Now that Ebony is in school full-time, the weekends feel really precious. It feels like a rare treat for us to get to spend time as a complete family unit because the weeks feel so hectic with everybody doing their own thing (for me, hectic might be a bit of a stretch because I am mostly sat watching Gilmore Girls). We’ve been trying to have a family day out each weekend so we get to do something different and make the most of our quality time.
We’ve been to Gulliver’s World, to a grow your own pumpkin farm and Blackpool illuminations. We’ve also tried to include some cheaper options to stop us bankrupting ourselves, so we’ve also been going on plenty of walks. We have a National Trust membership so we’ve been to a few walks at the properties near where we live, but we’ve also explored some other country walks.
One weekend I was hoping to go to Dunham Massey, but we forgot our National Trust cards so ended up at the Roman Lakes in Marple. The Roman Lakes are really beautiful and there’s lots of wildlife so it’s the perfect place for a walk in summer. In autumn, not so much. It was basically a giant bog. At one point I thought I was going to be swallowed up into the mud never to be seen again. Ebony ended up covered in mud. And Laurie regretted not wearing wellies.
I’m pretty much living in my wellies at the moment, I spend a lot of time walking and everywhere is muddy thanks to all the rain. I’m also still trying to work out what are the best things to wear for babywearing now that the weather is cold. Simply Be got in touch to see whether I’d like to try out some of their winter wear, so, of course, I said yes. I chose a simple black duffle coat from their selection of women’s coats. It’s usually pretty hard to find vegan winter coats (who doesn’t love to eat a bit of coat?), but Simply Be had a good selection. Frustratingly, most coats seem to only be able 4% wool (why bother?), but since a lot of wool comes from slaughterhouses, I’d rather find coats that don’t have any in.
The coat is perfect for the school run. It’s really warm and big enough that I can still fasten the bottom of it even when Ember is in the wrap. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have gone for a black coat because it does end up covered in baby slobber a lot of the time. I also chose a black and white stripy jumper from their women’s jumpers selection. I find that jumpers can become too warm when I’m out walking whilst babywearing and it’s actually harder to tighten the sling if I’m wearing knitwear (why?), so I don’t wear jumpers out of the house too often. I tend to either wear a three-quarter length top or a t-shirt with a cardigan over the top. This works well because the cardigan can go over the wrap so I don’t worry about the wrap being too loose although I do have to worry about looking like a dickhead when I forget my cardigan is on over the top and start trying to take the wrap off. Babywearing problems.
What do you wear when babywearing in winter?
