February Member of the Month: Andrea Young!

Meet Andrea - creative mama extraordinaire!

Let's start simple: your name, children's names and ages?
Andrea. My children are Joshua (11), Brandon (9), Zakeriyuh (7), Nikolas (5), Lukas (3), and Kyra (17 months).

How long have you been wearing?
Off and on for 11 years

What led you to babywearing and how has it changed your parenting?
Originally, my mom bought me a horrible carrier at a yard sale! Then I found a Moby, then Ergo/Tula, and finally hybrid and woven wraps. Over the years, babywearing had grown from basic cuddles and being able to eat something while holding a clingy baby to now I wear for everything. Cooking, cleaning, shopping, working, feeding baby, and feeding my self. I've learned to love and snuggle and grew to realize spoiling wasn't possible.

Have you had an interesting babywearing experience you'd like to share?
Interesting? Maybe disgusting? So, tandem wearing at the fabric store and a stomach bug apparently hit both of my kiddos at once. Front, back, hair and all......... yup, 'nuff said.

What is your favorite carrier and why do you prefer it? 

Loving their reverse onbuhimo!

I'm in love with my reverse onbu from a woven wrap. It's the best of both worlds, SSC and wrap. Fits both of my kids like a dream. A quick up and secure to please the 'I hate when you lean' attitude, but still has the wrap passes for the extra support and perfect seat. I think I need a dozen or so more.

Do you feel like you have support from family and friends on wearing your baby? I would say I have support in that I'm not discouraged. Family loves the carriers and watch in awe as we go up or down, but there's none to share wearing with. That's why I love having BWI available!

What do you like to spend time doing aside from babywearing and spending time with your kiddos?
Oh that's easy. I love making stuff! I like to make food, clothes, carriers, bows, candles, soap, babies ;) ha ha

What is your favorite thing about living in Knoxville?
I love that everything is right around the corner. We live in an area that we can get almost anything we want/need in 20 minutes or less. There's also a huge variety of activities!

What's your favorite cartoon from childhood? 
We didn't get much television as I was growing up, so I'll go with a book - The Wizard of Oz.  I swear I rubbed the words from the corners from reading it so much.

Gotta have some juicy in every interview right? Tell us one guilty pleasure of yours?
Hmmm, not sure I should disclose that. ;) I do have an unhealthy appetite for chocolate and rum. Maybe I'm part pirate? 

Happy snuggles

What do you like best about BWI?
I love the support, encouragement, and the amazing teaching we have access to. Getting into wrapping beyond a stretchy wrap was so much easier and less scary learning from people in real life versus YouTube! The lending library was so nice to try out different sizes to really know where to invest for our stash. Was that suppose to have just one answer? Oops

What would you like to see in the future with BWI?
I'd love to see BWI-KNOX grow into sections. Having smaller, more intimate meetings closer to everyone would be lovely!

What's the cutest habit of your kiddos you feel the need to share with the world?
Joshua and Brandon think they're too big to do "cute" anymore. Zakeriyuh tells every woman he talks to they are beautiful and he wants to marry them. Nikolas is a flirt, bats his long lashes and uses his daddies crystal eyes to melt your heart. Lukas is a mix of bashful and dopey..... so shy, and yet so silly. Kyra has learned to blow kisses, and it's just to sweet.

Let's be open ended and vague to close: anything else you just want to tell us about yourself?
There's not a whole lot to me. Prefer to keep things simple and really enjoy the important things!