a happy little boy rides in his dad's Lillebaby baby carrier, looking at the lights of Times Square in New York City
a happy little boy rides in his dad's Lillebaby baby carrier, looking at the lights of Times Square in New York City
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*We like to share things we find helpful with our readers, so this post may contain affiliate links. If you click on them, we will receive a portion of any sales made, at no additional cost to you. We appreciate it! See our Disclosure page for more details! This post was sponsored by Lilleababy, who provided us with the product in exchange for a review. However, all opinions are our own.

Planning a Whirlwind Trip with Our Kids

I’ve written before about how much we loved our Lillebaby Organic Complete baby carrier when our kids were small. It helped us comfortably navigate crazy places like San Diego Comic Con, movie premieres, and theme parks, taking a lot of the stress of keeping a baby calm and happy off our shoulders (literally!).

A happy baby and mom wearing a green Lillebaby Organic Complete baby carrier
A chubby baby in a green Lillebaby Organic Complete carrier

Now that our youngest is three, I thought that our baby-wearing days were behind us.

Until we (insanely?) decided to plan a trip this February to both Orlando, Florida AND New York City, back to back.

The Morgan Family in front of the Rockefeller Center ice rink in New York City


Why? Well, Josh was scheduled to attend a giant conference in Orlando for a week, where his employer would be paying for his flight and hotel. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to use his frequent-flier airline and hotel points and have the boys and I tag along at a low cost, since we could stay with him in the room.

We would spend our days at some fun Orlando attractions during the day while he worked, then could take an extra day after the conference to visit a Walt Disney World Park we hadn’t seen yet (we picked Disney’s Animal Kingdom!) 

But that’s not all. Josh’s all-time favorite Broadway musical, The Scarlet Pimpernel, was going to have a one-night-only special concert presentation in New York, about two days after we would be leaving Florida. This is a show that RARELY gets produced (and it’s such a gem! If you ever get the chance to see it, please do!) He has been a fan for 20 years, saw the original run, and even acted in the show last year in southern California. The concert would have some major Broadway actors headlining it (Norm Lewis! Laura Osnes!), and there was a good chance the creative team he idolizes would be there too. We would already be on the East Coast; there was no way I was going to let him miss it. 
Mom with two little boys poses in front of the Gatorland teeth statue, acting scared
Gators and tee shirts in Florida
And that began the nightmare stress of trying to plan packing for two COMPLETELY OPPOSITE CLIMATES. Orlando would be humid and warm (sometimes with rainstorms), and New York was scheduled to have snow and freezing wind. Hmm.

I knew that we’d be doing a LOT of walking. And on the days I would be taking the boys to places by myself, I needed to be able to keep a close eye on my youngest, and have hands free to carry things or take photos. 
Snow play in NYC's Central Park a few days later

Introducing the Lillebaby CarryOn All Seasons.

Suddenly, I remembered how useful our old baby carrier had been in these types of situations before. I contacted our friends over at Lillebaby and asked them if they had any suggestions for a product that would suit a three year old, and they provided us with a lovely CarryOn All Seasons model to use for our trip. 

The CarryOn is like the big brother/sister to the basic Lillebaby carrier. It has all the special features that make this brand our favorite, like the extra comfy padded straps, easy adjustability, lumbar back support, and of course the Lillebaby “sleepy dust” that magically puts your kid to sleep when you wear them for a while. 😉 
 
The CarryOn, however, is designed for larger babies or for your toddler/preschooler to be worn. It holds kids up to 60 pounds, so I can even put my 6 year old in it if I had to! (He found this really amusing when I tried)  
A black Lillebaby CarryOn baby carrier
A 6 year old boy in the Lillebaby CarryOn

A Baby Carrier for Both Hot and Cold Temperatures

What made the CarryOn All Seasons the perfect choice for this trip was that you can change how much it covers your child, depending on the temperature outside.  
A mom carrying her toddler on her back at Disney's Animal Kingdom, in a Lillebaby CarryOn All Seasons baby carrier

In Florida, it was very warm and quite humid. Toby has always been a little heater (he takes after Josh that way), so he gets overheated and sweaty easily. When we wore him in Orlando, we could zip down and fold away the back panel of the CarryOn so that only the mesh was against his back. This gave him less layers and allowed for good airflow. When the nights got breezy after the sun went down, we simply zipped that back panel up again. 

It was also useful for the mad rush in the morning toward Pandora, the Avatar-themed land in Animal Kingdom. It’s a new area, so it can get quite crowded. The carrier helped us not to lose the little guy in the sea of people!

A toddler boy peeking his head over dad's shoulder, wearing a coat hood
In New York, it was cold, so the panel stayed zipped up. It even creates a convenient little pocket to store things, like an extra snack or your phone if you need to have it out of your hands for a moment!

