my-speck

Buying baby stuff: particularly prams, strollers, slings and other baby-carrying devices.  Provokes a reaction/comment/opinion in most parents of young children.  Weird but true: those devices that become really important.   They let you move.  And settle.  And all other sorts of important things.

I like to research things before I buy them.  Usually over-research.  Take ages to make a decision.   Which is infuriating even to me sometimes.  We still use the stereo I bought when I was 18.   The CD player/stacker on it broke about 6 years ago.  And we didn’t get it fixed because we meant to buy a new one.  But never got around to it.  Because each time we tried to do research on what we thought we wanted, it all got too complicated too quickly.  And the stereo could take an input still – so we could play our mini-disc players.   Then we just reverted to radio for a long while.  Or listening through a computer.  Now I plug my iBaby in.  And it still works fine.  But we would like a new stereo one day.

That is all an aside though.  We use a beautiful, much-loved Mountain Buggy pram for you.  Which we deliberated over, and did a lot of research on (see above) before we bought it (in NZ on holiday, as it was cheaper there.  Yes, we carted it back through customs to save ourselves $200).   We don’t use it as often as we used to, as you like to walk, but you still love it.  Sometimes in fact you prefer to be in it than walking.   It is so easy to push, steer with one hand, in the dark, up a hill, full of a flat of beer (or two as your Dad once proved).   We do still give it a good workout: recently we’ve been trying to go for a walk a bit after your dinner and before your bed.  And do some bat and other night creature spotting.  You love it.  Anyway, I know you’ll be 2 when your brother or sister arrives, and I plan on baby-slinging the new arrival around as much as we can for a while, but nonetheless I’ve been wondering what to do with you and a stroller/pram.

To buy a new one or not to buy a new one?   We already have the Mountain Buggy, we have the bassinet attachment (which we bought secondhand for $50 and served as your sleeping bassinet for the first 3 months of your life when you were sleeping during the day: at night you co-slept with us in the big bed)…. And it would be good to use for the new baby coming.   And we also have a Quinny Zapp, which I bought because it was on like a fantastic sale at a baby store just when I happened to be about to take a plane ride somewhere and wanted a pram that could fit easily on a plane etc (and boy was it a godsend walking through airports over the past few months – you sleeping happily in it and us actually not having to carry a toddler for hours while transiting, braving flight delays and baggage carousels)..  Which is great, small, compact, light and good in the car boot.   So I’m not really keen on buying another pram – like a double, or a phil & ted’s toddler combo thingo.

So when I read about the new scooter-combo thingo from Mountain Buggy I was really excited.   It is a scooter that can clip onto the back of your Mountain Buggy pram.  So you can ride it by yourself, or be pushed along with the pram.  sounds like a winner, right?  Anyway, I decided yesterday that instead of deliberating for months about whether we really needed it, whether it is the best thing to buy, blah blah blah blah blah, that most importantly, IT LOOKS LIKE IT TOTALLY ROCKS and that YOU WILL HAVE A BALL on it.  Whether or not I can restrain you while walking.

the freerider – hopefully coming to our house soon

So I went ahead and ordered one.  Woot!  Can’t wait until it arrives.