wanted to be right there with me. I was able to get my house clean, laundry done, and even wrap my Christmas gifts. Babywearing is a game changer and I am so glad I started doing research before Kennedy was born."

*A little disclaimer: Garra had lots of great pics from her week with Vienna Springs Huckleberry but she had a technical disaster and lost them!  Of course we still wanted her to participate in the sling share, so these are photos of her past babywearing experiences in some Sakura Bloom slings.  

happy new year!

IT's been a CRAZY few weeks around here - besides the hustle and bustle of the holidays, Claire and I both got hit with the flu and we're just coming out of it.  I tell you, you've never known panic until your 6 month old's tiny body feels like a furnace.  We're also learning to wrap (fun, but hard!) learning to eat solids (with very little interest, admittedly) and and learning to stand.  She's getting dangerously close, and I fear she'll walk before she crawls very well.  Sorry for the quick in-and-out, but I'm home with my still contagious baby today, so I leave you with this flood of photos and a wish that the first real full week of work this year doesn't hit you too hard!