IBW Coloring Contest

Don’t forget to help your kids enter the International Babywearing Week Coloring Contest before it’s over Tuesday.

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More news about Magic City Slingfest

No time to blog as I have to work on the response to the Motrin ad, but check these out!

In Sunday’s Birmingham News.

We won the award for Best Babywearing Outreach Program to Women in Need.

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Proclamation from Governor Bob Riley

Alabama's Official Proclamation

Alabama Governor Bob Riley has joined those governors and mayors all over the world who have officially proclaimed November 12-18, 2008, as International Babywearing Week. We are delighted to have this official recognition of the worldwide celebration of babywearing that’s about to begin! Mayor Larry Langford previously signed a similar proclamation for the City of Birmingham.

Our events this week include:

Thursday, Nov. 13: Talk and demonstrate to guests of the March of Dimes’ Parent Hour at UAB Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Saturday, November 15: Magic City Slingfest! Don’t miss this great event. Admission is free, consultations are free, fahion show is free, drum circles are free … but bring money, because this is absolutely your best opportunity to get a sling in Birmingham. We’ll have a DIY table where you can create your own sling out of organic cotton fleece PLUS a consignment table where you can buy a gently used sling. All proceeds benefit First Light women’s shelter in Birmingham!

Tuesday, November 18: Fall Tree Tour at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens at 10:30 a.m. Please register ASAP for this event by sending email to events@freshairfamily.org or calling (205) 401- 0245.

All week: We’ll be delivering packets to doctor’s offices, including cool binders for their waiting rooms.

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Nominate for International Babywearing Week awards TODAY!

 Today is the last day to nominate people for the following International Babywearing Week awards:

Quote:

The “Best babywearing outreach program by a non-vendor” award is sponsored by Bambino To Go. The prize for this award is $250 worth of merchandise from Bambino To Go. To nominate, please submit a detailed description of the program. Please include information regarding how the program was conceived, what it has accomplished to date, and what its future goals are. The nomination should also note how many people are involved in the program, its target audience, and how it is achieving its goals. Testimonials from those who have benefited from the program may be included, as well as links to any relevant mentions of the program in the press or on the internet. The “Best babywearing outreach program to women in need” award is sponsored by Sleeping Baby Productions. The prize for this award is $250 worth of merchandise from Sleeping Baby Productions. To nominate, please submit a detailed description of the program. Please include where the program is located, the population it is serving (with as much demographic information as possible), the number of women who have been helped by the program, how supplies and funds are obtained to run the program, and how many people are involved in running the program, as well as whether it is run by a babywearing vendor or a babywearing group. Testimonials from those helped by the program may be included, as well as links to any relevant mentions of the program in the press or on the internet. The “Best babywearing advocate in the healing professions” award is sponsored by Lemon Balm Essentials. The prize for this award is $250 worth of merchandise from Lemon Balm Essentials. To nominate, please submit a detailed description of the nominee’s achievements as an advocate for babywearing in the healing professions. Please address specifically how the nominee has used his or her position as a healer to advance knowledge of babywearing and help to educate parents about the benefits of babywearing. If the nominator and the nominee are the same person, please also include contact information for a reference. The “Best charitable program by a babywearing vendor” is sponsored by TheBabywearer.com. The prize for this award is a “Spotlight On” advertising feature on TheBabywearer.com. To nominate, please submit a detailed description of the program. Please include information regarding how the program was conceived, how it has been implemented, who it has helped, and outlining its future goals and how they will be achieved. Testimonials from those who have benefited from the program may be included, as well as links to any relevant mentions to the program in the press or on the internet.

There are 5 Honorable Mention prizes available, thanks to Wrapsody, Have a Ball Baby, Hotslings, UpMama, and Dr. Maria Blois, so even if your nominee doesn’t win the top prize, there may still be a GREAT prize, plus some deserved recognition.

Also, these aren’t the only awards! Nominations for the top awards, as well as entries for the Children’s Coloring Contest, aren’t quite due yet. Please check out the Awards page and follow the links on the Jenrose and Vijay awards for nomination information; those nominations are due November 10.

DO NOT LET YOUR FAVORITE BABYWEARING ADVOCATE OR ADVOCACY PROGRAM GO UN-NOMINATED! You wouldn’t want them to miss out on these great prizes, plus, shoot, you love these folks, right?

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Meeting on Election Day

Because good meeting space is hard to come by, we’re changing our meeting day so that we can meet at the Birmingham Levite Jewish Community Center. We’re not meeting on Wednesday anymore, we’re meeting on Tuesday. Our next meeting is tomorrow, Tuesday, November 4. It’s Election Day, so you’re probably going to be out anyway. :-)

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Magic City Slingfest!

Make plans to be at Magic City Slingfest! Why? (1) Fun. Your kids will make music with Charlotte from The Pink House and munch on a snack or two, and you can play with all kinds of dreamy slings and get a free babywearing consultation. (2) Leave with an awesome organic sling for the grand sum of $5. Yep, $5. Yep, awesome. Yep, organic. We’re not kidding. Earth Creations has donated the fabric for our DIY Table, and you can create a wraparound sling and learn how easy it really is to use it, for five … whole … dollars. (3) It’s for a good cause! All proceeds benefit First Light shelter in downtown Birmingham. (4) We’ll tell you some more good reasons soon … we have top secret projects at the moment. Shhhhh.

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For the Locals: Change of Meeting Location

We’ll be meeting this Wednesday, October 1, at 10 a.m., but we’ll have a change of scenery. This month we’ll be at the Homewood Public Library, located on Oxmoor Road, in the large auditorium. If you enter by the front entrance (where the drive-through book drop-off is), the auditorium is just inside the entrance on your left. If you enter by the back entrance, go upstairs, go through double doors and past the circulation area, turn right and go through the double doors, and the auditorium is on your right.  

See you Wednesday!

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It’s official: November 12-18 is International Babywearing Week in Birmingham

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford has proclaimed November 12-18, 2008, as International Babywearing Week in Birmingham. For more information about International Babywearing Week, peruse the official site. Awards nominations will open soon … some very cool prizes are being offered!

Locally, we’ll be having Magic City Slingfest on November 15, from 12-4 p.m. at Vulcan Park, benefitting First Light homeless women and children’s shelter in Birmingham. Stay tuned for more information about this cool event and other ways we’ll be celebrating.

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Report from Turkey Creek

Two words: perfect weather. Fresh Air Family organized another fantastic event for Magic City Slingers this past Saturday at Turkey Creek Nature Preserve in Pinson.

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Suburban hiking with babies and toddlers: Boulder Canyon!

Doggone it, I forgot to take my camera. But our family went for a lovely, easy hike today on the Boulder Canyon nature trail in Vestavia Hills, and I wanted to share that this family-friendly trail is suitable for babywearing.  We weren’t actually babywearing … our 28-month-old, 35-pound boy handled the trail fine by himself, as did I, his 40-year-old, 33-week pregnant mom. From that information, however, I deduce that most babywearing families could handle this well-kept trail just fine.

When going on a babywearing hike, we choose easy trails, and mostly short ones. Other families are more ambitious. Even for our style of hiking, which is more of a stroll in the woods, there are still a few things to keep in mind for safety and comfort. My rule number one is to wear hiking shoes; they make a difference for me. I’ve done some hikes in running shoes, and they had decent traction, but my toes were not happy with me after a short while. In any event, sturdy shoes are a must, especially if you’re carrying a baby.

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