Sling demo and independant Jenna

I ended up being called in as a last minute replacement Guest Speaker for the parents and tots group Emma helps with. Two busses, though that wasn't an issue (the fare for a day pass is the same as the fare for a return to town where I live!) and a short walk. Too much organising for the journey to worry about actually doing a sling demo. Until I got there! Anyway I kind of sat and did my internal panic, what am I going to say this time, will my normal basic introduction to different types of sling be useful or relevant to this group that I know so little about? I gathered from Emma that I was better not doing a presentation but just making myself available for anyone to ask questions, so that was my new plan. What if nobody came over?

After ten minutes of loitering I approached someone with a baby, who turned out to be very unconvinced by the idea of slings and told me basically that she didn't have the time or energy to bother with "any of that" for her baby (turned out to be her third). I smiled, prepared to back off, and just when I was thinking I shouldn't have agreed to do the group she called a pregnant friend over and suggested that she try one on for her friend's benefit. I showed her how the wrap worked, and she put it on perfectly first time and declared it so comfortable she organised for her friend and her to buy together to save on costs.

She then became my greatest advocate, dragging people over to me and helping me do demonstrations for the simple cross carry! Result! I generally think of the sling demos for groups like that as general education, familiarising people with the slings and helping to make them seem less strange and unusable. But to have such genuine spontaneous interest, to actually convert someone to trying one out (almost a whole group of someones took away a list of further reading)...

While I was busy Jenna had decided to get herself some toast from the snack table. When I looked over to see what she was doing she had just politely asked a parent to pass the jam over and was busy spreading jam on top of a neatly buttered slice of toast. The parent asked me how old she is, and didn't believe me when I said she's not four til the summer. She did her own toast!

I'm quite impressed with that, although I stuck to a fairly neutral, "You did your own toast," when she came over. But on the other hand, finding that she can do something I didn't know she could isn't really a surprise. She does things I didn't know she could ALL the TIME. She has been coming down on her own in the morning all week, getting her own breakfast and putting the milk on, and most of the time being fed and dressed when we get downstairs!