Celebrations Underway this month!
International Babywearing Week is quickly approaching, October 10-16th! We hope you can share this week with us either online or in person! This has been an exciting and busy year for our little local group. We’ve had phenomenal growth both at meetings, and online. We are really thankful for all of the caregivers who have supported this organization through our big “growth spurt”. BWI Chicagoland has such a phenomenal group of mamas, papas, grandparents, nannies, and foster parents that have shared their knowledge and expertise with each other to share the babywearing love. This organization has flourished because of YOU!
If you’re already part of this group, we want to say THANKS. And if you’re new to this group or thinking about visiting us one of these days (either online or in person), we want to say WELCOME! The upcoming celebration week is a great time to remind ourselves to thank those who shared their love of babywearing with us, and then to pass on that love to someone else in our lives. We hope you’ll join us in that journey.
We find we wear our kids when they’re sick and cranky:
We wear them at meetings:
We even wear them hiking at 10,000 feet in the mountains:
The year’s theme is “A World of Possibilities”, and it’s being jointly presented by Babywearing International Inc. (http://www.babywearinginternational.org) and the premiere online resource for babywearing information, TheBabywearer.com. It’s an opportunity to celebrate, promote and advocate the many benefits of baby wearing. We’ll be focusing on this theme throughout the next two weeks, and thinking about what this means to each of us.
We’ve organized a number of small, localized celebration events to celebrate “A World of Possibilities”. Here is a rundown of what we have planned. We hope you can join us in person or online for one of the fun events! We have a some giveaways that will be handed out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. These giveaways will be spread between the various events.
We are also going to be running a raffle for some of the other items we have received. Raffle tickets are 3.00 each or 2 tickets for 5.00. An online raffle will also be available later in the week, for those Chicagoans not able to visit with us in person! We will not be allowed to sell raffle tickets at the farmers market event on friday, but all other events will have Raffle tickets available. Sponsors who have donated products for either giveaways or raffles include Color Dip Studios, Snuggybaby, New Mother New Baby, Obimama, and Sustain.able Sprouts, to name a few!! More specific details on raffles and giveaways will be available later in the week.
Important Dates for IBW Week!
Sunday October 9th:
Photo Contest-
Submissions due for the BWI Chicagoland Photo Contest by 11:59pm on 10/09/11. Please send us your favorite babywearing photos! We are going to list online voting for 3 different categories this year. We think it’s important to celebrate all forms of baby wearing and this includes any babywearer important in your child’s life… parents, grandparents, siblings,uncles, aunts, nannies, babysitters, and foster parents! We can’t wait to see what photos you’ve collected over the last year! Please e-mail the photos to hlmagrow@gmail.com, so they can all be added to the blog at the same time. I will send back e-mail confirmation that I received your photo (s).
1. Female Caregiver wearing a child
2. Male Caregiver wearing a child
3. Child wearing a doll
Monday October 10th:
Lincoln Park Zoo-
Casual meetup planned at Lincoln Park Zoo. 10:30 AM. This is also Columbus Day, so we’re looking forward to seeing some of the bigger kids too!
We will plan to meet (weather permitting) in front of the outside viewing for Lions and Tigers (across from the Wild Things Shop). If you come in from the main entrance on Cannon Drive it will be directly ahead of you. For questions, to meet up later, etc. call or text Heather at 847-204-0195.
http://www.lpzoo.org/plan-your-visit/hours-location-directions
Tuesday October 11th:
Photo contest voting begins. Photos will be posted here on Tuesday for voting through the end of day on Wednesday October 12th (11:59 pm on 10/12/11).
Wednesday October 12th:
Algonquin Celebration Event-
Algonquin Township Hall 3702 US HWY 14, Crystal Lake IL 10am-12pmPlease note: This will be a celebration event, and it will be different than our normal meeting held at this location.
Thursday October 13th:
Friday October 14th:
Cygnus Lactation Services
402 N. Seymour Mundelein, ILMundelein Farmer’s Market Event-
Possible playdate in Chicago- weather permitting and TBD.
McHenry County Celebration TBD, details to follow.
Sunday October 16th:
Leaders will announce raffle winners!
We hope you all take the new few weeks to enjoy this beautiful fall weather, wear your little ones, and share your experiences with us!
ps. please forgive blog mishaps, this is my first blog post 🙂
Chicagoland Babywearing 
Can you submit more than one photo??
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You can submit one photo per category, so up to 3 total. 🙂 thanks!
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