Ditch Your Stroller and Be Free

Friday afternoon/evening Little E and I met Dad at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Here's a picture of Dad carrying Little E in the traditional Mexican rebozo. They are the two cutest fellas I've ever seen! We checked out all the scarecrows and let E run around the children's section of the garden. Then we had dinner at The Green Sprout, which is right up the street. I highly recommend this vegetarian Chinese restaurant! It's one of our favorites.

Saturday I worked. I think that night I got Little E to sleep in the Storchenwiege wrap. I've been using it a lot more recently, since the weather is getting cooler. I washed it last week and it's a bit stiff, so I'm really trying to break it in again. I like the extra support of a two-shoulder carrier,too.

Yesterday afternoon we when to the Candler Park Fall Festival to see our good friend, who was selling her art there. It was crowded and we parked about a half-mile away. We put E on Dad's back in the Patapum. I brought along the rebozo, anticipating the need for quick up-n-downs when we got to the park. When met up with our friends and visited, then Dad took the Little One to play and I browsed the art vendors for a bit. After a few minutes of that it was time to find something to eat. I put Little E in the rebozo and off we went. We didn't find anything vegan, but we did find some veggie tamales that were vegetarian. They were tiny and really only a snack, but definitely better than nothing!

While we were there we saw a mom wearing a baby in a Baby Hawk mei tai and pushing a stroller and another mom wearing a baby in either a Patapum or an Ergo (she was too far away for me to be sure of which), the dad was standing there with a stroller. I couldn't tell if these moms had older kids in the strollers or not, but it it was great to see them wearing their babies! I also saw a bunch of Baby Bjorns and, of course, a ton of strollers. I noticed a fair amount of people pushing empty strollers while they carried their babies and toddlers in-arms. I think it would be pretty cool if all these folks just ditched their strollers and grabbed a sling! Or a mei tai, Patapum, Ergo, etc! It's so good to be free, People!! Join us on The Other Side!

OK, I jest, but, obviously, I do feel passionate about this! One the the moms at thebabywearer.com pointed out that her toddler walks more because she doesn't use a stroller. It's a lot easier to chase after a wily toddler sans stroller! I imagine I'd be more motivated to keep Little E strapped into the stroller rather than let him walk while I tried to push the stroller AND somehow keep him out of trouble and safe all at the same time! The rebozo is SO handy because it's very, very easy to put him in when I need to and to get him out and let him run around when he wants.

Well, after we left the festival, we needed dinner. We walked to The Flying Biscuit, which was on the way to the car. I really like that place and we haven't been there in forever. I got the fried green tomatoes and the love cakes, which are black bean and cornmeal cakes. Yum! Dad got a spicy veggie burger, I think. We tried to share with Little E, but he just wasn't having it. They were playing loud rock music (The Who, for instance) and E was in rare form! Actually, he was acting totally nuts. But it was super cute, at least to us! Sometimes I think we may have a future rock star on our hands--nothing would please Dad more! Anyway, we left a huge tip in hopes for making up for our wild little man.

Little E and I fell asleep on the early side last night, which was so nice. We woke up about 8:30 this morning and E was all sweetness and smiles, cuddling and nursing until we got up. I changed his diaper and put him in the Storch wrap and I had my morning coffee. More about today tomorrow...

Just because I love my guys so much and want to show them off, here are some more pics of them at the Botanical Garden: