After much thought and considering people's reactions to the different terms, and even getting Sam's take on the issue, I'm leaning toward "long-term breastfeeding" to describe any sort of nursing beyond a certain age of infancy, say one year old — but individual women could decide what age that is for themselves.

What do you think?

"Long-term," to me, seems very neutral — descriptive without being prescriptive. It doesn't have the same sting of abnormalcy that "extended" does to me. It doesn't have, I think, the same potential as "full-term" to sound judgmental to women who choose not to or cannot breastfeed for a long time.

It's open ended, because it could apply to a 1-year-old same as an 11-year-old. There's no implied cut-off date beyond which breastfeeding is unacceptable or implied breastfeeding minimum before which weaning is unacceptable. It can be a goal for mothers to shoot for, but they can set the specifics themselves.

For instance, for a woman in a particular parenting culture where no one breastfeeds past six months, that might be the moment she identifies herself as a long-term breastfeeder. Or if the wider breastfeeding culture changes over time where it's expected that everyone breastfeed at least two years as the WHO recommends, then maybe eventually long-term will mean past that age!

And I think it's a term I can use among my fellow long-term breastfeeding supporters to talk about the particular experience of breastfeeding a toddler and beyond.

I'm sure I'll still use "extended" and "full-term" and just plain "breastfeeding" casually, and I still love the camaraderie and meaning behind "full-term" and "child-led," but I'm thinking "long-term" might be a winner as my preferred way of referring to breastfeeding past infancy — toddlers or children.

Thank you to Stephanie of Adventures in Babywearing for inadvertently turning me on to the phrase.

And a huge thank you to everyone who commented and shared stories of breastfeeding successes and perceived breastfeeding failures. It might be natural to breastfeed, but it is not always easy, and I respect every mother who tries what she can and ultimately makes whatever is the right choice for her baby, herself, and her family.

Please do let me know what you think of the phrase long-term breastfeeding. Love it, hate it, too clinical, just right?

P.S. Thank you to whoever became my 100th follower. Woot! Getting from 0 to 50 seemed to have taken forever, and getting from 50 to 100 was a blink. Funny how it snowballs like that!

This post is part of the 2010 API Principles of Parenting blog carnival, a series of monthly parenting blog carnivals, hosted by API Speaks. Learn more about attachment parenting by visiting the API website.

When Mikko was a baby, I was observing a Facebook comment thread of a friend of ours who had elementary-school-age children. She was bemoaning her middle child's lack of interest in eating at mealtimes. The girl was about five years old, and I had opinions on the mother's concerns but didn't feel comfortable voicing them, considering my child wasn't even eating solids yet.

But now that Mikko is two and three-quarters years old (I'm sure that three-quarters part is significant), I have no problem voicing my opinion on the matter. Mikko has been (kind of) eating (some) solids (when he wants to) for over two years now, so I feel pretty confident putting this message out there.

Let your children decide how much they want to eat.

That's my advice. As a caveat right off, it might not be applicable in certain instances. I can think of several medical conditions off the top of my head where following my advice might be dangerous, and I can think of situations where older children, not raised with such freedom, might abuse it.

So, if your child has a medical condition, don't listen to blogs more than you listen to your healthcare providers. But that second exception is why I think feeding with love and respect needs to start early with kids — and then continue steadily throughout their childhoods.

Here's are some of the guidelines from the Attachment Parenting site about AP Principle #2: Feeding with love and respect:

• Encourage a child to follow his bodily cues for hunger and thirst, to eat when he is hungry and stop when he is full.
• Forcing a child to eat, or to eat a certain food, is counterproductive and can lead to unhealthy eating habits and potentially eating disorders
• Avoid the use of food as a reward or punishment, or of making food (or dessert) contingent on behavior
• Rather than restricting access to certain foods, consider having only healthy options available in the home and allowing the child to choose

The best start to feeding a child healthily? Breastfeeding. If you can breastfeed on cue, your baby will naturally develop healthy attention to hunger cues, feeding when hungry and stopping when full. The baby's tastes will be gently nurtured as the taste of the breastmilk changes slightly when the mother eats different foods. And the baby's taste preference will be set for a whole and healthy food rather than something artificially sweetened.

