Ok, this CSPIA stuff is scary! But there is some light at the end of this crazy tunnel. I’m posting something I wrote on TBW so more people (that means YOU) can act.

If you are not on TBW, you can check out what the mama sent, which explains the CSPC’s request for comments, as well as their protocol for receiving these comments, here. (Please note, this is an Acrobat PDF file.)

—————————————————————–

YOU CAN HELP!!!! Please make your voice heard. I found this info from this TBW thread: http://www.thebabywearer.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3287907. One of the mamas that works for another governmental agency clarified the fact that CSPC MUST read every comment that they receive!

But the deadline for comments about COMPONENT TESTING, which will basically make or break EVERYTHING for many of our beloved BW vendors is TOMORROW!

PLEASE send an email or fax TODAY!!!

Here is a copy of what I sent, for your reference. (Feel free to use any/all of the language. I wanted to write something from a personal, rather than form-letter, perspective.)

Thanks in advance!
renee

To: Sec102ComponentPartsTesting@cpsc.gov
Subject: Section 102 Mandatory Third- Party Testing of Component Parts

——————-

Sirs and Madams,

I am one of MANY WAHMs (work at home mom) who will essentially be put OUT OF BUSINESS, and thus OUT OF INCOME FOR MY FAMILY unless this legislation is amended to make the testing/compliance standards accessible for micro-businesses.

In many cases, these children’s products are either one-of-a-kind, or in such a small LOT, that individual testing of each FINISHED PRODUCT would be either cost prohibitive or utterly impossible.

If manufacturers are allowed to present third-party certification of compliance of COMPONENTS, it will be much more feasible for these small businesses, that make up the fabric of our culture, to continue to thrive AND insure they are producing SAFE PRODUCTS!

This legislation is intended for the SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN. But parents who suddenly LOSE ALL INCOME because they cannot adhere to the requirements of the law are putting their families (not ONLY the children) in EXTREME PERIL! Please act swiftly and ALLOW COMPONENT (as opposed to strictly finished product) TESTING!

Regards,
renee holiday

… into the FUTURE!

Here I am, with a very chatty toddler and a teen son who is eligible for a Learner’s Permit (driving) in less than a month!

So here’s the scoop. Twilli’s vocabulary is ever increasing. And lemme tell you, she’s PROUD of it! She’s way too good at climbing and has gotten hooked on standing at the dining table on a step stool… for the WHOLE MEAL! I don’t even know if she’d sit in the high chair if we had it here. :-/

Au-teen has gotten MUCH MORE helpful with her. So, of course, she is even more crazy about him now! (She was patting him on the back yesterday. It was so cute!)

It’s so shocking that Au-teen is actually DISAPPOINTED that the enrollment process for his new high school is taking WAY longer than we expected. LOL – Who’d a’ thought?! (He wont be able to start until next Wednesday, at the earliest.) When we went to register last week, he was thrilled to see a nice cross-section of students. Looks like he’ll FINALLY fit right in. These kids are much cooler than I had expected! (While he was trying to inconspicuosly scope the scene, I was drooling over the architecture! LOL They just built a new building, and it’s STUNNING! – I’ll try to post pics soon.) And the office staff is AMAZING! It’s ABOUT TIME we found a public school worth something!

I’m still trying to dig things out of boxes and find reasonable homes for everything. The storage in the new apartment is far from optimal. But it’ll do.

We are REALLY thankful for babywearing! Especially now that it’s “single mom” mode again! I don know WHAT I’d do if I couldn’t perch Twilli on my back while we are out and about! We LOVE the special, pimped-out pod that I FINALLY made for my birthday/moving gift to myself! It has taken a lot of abuse and still looks BEAUTIFUL!

Speaking of pods: The TWILLI PIE PODEGI baby carriers are really starting to take off. I’m working with my first local client to create a (maybe 2) semi-custom pod. She fell in LOVE with the corduroy straps and ease of throwing a back-carry with a pod!

And I just created a KNOXVILLE BABYWEARING MEETUP. So hopefully we will get to meet even more cool, like-minded parents who wear their babies and/or toddlers!

We are still having a tough time adjusting to the winter climate. :-/ I used to ask my mom to read THE PENGUIN WHO HATED THE COLD all the time, when I was little! It’s such a cruel thing that I had to leave SUNNY FORT LAUDERDALE in the dead I winter!

But I have to say that I KNEW getting the iPhone was the right decision. It has kept me from falling into total social hibernation! It has also been EXTREMELY handy as a GPS! (I forgot how EASILY I get lost when I’m out of the city.) I plan to do a whole write-up on my experience with the iPhone 3G –good, bad, & ugly– soon.

I’m saddened that most of my old friends here in the VOLUNTEER STATE have been too caught up in their own routines to VOLUNTEER ANYTHING! (There are a couple I exceptions. But I’m no longer candy-coating things. So if you can’t take the heat, don’t play with a firefly!)

But anyway, we’re adjusting… slowly, but surely.

And if anyone here in Knoxville/Oak Ridge has any extra furniture they’d be kind enough to donate, LET ME KNOW! I will gladly VOLUNTEER to take it off your hands – think CLEAN SWEEP for the NEW YEAR! :good vibes:

**NOTE: Pictures & links are forthcoming. I need to find a better blogging iPhone app!**

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.

Need I say more?

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

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.

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!