The adjustable hood was also really nice in New York to be able to cover and shield Toby’s face from the freezing wind that blasted at us on some days. He could burrow into our shoulders and hide from the cold until we got inside, where we could easily roll the hood back up.    

How to Put on the CarryOn - Multiple Positions

If your child is 6 months or older, you can wear them in 3 positions in the CarryOn: On your hip, on your front, or on your back. 
Instructions for putting on a Lillebaby baby carrier

Toby likes to cuddle close, so he was usually in the front position when we were meandering around theme parks or if he got nervous, like in the Gatorland bird aviary where parakeets swooped around his head. However, I found it to be a lot less tiring on me to wear him on my back when we were walking long distances or going up stairs, which was most of the time in New York.

Luckily, it was quite easy to quickly switch the position of the carrier around from back to front and vice versa, without even taking him out of the carrier. I’d simply go down the stairs and get on the subway with him on my back, then unlatch the straps and swing him around to my front, securing it before the subway took off. 

Here is a video of my favorite way to put the carrier on when I’m by myself. I basically put it around my waist, clip the chest strap together, lift Toby up and rest him on the waist, then bring the straps up over our heads and clip them at my sides. Easy!  
My husband prefers putting the carrier on a little differently. He would rather leave the side straps attached instead, putting the carrier on like a backpack, and then reaching overhead to attach the chest/back strap. Either way works, depending on which feels best to you!

It can take a little practice to get fast at doing this on your own, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty simple. An excellent resource for helping you make sure you’ve got everything fitting well and learning from other parents how to take the carrier on and off alone is the Facebook group, Lillebaby Love. I learned a lot here when I got my first Lillebaby! Everyone is very friendly and helpful, too. You can post pictures of yourself wearing your baby, and other Lille owners will give you feedback and tips on how to make it fit your unique situation best. (Sometimes tightening or loosening a particular strap just a bit can make a world of difference!) 

Why Pick a Lillebaby Over Cheaper Baby Carriers?

It’s Lightweight and Compact. 
When we’re not actively using the carrier, like when we were going on a ride or seeing a show at a theme park, I would simply roll the carrier up like a burrito and put it into a small reusable drawstring bag. This kept it clean and out of the way, where it was easy to tuck under the stroller or into a locker.  

A Lillebaby baby carrier rolled up and folded size

It’s SO Customizable. 
There are a lot of ways to wear it, so you’re bound to find just the right position for you. Some babies like to always see where they’re going (maybe the back or hip carry is best, or front facing if you have the original Lillebaby carrier), and others like to snuggle (front carry). It’s nice to be able to have choices.

The multiple straps and button settings help it to fit many different body types, too! I’ve got a really long torso, but a small frame, so when we switch between my husband and I, we simply tighten or loosen the straps to fit us, and we are both comfortable. It doesn’t take very long, either.

It Holds Up Really Well.
We’re not exactly gentle on our carriers. We USE them. They end up in the car, under airplane seats, in the rain, out hiking, smeared in sunblock after a day at the theme park, etc. Even when we’ve had to fully wash them, they don’t fall apart. These things are rugged!
 
Cheaper is not always better…some knockoff brands that I found at a garage sale or got secondhand ripped and had loose seams all the time. They weren’t as comfy, either! 
Their Customer Service is Wonderful.
When I lost the lumbar support on my first Lillebaby, they helped me order a new one, in my favorite color! (Yes, it was turquoise. Duh.) Everyone I’ve ever dealt with at Lillebaby has been nothing but sweet and helpful, and I’ve heard many stories in the Lillebaby forum about their wonderful charitable contributions and help to others. I’m happy to support companies like that!
A couple of handsome guys
It Helps Teach my Kids to Be Great Caretakers.
There are all sorts of wonderful benefits to baby wearing that I won’t even get into here, but I love the fact that my kids are seeing my husband and I wearing the carriers and modeling that behavior with their “babies.” I often catch both the boys carrying their stuffed animals around the house in their shirts, pretending they have a baby carrier of their own!
<— This is Baby Simba, who had to come home with us from Animal Kingdom after Toby fell in love.
 
(If you want to die of cuteness overload, did you know that you can even buy a doll-sized Lillebaby for your kid to wear?!?)

Thank you so much to Lillebaby for our new CarryOn! It was perfect for this unique trip, and we foresee using it for quite a while in the future!

 If you’re the kind of family that is always on the go with your young kids like us, you should consider getting a Lillebaby of your own!
Visit their website HERE to check out all of the awesome styles and colors you can get.

Which one is your favorite? Tell us in the comments!