This is not to say that bottle-feeding parents cannot help their children develop the same cues, just that breastfeeding on cue makes it happen automatically. It also, at least in my case, helps the parents lessen their control over when, for how long, and how much their child eats, because breastfeeding is entirely up to the child. When solids are introduced, these same gentle principles can be extended to keep solid-food eating just as healthy and respectful as breastfeeding.

So, back to the mother I was dying to counsel. Here was the situation. Her five-year-old was a skinny thing — not unhealthy, just naturally waif-like, and dissimilar to the rest of the family, who were otherwise stout. I think the mother had gotten used to her other family members' eating habits and was unwilling to accept that her middle daughter might have different caloric needs.

The mother wanted her daughter to eat at certain prescribed times, and to eat a certain amount and variety of food. She tried to limit her daughter's snacking and juice drinking beforehand; she tried to cajole her into eating the foods she'd prepared for the meal; she set restrictions on which foods must be eaten followed by reward foods (dessert) if the rules were followed; she was considering punishment if the proper foods were not eaten.

I wanted to tell her: Loosen up. Your child's thin, and that's ok. She's not unhealthy, just different from you. She has a small stomach and a small appetite, and there's no need to force her to eat when she's not hungry.

What I feared most was the probable effects all this mealtime wrangling would have on the girl: She would either learn to overeat, which was not otherwise her natural inclination, or she would react ever more negatively against her mother's coercion and develop deep-rooted aversions to mealtime and to certain foods.

I wanted to shout at the mother, in the Facebook thread: Your daughter is physically and emotionally healthy; she is not going to die from ingesting too few calories! She will eat if she is hungry!

For what it's worth, I'd eaten dinner at their house. The food they served was healthy and delicious. I think if they let their daughter choose her fare, she would make it just fine.

I did not tell the mother this, but I will tell you. If you have a young baby, give the best start by breastfeeding on cue or practicing "bottle nursing." As your child begins solids, consider a baby-led approach to solids rather than following outmoded guidelines of so much mushy purees at such and such an age. Particularly if your child is breastfeeding, it's perfectly fine if the majority (or, seriously, all) of the calories come from breastmilk for the entire first year.

Likewise, if your baby wants to continue breastfeeding past six months, past a year, past two years — why not! Breastmilk is still a beneficial food well into toddlerhood and even the preschool years. Again, follow your child's cues and your own (positive) intuitions and don't let cultural norms sway you from doing what you and your child desire. The Clean Plate Club we can do away with, and the idea that only young infants need breastfeeding can also go away, thank you.

Our experience

I want to give you some real-life experience with "aberrant" solids eating behavior and weight gain, so you can see I'm not someone whose child learned to eat along some idealized curve and now thinks no one else should be worried because they must also have perfectly normal children.

But, no, no — we have a freak. And I say that in the lovingest way possible.

Mind if I take you through a photo journey of baby food and baby fat? If you don't feel like seeing a bajillion hilarious pictures of my pudgy child, feel free to skip to the end.

Mikko weighed 11 pounds, 13 ounces, at birth. Yup. And he was totally, completely normal and healthy. Just, you know, big. (And the birth was fine, too, thanks for thinking of me.)

Here he is at barely four months old, still absolutely tremendous. Go ahead, laugh. I snicker when I see it. At the time, I was so busy defending that he was completely normal that I missed the evidence that he was hilariously humongous. But healthy!

For instance... No, seriously, get a load of those rolls! That is some awesome bulkage right there. And that's nearly all from breastmilk at that age, eight months old.

