Well, it’s been forever since I’ve blogged. Its been sheer chaos with the planning, packing, grieving the loss of our dear kitty, traveling, & setting up the new apartment.

But things are settling down, so I wanted to write a quick little note of greetings and good cheer.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope everyone is enjoying a great time with friends and family!

It was fun to watch Twilli and her cousins, J & D, open presents and all try to play with the same gift at once! In the end, they liked my vegetable steamer the best! LOL We even saved a few of the gifts, for the kids to open later.

Au-teen was thrilled to get GUITAR HERO - World Tour: Whole Band Kit! (Thank you, Grandma & Papa!!)

Other than that, we went VERY minimal on the gifts this year, due to tight budget & moving, etc. But it was still very good.

We are so blessed to have wonderful friends & family around to share the season with.

I’ll try to post photos soon.

wow… the old cliché that says says, “just when you learn all the answers, they change up all the QUESTIONS”.

that’s how I feel lately. just when things started looking up to us here, we learn that we will have let go of the condo. :sniffle:

thus we have decided to move out of state… out of CUSTOMER SERVICE HELL! but also away from friends, loved ones, etc. I will also REALLY miss the ocean! :sigh:

anyway, I say all that in this post, not only to let you know what’s been going on, but also to talk up Babywearing some more!

twilli was not wanting to be worn much lately. she has been an über NURSE-NOY! :-$ and she has generally been hitting a major dose of what I can only relate to a toddlered-out version of puberty. ARGUHHHH!

when the heck was THAT one “thunk” up? alas, it’s real. it’s relentless. it’s HUNGRY. I’m someones personal HALFWAY HOUSE. [Lord help us.]

what does this have to do with Babywearing?

only EVERYTHING…

I’ll tell ya later. ;-P

We are proud to announce the launch of a new meetup… South Florida Babywearing.

[Update 11/16/08]

Here is the link to the new SOUTH FLORIDA BABYWEARING meetup.com group. If you live in South Florida and have ANY interest in babywearing (using a baby carrier to keep your baby close, and still remain hands-free) please check out this group. It is a clearing house for the babywearing activities that are happening in the Greater Miami/Fort Lauderdale area. We have several members in Palm Beach county as well. We are working to establish a babywearing meeting in Boca Raton for those people.

We had our first meetup Friday. There were 2 other cool families that showed up! (2x - Mom, Dad & baby girl) It was great to meet other young, hip parents with their beautiful babies! We turned quite a few heads walking down the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk! lol

Get the most comprehensive information on babywearing and meet tons of other babywearers at TBW - TheBabyWearer.com.

Well, I must say that homeschool has definitely been an adjustment! But we are sinking into the groove of it, and meeting some other cool homeschooling families in the area.

Au-Teen recently joined the South Florida Homeschool Key Club (a service-oriented social club). He says all the teens there are cool. He was SO RELIEVED to find others that “feel his pain”. lol (He’s referring to the solitude, which he finds nicer than dealing with standard public school hooligan issues, but is still new and different.)

We are signed up for some core classes through Florida Virtual School - FLVS. FLVS is a FREE, state-run online school in which students may study full-time or part-time. The students are assigned to a virtual class. The teachers are available for questions from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

I have subscribed to several local homeschool Yahoo! groups. I have learned about all types of social activities that the kids can participate in. They all have weekly or bi-monthly park days, field trips, etc.

We also went to a meeting, lecture, and ice cream social put on by the Broward Christian Homeschoolers (BCH) group. The Key Club volunteered to setup, conduct the ice cream and concessions sale/fundraiser, and clean up afterward. Au-Teen met another teen guy that had circumstances that were uncannily parallel to his own. So they really hit it off.

And the BEST part is that I’m now “required” to spend even more QUALITY time with my son. It’s so easy to get caught up in our own thing, while our teens are doing THEIR own thing. This is proving to be a beautiful opportunity for both of us! And it also legitimizes many of the otherwise mundane and seemingly “pointless” household chores… they count as “LIFE SKILLS” in school!

I will continue to post updates as we get even more plugged into this new and wonderful world of homeschool!

Please LEAVE A COMMENT about your experience (or exposure) to homeschool, or ways that you have connected with your teen.

Need I say more?

Be sure to check out more Twilli Pie Podegi Baby Carriers.

As I’ve mentioned before, I LOVE Meetup.com! And I love it even more now that someone local started a new Attachment Parenting Meetup Group. (There has been another one in the area, but for some reason, I never managed to meet up with them. I think it is mostly because their kids are older toddlers.)

Anyway, I went to my first Meetup with this new group. We had a GREAT TIME! This park is devoted to the Arts, and shows it! Architecturally, it is phenomenal! (My hat’s off to Glavovic Studio.) The playground fixtures are actually sculptural! I want to get Elliott to do a photo series that showcases the lovely design of Young Circle Park!

Twilli LOVES the water now. So this was right up her alley. I didn’t think to bring her bathing suit, as I thought it was just a park. So please excuse her diaper-only attire.

Oh yeah! The boys had fun too! I think ALL of the little tykes slept well that night!

Please LEAVE A COMMENT about your favorite play place. And if you know some good file compression techniques for YouTube (via iMovie), please TWEET ME.

