the one baby item I wouldn’t do without

When the kids were little, I loved carrying them. I figured they were only going to be small enough for a few years, so I better snuggle them up while I had the chance, before they were going going gone, before they were big enough to carry me. So I never put them down. It’s a wonder they ever learned to walk.

I saw my sister and her little guy the other day–he was riding fine in her new ergo. We have an ergo too, which is threadbare, stained, and dilapidated. It has been in nearly daily use for four years now, poor thing, quite a rag next to my sisters tricked out new one (side-loading, zippered pocket anyone?). This is the one baby item I would never do without, including bottles, cribs, toys, and even diapers. Nothing was as indispensable to me. Here is Luc in ours a year ago,

and here is little Sophie in the California redwoods in it.

But when the kiddos were smaller, what I really loved was wraps. There’s a learning curve, for sure. I learned how to do it from the little vids at mamatoto, and from a dvd I got from Children’s Needs. Once I had it, though, I could sling those babies up in seconds, and it looked really cool. Let me show you what I mean:

In that last one I’m nine months pregnant! Here’s one more because this is how Sophie took all her naps for that first year:

Isn’t she cute?

The Germans, and countries nearby, make all the goods ones, Didymos, Storchenwiege, Easycare, Girasol. There is quite a trade in used wraps (they last forever) at places like the babywearer forums. It’s like trading on the stock market. When I started unloading my stash, I would put up an ad there and get dozens of responses in minutes. I had a couple that were discontinued colors that got over a hundred responses within ten minutes, and I sold them for more than I bought them for. Wild.

But I carried Luc on a walk the other day (in the ergo) and could barely turn my neck afterward. Oops. The days of carrying my babies are coming to a close. They still ask me to put them in a wrap every now and them, and it feels wonderful to snuggle them close for the few minutes it takes them to be done and wriggle to get down and run off. I guess it’s a good thing they feel that way at about the same time they get too big to carry. I know carrying them will be replaced with new, good stuff–and already is–but it’s still sad to watch it go. So much about having kids is fleeting and bittersweet.