Here he is at a year old, finally pulling that bulk to standing! He sat early (his large bum was very stabilizing!) but walked rather late — but now is just fine, thank you very much! (Except for the balance thing, which is to be expected.)

And here he is at two years old, still weighing the same as he did at about eleven months, but suddenly much taller. Look — skinny legs! Still healthy, still active. Granted, he still has a huge head, but that's genetic, too.

Here is Mikko's growth chart, from when he was 10 months old. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ohhh, I never get tired of the hilarity. The top is height, and you can see his purple line that generally follows the top percentile curve. The bottom is weight. You can see his heftiness broke free of the confines of the chart. Take that, chart!

Here's a little trip through his solid food adventures:

One sign of solids readiness? A fascination with your grown-up food! Six-month-old Mikko eyes the Christmas fondue.

Trying out broccoli — most of it ended up outside, and that's ok. Early solids, especially when practicing a baby-led version, is all about exploration of tastes and textures, not ingesting a significant amount of calories. And remember: Their stomachs are still very small!

Pickle or ice cream? Babies can't tell the difference, apparently.

Ill-met attempt by my parents to spoon feed Mikko mushed banana. My mom insisted on trying. Mikko insisted on projectile vomiting on my dad. (Not pictured. Sam and I were too busy laughing.) Some babies have very sensitive gag reflexes, which is why letting them take solids at their own pace is beneficial.

Baby's first taste of lemon. Don't be afraid to let kids try foods you find unappealing. They can sort out their tastes for themselves. I try not to give Mikko cues that he "should" or "shouldn't" like a particular food. He has eaten lemon since, if you were wondering!

Enjoying mashed cauliflower (a tasty and nutritious substitute for mashed potatoes), mashed all over his face

Relishing sushi at eighteen months old

Scarfing down smoked salmon

Contemplatively covered in yogurt. Letting kids feed themselves, even if it's messy, helps them learn fine motor skills AND develop their attention to hunger cues. It also makes them feel more included at family meal times when they have their own utensils and dishes.

Start out breastfeeding and lay the groundwork for a healthy attitude toward eating.

Keep at it, and your growing child will continue developing his healthy eating style!

Seriously, Mikko still has days when all he eats is breastmilk. And you know what? I trust that that's what he needs on those days. Often it's because he's not feeling well and his body knows it needs the extra antibodies. Other days he wolfs down everything solid in sight, and asks for more, and that's fine, too.

We've been babysitting some other kids recently, and I've been amazed at how much they put away. They're skinnier and younger than Mikko, and they eat three times as much as he does, solids-wise. I don't believe they're still being breastfed, though I'm not sure. It doesn't worry me, though. I know some people would still consider Mikko to be fat, but he's just right for himself. Others might worry that he hasn't put on any weight in the past two years, but I'm not concerned. He piled it on fast and furious right at the start, as breastfed babies are wont to do, and it's completely natural for growth to slow way down in the second year and beyond. I mean, if he'd kept at the pace he'd started, he wouldn't fit in the house anymore!

So there you are. If my kid were on the lighter side, I'd be telling you the same thing. Again, barring medical condition, children — like adults (duh!) — are a range of sizes. Someone has to be on the lower end, and someone has to fill those upper percentiles. It's fine if you or your kid are in one or the other of those camps.

Feed your child the way you'd want to be fed: with autonomy, with empathy, with healthful choices, and, most of all, with trust. The rest will work out just fine.

Here are some links you might find helpful:

• Is my exclusively breastfed baby gaining too much weight? from KellyMom
• Why delay solids? from KellyMom
• Myths about solids readiness from KellyMom
• Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food, by Gill Rapley
• Baby Led Weaning album, blog, and forum (A note to US English readers: "weaning" in this usage means introducing solids)
• How much should my toddler be eating? from KellyMom
• Average toddler growth from KellyMom

How has feeding your baby, toddler, or child gone for you? Are there any eating issues are you trying to avoid passing on to your children?

