New Ride...for the babies

As my friend Kim said, buying baby gear is more than extremely frustrating and overwhelming. With baby #2, you assume you know everything, right? After all, buy some new receiving blankets, onesies, some diapers, resuse the old carseat, bleach the old burp clothes, buy some new bedding. But then, the stroller decision comes in. Yes, I can reuse the crib, because Charlie has moved onto the a new twin bed, and yes, I can reuse the Graco stroller, but then, what would I do with Charlie??

Yes, I still have another child. The dingbat in me thinks everything is fine, until I realize I cannot go to the mall unless I have Baby 2 in a sling, and Charlie in the stroller. (And for anyone who thinks that the mall, zoo, etc. would be fine with Charlie walking, I will give you to him for one day with no stroller in Disneyland. And laugh at your pain at the end of it.) Of course, the sling would work occasionally, but not all the time.

So, double stroller it is. To me, a double stroller is sort of like a mini-van. I loathe them. So I was determined to have something cool, AND something that would fit all my needs. Which were that I could run with it, easily open and close it, have it take up not much more room that my current jogger, and that I could attach the infant carrier to it. This of course is important, because I don't want to wait until month 6 or so, to start running. And Baby 2 will need to be in her carrier at least for the first 3 months, but probably closer to 5.

And then the researching began. My friend Audrey went with the Phil and Ted option, so I researched that one. It was unequivocally overruled by Jay, because after he went and tested it, he said we would be constantly kicking the bottom kiddo. I also looked into a BOB and Bumbleride, and really liked the Bumbleride Indie Twin. But again, I wanted to see it in action, and have Jason look at it. So off we went to Alameda (Tot Tank) to check it out. There we also found the City Elite double by Baby Jogger. Luckily the BOB, Phil and Ted, Bumbleride, and some Maclarens were there. So, we were able to play with them all. Actually, Jay did most of the playing. Once I saw how smooth the ride (or in my case, push) was on the Bumbleride and City Elite, I was sold.

As a side note, I do have to give a big shout out to Tot Tank employees for being so generous with their time and answering tons of questions. THANK YOU!

We went home with more things to look up, but in the end, I chose the Bumbleride because it was cheaper once you added in the things that came standard with it that I wanted (rain cover and infant seat adapter), that I would have had to pay for with the Baby Jogger/City Elite or BOB.

It came in last week, and Jason built in yesterday, and I cannot wait to use it later on it. And hurray for Ebay and saving several 100 bucks!