You got it. We have modified the body/blanket design of the Twilli Pie Podegi, based on feedback from our first round of testing. Now we need a few more families to test the new poegis.

Thanks to the wonderful mamas for providing excellent feedback! You’re the best.

We even re-did (I call it “remix”… a throwback to my old dj days.) this podegi, for a local babywearing mama and her son. She was the first mama to alert me about the blanket width issue. Her darling son is the same age as Twilli, but he has LONG LEGS! We want to keep baby and parent/caregiver comfortable for the long haul. And we wanted to avoid creating different sizes
(ex. Toddler pod, baby pod, etc.) to sort out.

We carefully drafted the body/blanket pattern so it can “grow” with your baby. One of the other testers said she could comfortably hold her 3 year old AND her 5 year old in the new Twilli Pie 2.0!

So head on over to the Twilli Pie Design website and check out the new designs that are available for this limited (hopefully final) round of testing.

Remember, the testers get a $10 discount, PLUS a $20 refund after the questionnaire and photos are submitted.

This is a great chance to try a brand new, one-of-a-kind baby carrier, at an awesome price.

If you would like to become a Twilli Pie Podegi tester, please leave a comment so I can send you more info and determine if you would fit the bill to be a tester.

My first memory of consumer mania would have to be the Cabbage Patch Kids. I was about 7 years old, and ALL of my friends had one… at least. One of my friends had 6! I was so jealous.

You couldn’t buy them anywhere. We heard stories of lines for hours outside the store and parents literally knocking people down to grab one of these prized possessions.

Then one day we went to one of the local stores to see if they had any. Of course, they didn’t. But a helpful employee clued my mom into the fact that they would be getting their next shipment in at about 2:00 p.m. that day!!! So we went to lunch and arrived back at the store at about 1:40. That was the longest 20 minutes!!!

Lo and behold, in roll the prized Cabbage Patch Kids. There were probably 30 of them. They were gone almost as quickly as they rolled in. But there was no violence. And I did manage to get a very pretty one! I was so happy.

I think I got a second one for Christmas the same year. So I had a bald baby and an older girl with long hair. Eventually the fad died down… only after the gross callback by Garbage Pail Kids cards. Blehhhh!

Now Cabbage Patch Kids are celebrating their 25th anniversary! (Wow. That makes me feel old.) This season you can get a one-of-a-kind, Limited Edition 25th Anniversary Cabbage Patch Kid. So now, my generation can share the warm memories with our kids. I only hope that people don’t hurt one another trying to grab one!

I was lucky enough to receive an advance shipment of one of these lovely ‘Kids. Her name is Stella Debby. Her birthday is June 28th. She came in a specially marked box with a commemorative 25th anniversary silver spoon. (We were admittedly a bit let down to find that the spoon is actually plastic. Oh well.)

Twilli loves the spoon!! lol She carried it around for about an hour, while I was promptly using Stella as a model for photographing my Twilli Pie Podegi baby carriers. I was pleasantly surprised to get the ‘Kid. I’d been wanting a doll of more appropriate size to use as a model for the still photos of the podegis. The only other baby doll Twilli has is very small… an appropriate size for a baby to actually play with.

Twilli is very curious about the ‘Kid’s clothes and disposable diaper. It’s an old-school diaper. You know. One of the shiny plastic kind… Not the improved, fabric-type ones. (The fact that my teen son wore those old-school diapers also makes me feel old!) I’m trying to keep her from getting at the diaper. At least it has the resealable tabs!

I find it curious that someone with one tooth, in a diaper, could have such long hair! lol And my friend was concerned that Twilli would grow up with a complex about wanting blonde hair. I’m not too worried about that.

I’ll do an update once I get some photos of Twilli playing with the ‘Kid. But until then, check out the CPK 25th Anniversary celebration website.

Please LEAVE A COMMENT sharing your stories/memories of your Cabbage Patch Kid. Send a link to photos. We love old photos! Will you buy one for your kid?

I realize it’s been a while since I’ve posted about cool products. So I decided to send some link love in more than one direction.

I just found a great contest website called The-Giveaway.com! They are giving away a pair of soft-soled leather shoes from Bobux.

I hadn’t ever seen Bobux shoes before. They have an amazing selection. I want to buy one of almost every style!! I would have to build a special closet for all of Twilli’s shoes! That would be a great problem to have. lol

These are definitely my favorite style… mainly because they remind me of my old Doc Martens Mary Janes that I kept for over ten years! I would love for Twilli to have some cute little black MJs too! Of course, we’d be lucky if she could fit in them for 10 weeks!

So check out the Bobux shoe giveaway and maybe you will win some cute shoes for your little one.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a WEARS THE BABY WEDNESDAY. (My neck/back has been acting up, causing numbness in my hands. The computer aggravates it. Thus I haven’t been spending nearly as much time online.)

We’ve been getting some great feedback from our testers of the Twilli Pie Podegi!! So I decided to post some action shots for you guys to see! And THANK YOU to everyone who has sent me action shots of you & your baby with your pod!

Please LEAVE A COMMENT and let us know what you think about the Twilli Pie Podegi!