Welcome to the March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Vintage green!
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month we're writing about being green — both how green we were when we were young and how green our kids are today. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.

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When the idea came up to write a post on "green" things we did as kids, my first inclination was to assume there wasn't anything. But then I realized — there was plenty, but we didn't identify it as such. Certainly my parents would never have aspired to be eco-chic in the pre-recycling times I grew up in (I'm old! Yes!), and even now they might look a little askance at claims of environmental friendliness as PC hogwash, but I came up with this list of vintage green activities that were eco-minded unbeknownst to us!

1. We made our own Play-Doh. Here's a list of recipes. I remember ours always dried out really quickly, and it was always pale pastels (I was fine with that), so mold your pale pink and blue city tout de suite and then let it crumble!
2. I spent most days outside, swinging on the playground, unschooling myself about edible plants and interesting bugs, and riding my bike all over the neighborhood. That's green and free-range! Definitely vintage.
3. My older brother and I spent the summers in charge of dishwashing. We filled a tub in the sink with warm, soapy water and washed everything in it before doing a quick cold rinse and setting the dishes aside to dry. Very little wasted water!
4. We had no air-conditioning, so my brother and I came up with a lot of games that involved electric fans. Did you know they make delightful vertical roulette wheels when you tape numbers to them? Now you do.
5. My mom used cloth diapers on my older brother and me, or so I hear, and got us out of them early. By the time my little brother unexpectedly came around, disposables were much more the in thing, so she switched over. He took a lot longer to potty learn (hmmm...).
6. She also breastfed all three of us, which is one of the most eco-friendly foods out there, and it was kind of rare and therefore radical for the time, though my mom does not think of herself as such.
7. My mom still does most of the cleaning with a rag dampened with water. It's really all you need to dust and wipe up spills.
8. When I started band? The cleaning cloth my mom sent with my (secondhand from my aunt) flute: cut-up scraps of my dad's old pajamas. I thought it was sweet if a little sad — because my dad loved those pajamas.
9. My dad always wore everything until it absolutely wore out. His pajamas would have large swaths of fabric missing before he'd consent to a Christmas gift of a new pair.
10. My dad was always solicitous of whether we had enough light to read by, switching on a lamp if he thought my book looked too shaded. But that was the only electrical extravagance. Other than that, our 60-watt-bulbed lights were turned off when not in use, and the heat was kept to freeze-your-toes crisp temperatures. If I complained, my mother told me to put a sweater on and my father would pass over a throw blanket. This changed only recently when my mother got thyroid cancer and was suddenly cold all the time; I guess there's a time to splurge.
11. My dad refused to use anything chemical to unstop a clogged drain. He would take off the drain cover and get out some exploring tools and tweeze out all the gunky hair and other nastiness that resided within — and sometimes he'd make me do it, considering it was my hair and all.
12. You know how microwave popcorn gives you cancer or something? My dad was old school. We popped kernels in a stainless steel pot. I've been converted back to this idea and am looking forward to trying out this recipe for the perfect pot-popped popcorn. We even bought a set of new (used) stainless steel pots off craigslist, even though I used to make fun of my parents for having the same stainless steel pots since their wedding instead of upgrading to something fancier. They also used wooden spoons, which for awhile I despised but am tempted now to steal.
13. My mom collected antique kitchen implements, and I often used a hand mixer to whip up my favorite chocolate maple milkshake, the recipe for which was in a kids' cookbook I cannot locate online. (My theory is the shake might be like maple milk shake 1 from this recipe list.) I wish I had one of those hand mixers now — so convenient, so easy, less clean-up time, and no plugs or batteries needed!
14. Neither parent was drawn to kitchen duties, but for all that my mom cranked out hearty, home-cooked meals even while working out of the house. My dad stepped in each week to make his signature pizza.
15. My mom is the most accomplished needlewoman I know. She sews, knits, smocks, cross-stitches, and quilts, and I know she could do anything else she put her hand to. She made my wedding dress for $97 to look like the designer dresses of the season, since the designer dresses weren't in my price range. I know needlework has lately become more of a hobby for those who can afford the supplies than a true money-saver, but my mom learned her sewing from her mother, who in turn learned from the Depression and from raising five kids of her own that if you want something, sometimes you have to make it yourself. My mom grew up just as resourceful and creative, and I like to hope she passed a little of that on to me.

