2012 International Babywearing Conference

Tweet Last week, I saw that one of my friends here in Hampton Roads was making a day trip up to DC for the free public day at the 2012 International Babywearing Conference.

Naturally, I told her we should carpool. Jilliane somehow managed to convince her husband & four kids that they would have more fun at home instead of at a conference in DC and our roadtrip was in motion.

It's rare that I find someone as silly as I am...

Anyone who watches television probably knows that our region got ROCKED by storms over the past few days.  The drive up to & in DC was not as uneventful as we would have liked due to fallen trees & power lines. Jilliane was impressed with my mad driving skills.

this tree was just a few blocks from the conference location

I was pretty excited to finally meet Amy & Tim of NuzzleMe Creations in person. I am a huge fan and own two of their Ultimate Man/Mama Carriers, one standard & one stay-cool carrier. Yep, I sound like a commercial and I don't care. I haven't received anything free or discounted from NuzzleMe Creations, I just like their products. Bonus: TIM is the man behind the Ultimate Man/Mama Carrier. You have to appreciate a guy who can rock a sewing machine like it's his job.

Wait, it is...

Me, Tim, Amy, & Jilliane - NuzzleMe Creations

Jilliane & I were excited to meet Amy & Tim, which should be obvious by our cheesy grins. However, nothing could have prepared me for Jilliane turning into a total fangirl at the Didymos/Birdie's Room table.

Barbara from Birdie's Room is great

 FYI - I want to be like Barbara from Birdie's Room when I grow up. She's so incredibly nice and, dammit, the woman is gorgeous. She's also trying to help me fine the only wrap I ever sold and regretted, Didymos Ellipsen Primavera.

Anna, Jillliane, & Tina of Didymos

Didymos is a wrap company based in Germany. They produce some wonderful quality wraps for babywearing in a variety of patterns, styles, & colors and are well known and well regarded in the babywearing community. Anna & Tina were super nice and it was really neat being able to meet them in person, too. They had three yet to be released wraps available for purchase and a ton of other wraps at discounted prices. I was so tempted but had to remind myself that I hardly ever wear Klaw anymore and I can't really justify it, regardless of how beautiful it is. (Check out the skirt & dress...they are made from Didymos wraps!)

Jilliane & I won a few things in a raffle the conference was hosting (we bought 35 tickets). I won two pairs of Beco baby socks and a Britax carrier . I was going to burn it but they did include a seat extender to make it more ergonomically correct, so I'll probably sell it on ebay or craigslist.

We also attended a Toddlerwearing 101 class that was offered but it was not great. The instructor was not familiar with wrapping toddlers and wasn't able to offer any suggestions. Jilliane ended up teaching different carries to the other parents in the room. I even learned a tip from her that will help me wrap Klaw more quickly.

All in all, it was a great day. It is rare to find someone who can enjoy ~8 hours in the car with me in crappy traffic and still like me when the day is over. I only scared Jilliane a couple of times and Jilliane totally won a dance-off on I-64 with some twenty year olds, so she is completely awesome in my book.

HA! I almost forgot the true highlight of the day - Jilliane & I were mistaken for college students at Catholic University. This doesn't happen very often, so I am going to revel in it for quite some time.

I know some of y'all probably think a babywearing conference is kind of odd. Some of y'all even thought a blogging conference was kind of odd when I went to Blissdom. You'd think some of the other conferences I've attended are even more odd!

Have you ever attended or wanted to attend a niche conference? What was it? Did you enjoy it? If you could create a niche conference, what would you like to see happen?