…an entire BABYWEARING STASH!!! Visit Along For The Ride, at the link below. You get only one entry. But you can get a second one if you post a link on your blog/website. Good luck! (Of course, I’m crossing my fingers that *I* win! But you guys at least deserve a chance! hehehe)

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Yay! We are back home in sunny Fort Lauderdale. (It wasn’t sunny AT ALL yesterday when we flew in though.) I am very glad to be home. We really missed DH! This fantastic 21st Century Dad was sooooooooooo happy to see Twilli!!! And Twilli was jumping up and down in her mei tai when she saw Daddy at the airport. It was too cute.

We had a great trip. Got to see a lot of people that we hadn’t seen for years. Got to introduce Twilli to a lot of people too! Sunday we enjoyed a church picnic at this beautiful park by a lake. (I’ll try to post photos soon. They are trapped inside the camera. Can’t find the memory card reader.) We thought it would be rained out. But the rain stopped JUST BEFORE the picnic started. The weather was cool and beautiful. And it was great to see Knoxville through new eyes. My architecture studies have informed me about a personality that Knoxville has that I had never been aware of before.

I realize that none of this really has anything to do with babywearing. Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that babywearing SAVED OUR SANITY throughout the trip! Anytime Twilli was tired, disoriented or just OVER IT all, into the podegi she happily went! So many people made comments about how HAPPY she was to be “in there with Mommy”, or what a “great ride” it must be.

One lady at the airport, with baby, bags, stroller, etc. in tow saw me wearing Twilli in the podegi, with my backpack and diy OnBag strapped to me. (I absolutely HATE to have my hands full, and will almost always be happier as a pack horse than to be manually encumbered.) She said, “Wow, you really have your HANDS FULL!” I laughed and said, “Yeah. But not REALLY!” and raised 2 EMPTY hands while shrugging my shoulders. People are crazy. I saw so many people in the airport struggling with strollers or just holding their infant in arms, while trying to keep up with a toddler or other small child. Each time I wanted to point to Twilli and say, “There’s a BETTER WAY!” But I just kept my mouth closed, with a smile and a nod. To each his/her own.

And for those of you who are curious about the next Twilli Pie Podegis, check out TwilliPieDesign.com. There you will find photos of the design “schemes” that are queued.

Photo: 1′Up

Hello everyone. Long time… I JUST NOW got DSL hooked up at my parents’ house in TN. Yea! So I should be posting with a bit more frequency now.

I returned from the Babywearing Conference in Chicago on Sunday. The conference was amazing! I learned so much and met SO MANY wonderful people! It is amazing to see so many like-minded people in one place. And it was very refreshing to be in an environment where I can wear and nurse my baby at any time, and still be part of the goings-on! Twilli responded REALLY well to everyone there too! She got to play with a lot of little babies and toddlers.

The TWILLI PIE PODEGIs were well received! I will be requesting testers soon, so please contact me if you are interested.

I met SOOOOO many influential people in the babywearing and attachment parenting realm! I probably don’t know the HALF of it! I plan to continue seeking wisdom from these people who have “walked the walk” and continue to share with us relative newbies!

It was awesome to traverse the city via public transit. (Gas was $4.47 – $4.89 per gallon there. Eeek!) And I did a LOT of walking! Babywearing makes a HUGE difference in that regard. And I was very pleasantly surprised at how much people helped me with my luggage on the train or in the train station/transfers! I guess I was quite a spectacle with a baby strapped to me, a backpack, a diaper bag/purse, and my suitcase pulled behind it all! lol

I will write more about the conference in the next few days. But I wanted to touch base and let everyone know that we are still alive and kickin’!

We are finally happy done with the TWILLI PIE PODEGI prototype development! We will be making exclusively narrow blanket podegis, for the time being. We prefer the straight straps, although angled straps will be an option. And each TWILLI PIE Podegi will feature at least one piece of reclaimed or vintage fabric. This is an effort to recycle, and thus keep a bit more out of the landfill!

We are happy to introduce the newest Twilli Pie pod, “Water for Chocolate”.

“Water for Chocolate” features internally reinforced and padded baby corduroy straps. The front side of the podegi body has a lovely designer print fabric as the focal point, with a corresponding double pocket. We have also added a TP signature design element of the vertical band of fabric. This reinforces the branding in the logo and forms the letter “T” when the straps are extended out to the sides. There is also a solid blue cotton fabric and reclaimed denim for the “tail”.

The reverse side is solid navy blue twill with the vertical bar in the same designer print from the front. The reverse side of all Twilli Pie Podegis will be solid, or minimal print. We like to be diplomatic, and hope that a more gender neutral side will be appealing to babywearing daddies.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT and let us know what you think of the new Twilli Pie Podegi!

———————————————————————————

On top of everything else, our a/c died last week. We are in South Florida, where summer is already in FULL FORCE! So it is very hot at home. I have to admit that these are the days when it sucks to work from home. lol

So yesterday we decided to take a swim to cool off. I was excited to finally use my solarveil water sling in the pool! I have worn Twilli in the ocean with it before. But we hadn’t been in the pool yet.

Twilli really enjoyed being close to me in the water. And she just looks so stinkin’ cute in black! This sling is awesome! It is UV protective too. The ONLY problem is that once we got out of the water, and thus out of near-weightless-baby-zone, Twilli seemed a lot heavier than before. But even when the sling is wet, it is still quite supportive and comfortable.

Just so there is no confusion… I do not make ring slings. This water sling was made by a lovely work-at-home mama in Puerto Rico – Apapachame. I am always happy to give a shameless plug to worthy wahms! Check out her site. Her prices, workmanship, and service are excellent!

*For the babywearing purists out there: y KNOW the rings are quite a bit too low. hehehe They just always inch down when we adjust, and I decided I wasn’t going to worry about it.