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Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants.

(This list will be updated March 9 with all the carnival links.)

• My Momma Was a Hippie — Jessica at This is Worthwhile is continuing her Earth Momma mother's way of honoring nature by taking her child outside every day. (@tisworthwhile)
• Mom Did Know Best, About Diapers at Least — Guavalicious at They Are So Cute When They Are Sleeping has a dirty secret about cloth diapers: They're easy. (@guavalicious)
• The Force that Drives the Water Through the Rocks — Shana at Tales of Minor Interest remembers her first spiritual connection with nature, granted to her through her father's care for the spirits of the earth.
• Confessions of a Cabbage Patch Kid — Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma learned about landfills and recycling through gardening. (@kitchenwitch)
• Seeing My Grandmother Through Green Colored Lenses — Michelle at Seeking Mother was raised by a grandmother who wouldn't let anyone throw out used clothing — ever — and who believed baths were water enough for two or more people at least. (@seekingmother)
• Through Green Tinted Glasses — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis realized her family didn't so much choose green as it chose them, since not being green would have cost a lot more.
• Green or Die! — NavelgazingBajan at Navelgazing remembers berating her family for not turning off the faucets — and notes that her efforts to save the planet for another 20 years must have worked.
• Natural Parenting Carnival: Green Living — Sarah at Natural Parenting is doing more to make her children's generation green than what she had as a child.
• Natural Parenting Carnival: Vintage Green — pchanner at A Mom's Fresh Start used to fill her own water bottles from a spring — before doing so was cool. (@pchanner)
• Getting Dirty — Molly at Molly's Place is inspired by her mother's camaraderie with nature. She's going to get back in touch with the real food cycle, as opposed to the "shrink-wrapped nutrition" you can buy. (@KPMolly)
• My Vintage Green Raincoat — Mama at Maman A Droit is wearing her brother's bright green raincoat — 16 years later! (@MamanADroit)

• Vintage Green — Darcel at Mahogany Way hasn't realized it yet, but she is slowly turning into her parents. ;) (@MahoganyWayMama)
• Vintage Green — mrs green at littlegreenblog reminds us that children can be green simply by being kids. (@myzerowaste)
• March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Vintage Green — Lauren at Hobo Mama was eco-chic before it was en vogue. (@Hobo_Mama)
• Growing Up Green — Chrystal at Happy Mothering honed her green instinct from an early age. (@HappyMothering)
• greener pastures — The Grumbles at Grumbles and Grunts has a list of ways she's transitioning from green living as a novelty to green living as a lifestyle. (@thegrumbles)
• Vintage Green: The Hot Water Tank Is Not Sexy — Zoey at Good Goog had to go green when moss started growing around her feet. (@zoeyspeak)
• We Walked Softly — Starr at Earth Mama wrote a beautiful post about how her parents instilled a love of and respect for Earth and nature in her, and how she is passing that gift on to her own children.
• Save the Mermaids! — CurlyMonkey is learning from her daughter how to keep the mermaids happy. (@curlymonkey_)
• March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Vintage Green — Dionna at Code Name: Mama sees glimpses of her mother's greenness frugality in her own life — but she draws the line at pantyhose soap. (@CodeNameMama)
• I Thought I Made Them Green, But Really They Made Me — Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! thought she made her parents green — until she took a closer look. (@bfmom)
• A Culture of Less — Alison at BluebirdMama explained why homebirth is the green childbirth choice. I love this thought! (@childbearing)
• 5 Ways to Embarrass Your Children While Going Green — Acacia at Be Present Mama shares some of the embarrassing things her parents did to her in the name of being eco-conscious.
• Ending Is Better than Mending? — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries is teaching us how to darn socks armed only with a light bulb. (@babydust)
• There and Back Again: A Green Girl's Tale — Lactating Girl offers a gentle reminder that certain eco-conscious practices shouldn't be "ideals," but realities. (@LactatingGirl)

All right, full credit for this idea goes to Missy of A Work in Progress, who suggested in an aside that I should use the scraps from my normal-size mei tai baby carrier to make a mini mei tai for little babywearing kids and their dolls.

So read on — a 41-step process to craft a no-sew (or minimal-sew: your choice) doll carrier mei tai out of fleece scraps. Skip a step at your peril.

(Editor's note: Slightly abridged version with pattern is at the end, as well as a chance to WIN YOUR OWN mini mei tai!)

Take your existing mei tai and drape it around your willing dressform to eyeball how much smaller your new version has to be.
Confirm that room is as messy as possible for the pictures.

Make sure he's holding two baby dolls to allow for tandem babywearing.

Sorta kinda measure your child and mark the results on your scrap fabric, using a precise scientific method.

Admit that perhaps pins might be more helpful, so mark the overall length you want.

Cut nowhere near your mark because you have an obsession to make everything too big.

Have your cat get in the way of your picture taking.

Decide to take a picture of her instead, but have trouble with the focus. Watermark the pictures so no one can deny the proof of your genius.

Ah, there we go.

Have your sick child get mad at you that he's not sitting on your lap as he has for the past four days straight.

Ask his father to please take the cranky guy on a walk.

Go back to taking pictures and find the cat's tail in the way.

Distract her with the box of pins.

Muse on the awesomeness of the name Prym Dritz.

Measure out the strap widths because you forget the trick of folding fabric in half. Every time you sew.

Mark how tall the apron part should be so you don't cut the straps too far.

With all your pins marked, get ready to cut.

Be interrupted by hysterical baby who won't leave for a walk until he has nummies first.

Have husband carry over the invalid.

Look into your child's look of reproach for not paying absolute attention to him.

Check out how long this sucker is.

Start those scissors, and appreciate how nice and sharp your new pair are.

Look up to see what's going on with ice skating.

Cut over across the top of the apron.

Witness it all cut out! Consider stopping here, because honestly — dolls aren't that heavy. You could just kind of wrap the shoulder straps around the doll's bum tightly enough to hold it in.

But realize people might think you're a slacker for not doing a proper mei tai. Resign yourself to sewing on a waist strap.

Cut the remaining scrap in half lengthwise.

Fold it in half and pin it onto the bottom of the apron, matching up centers.

Check out the underside view.

Congratulate yourself that you were able to find your sewing machine. Then note that the power cord is not with it. Sigh loudly.

Grudgingly bring down your hand-sewing box. Hope that thread and needles are inside the jumble.

Dark green? Sure, you can work with that.

And it's done! Pat yourself on the back and wait impatiently for your kid to get back from his walk with dad.

In the meantime, make sure the (naked, always) doll will fit. Yup.

Keep one eye on the Olympics.

Compare the size of the mini mei tai to the regular one. Yup, it's smaller.

They're back! Get help trying it on your son.

Admire how cute it is even from the back.

Coo over the sweet cuddliness of a babywearing baby.

Take the mini mei tai off because your two-year-old refuses to keep it on.

Oh, well, it was cute while it lasted. Give yourself an A for babywearing effort.

Here is the real tutorial:

You can click to see the pattern larger.

I've adapted the mini mei tai pattern from my regular mei tai pattern, which was in turn adapted from a pattern at www.WearYourBaby.com (but the links to that site don't appear to be currently working).

The idea is that this pattern should fit within the scraps you had left over from making the adult mei tai out of a heavy fleece fabric. If you look at the pattern for the large size version here, you'll see that three large pink areas are discards. There should be something in there that would give you enough fabric to create a mini mei tai for a baby doll.

Otherwise, just look for some other big fleece scraps you have around! Fleece is preferable because you don't have to hem it since it won't unravel. Yea! Plus, it will be plenty sturdy enough to hold a doll or two or three.

The measurements I used in the photographs above turned out to be a wee bit large. I've tried to adjust the finished size down for the pattern. That said, compare your own child's size. I have a 2-year-old who weighs 35-ish pounds and wears 4T, and his biggest doll is 14 inches long; if your child (or doll) is much smaller or much larger, you might want to do a specific waist and torso (and doll) measurement to see what would be best. Keep in mind that big dolls might be able to have their legs outside of the fabric apron as with carrying a larger baby in a real mei tai.

In this pattern, the apron covering the child's chest will be 12 inches wide and 14 inches tall. The straps will be about 45 inches long.

To use the pattern: fold fabric over into a big rectangle and mark and cut out, along the folded side, the smaller pink rectangle of approximately 3 inches by 45 inches. You'll probably have excess to cut off the other side and the top or bottom as well, unless you want an oversized mini mei tai like mine. I mean, hey, mine works, so whatever you want to do! You know, it's scraps anyway, so if you want to just sort of eyeball it, feel free.

And that's it, if you want to stick with not sewing. The leftover scraps weren't enough to do a legitimate no-sew mei tai with waist straps, but I think the shoulder straps alone should be sufficient to hold a doll's weight.

But, if you don't mind sewing a straight line or two, you can add a waist strap from the small pink rectangle you cut out.

Cut the leftover rectangle in half lengthwise and then line it up along the bottom of the apron, as in the pictures. (Those captions were serious.) I folded mine in half lengthwise and tucked the bottom of the apron inside so that the mei tai would be reversible and look the same from either side.

Then just sew the waist strap on! I imagine you could use some sort of hemming tape or glue if you really want a waist strap and really don't want to sew.

Does that all make sense?

Then you tie it on your child like a normal mei tai:

• If you have a waist strap, tie that on first.
• Have your kid hold her doll against her chest while you pull the apron up over the doll's back and smooth the shoulder straps over your child's shoulders.
• Cross the shoulder straps over her back.
• Bring the shoulder straps around front and tie. You can do a knot or a bow.
• If you don't have a waist strap, tie the shoulder straps under the doll's bum to keep it hoisted!

This should be ever so clear, but let me be explicit: This is a doll carrier. It is not meant for human babies. It is not designed to support an infant's weight, only a doll's. Supervise your kid if he's likely to try to wear his baby sister when you're not looking! Also just supervise your kid in general, because these are some long straps on this carrier that could be a hazard if your child becomes tangled. Keep an eye out when the carrier is in use, and put the carrier away when not in use. Ok?

So what do you think? Is this cute or what? Passing on babywearing to the next generation!

Send me your photos if you make one, and I will die from the adorableness. I also welcome any feedback or suggestions, because I am not, and I think there is no doubt here, advanced at doing sewing tutorials and/or sewing. Oh, and did I mention the pattern's not to scale? It so isn't.

For a chance to WIN YOUR OWN Mini Mei Tai, check out my giveaway post on Hobo Mama Reviews! Winner chooses from these four sweet fabrics. Contest closes March 18, which should give you lots of time to pick.

While you're there, check out my giveaways page, where you can currently also win a copy of Mama Knows Breast, a wonderful breastfeeding guide by Andi Silverman.

Just think what a great combo pack this would be for a new sibling gift: a mini mei tai for the older sib, and the breastfeeding book for the mama!

In fact, get an extra entry into the mini mei tai giveaway by entering the Mama Knows Breast giveaway! But hurry — the Mama Knows Breast giveaway ends this Thursday, Feb. 25!