Time Flies…
On Saturday I participated in a fifteen hour marathon Karate class.
I suspect there are very few who would consider that a fun way to spend a Saturday.
I, however, enjoyed what I learned immensely.
In my opinion, it’s great to push your physical and mental limits, because it’s the only way you will develop. Expanding one’s own potential is a marvellous thing. If you never do it, you’ll never be everything you were meant to be.
I have a lot of work to do. Lots of polishing of movements and interpretation of the chicken-scratch that I refer to as my notes.
I will be busy for a while.
Strolling Along
Does anyone have any recommendations for a stroller for an infant?
Mrs. J and I were out on the weekend looking for one and figured that a travel system would be the best way to go about things.
The interesting thing is how complicated it is to choose one.
Certainly there is a lot of selection. The problem begins when you try to figure out what features you need.
It’s worse than buying a car!
Truthfully, I think that shopping for strollers is a lot more tiring than a fifteen hour Karate marathon…
Filed under: General Dialogue |
Barking Space 
One of the big things we had to deal with was space in our car. If you have one of those huge all in one strollers than free space becomes a concern. We ourselves bought a combo system and opted out for a separate baby seat and stroller combination to due the compactabily factor.
My preference right now if I was doing it over again would be to get the best tested rear facing infant seat and not focus too much on the stroller.
Think small, think subways, cars, supermarkets, malls, banks, stairs, etc when thinking about a stroller, because the best ones are usually too big for these spaces.
One of the systems that Karin liked a lot was the front facing harness system that kept your hands free to do work. My daughter felt close to Mom and her movements were not hampered by a big stroller.
As long as a stroller has rain and sun protection that is all that matters.
We opted for one of those all inclusive strollers. It had the mag wheels for rough terrain. Scary but thats how its described. Really didn’t give it much thought till we went to someon’es cottage. Apparently the rubber wheels also give it a smoother ride and it had a tonne of cargo space for the usual stuff – baby gear (diapers, bottles, blankets, etc). It had a detachable carrier so you could use it in the car and also bring it in the house so it could double as a bassonette.
The sad thing is you have to keep upgrading the car seat and the baby grows – right up to the age of eight!! Remember the days where we didn’t have to wear seat belts and were jumping all over the back seat or sat in the wagon part of the station wagon? Dad used to get liquored up and drive home and if you hit soemthing it never hurt the car because if was made of good heavy gauge steel.
The only consistent thing from those days to now is that the Leafs still suck.
Heidi and I bought that Graco Quattro Travel System (and so did the 7 other couples in our pre-natal classes, which was pretty creepy). We have been extremely happy with it but Callis is right, it is pretty bulky so this may be a concern.
Hi Jorge,
Thank you for your kind words and inspiration. 15 hours devoted to anything other than sleep is profound.
I pray you find the dream buggy soon. It’s an investment with more bells and whistles than a car! Have fun!
Take care,
Adrienne
i remember being in the back of the old station wagon (you know the one that looks like National Labpoon’s Vacation) making gestures to the truck drivers on the highway to sound off their horns.
How did we ever survive…probably because cars back then were tanks that could not go faster than 100km per hour.
Now adays you have tin cans that can reach 240km/hr and Ken you are right (Leaf did suck then too, but I used to be a Bruin’s fan when Bobby Ohr and Gerry Geevers played.
I think for an infant, yes, maybe the “travel system” is the way to go. Switching in and out a lot might be a pain — easier to leave the child strapped in, but move the vessel into a rear-facing (must, must) position in the car. Of course, we didn’t have a car, so it didn’t matter for us. But our infant car seat did have a very handy carrying handle — highly recommended!
BUT for an newborn, you also want the stroller to be able to recline fully, so that the child can actually lie down when it falls asleep on a stroll (and sometimes it might prefer watching the sky anyway). I don’t know if a fully-reclining position is easily found in a “travel system”.
How much do you walk? If much, then you want something with a *lot* of space under it. A LOT. More than just “plenty”. Trust me.
Don’t get anything with two handles — you have to be able to push and steer it one-handed.
Of course, you will outgrow the first system (sooner than you think). After that, you might need to get a new car seat *and* a new stroller. We used only one good stroller for the first 3 years until we stopped using it altogether (good wheels, fully reclining, collapsed well, good canopy, lots of space in the basket). But you’ll go through 3 car seats (infant, child, booster), although some seats might convert between the child and booster. We bought a cheap “umbrella” stroller at age 2.5 with the thought that we would use it sometimes — forget it.
A bit of search turned up the following, which I think is a slightly better (well, a decade more advanced anyway) version of what we had. This accepts an infant seat (of the appropriate system, natch) as well as having 3-position recline (sit up, lean back, lie flat) … this would mean you don’t have to replace it when the child outgrows the infant seat. Might be a nice compromise. See the basket? LOTS OF ROOM.
http://www.gracobaby.com/catalog/product.aspx?modelNumber=6125SMB&CategoryID=2
If you’re looking for brand recommendations, then if you’re well-off and trendy you can go with Peg Perego (or Bugaboo — ooooh), otherwise buy Graco like the rest of us schlubs.
Zac
Hey Jorge!
Hope you had a wonderful new year!!! You – SD600? I thought you were all about the cool fancy cameras? 😉 They’re great for the point-and-shooter (ie, me) who likes to play around a little bit. Anyways, I can’t say much about strollers, although all I know is that multiple family members bought their strollers from the UK.
🙂
I know, not as helpful as the other comments, but good luck all the same.
Reena
Jorge and Mrs. J… I say forget strollers. Get a Sherpa. They’re good on rough terrain – a major selling point! – and will carry anything you need. They also fit into tight spaces.
How’bout it?
LOL ah the choices out there for strollers . Let’s see if you want to run with the baby three wheels are great want to be able to go over rough teerain four wheels. and last, you will need a simple one to go to the mall in … Have a stroller with the baby seat attached is very nice too …. So simple to pick up babe and go ….
Oh and congrats on the 15 hours of Karate . sore at all ? 🙂
caitrine
I has been many years since I have had to buy strollers. About all I remember is that you want locking wheels for when you go on gravelly paths. You lock them so they are all parallel otherwise they swivel about and you cannot push the stroller effectively.
Be careful not to hand too much on the push bar (eg purses, diaper bags, etc) or else the stroller can tip back.
A tiny little subcompact stroller or giant hummer has always been the quandry. In the end you might do what I did. Have the second child, get a giant two seat stroller and purchase a minivan. Two door cars are history, my friend.
Good god having a child has become complicated…
Yes the strollers are a bit bulky, but you will find that you need to travel with everything but the kitchen sink even for a half hour outing “just in case”. The bigger strollers have very convenient storage for all of those things. You need an extra outfit, three or four toys because the one that is currently the favorite may be the worst thing ever five minutes later, some snacks, extra bottles, extra diapers, a sippy cup of water, wipes, two soothers in case one gets thrown down on the public washroom floor, etc. The smaller strollers just don’t give you the storage space so you end up carrying a very big diaper bag on your shoulder.
The nice thing about the travel system is that if they fall asleep in the car, you can just put the car seat onto the stroller and not have to move them at all. Also, you can see their face the whole time in the stroller so you know how much sun they are getting, if they are asleep etc. As Mike said, everyone we know including friends and family have gotten the Graco Quattro and have been very happy with it.
Sorry to be so wordy, I don’t talk to actual adults much these days!
I like the “All Terrain Vehicles” for infants, or what’s called “the jogger stroller”. They’re very expensive, but the tires are big and can roll over any terrain. I think they have some models that will convert from infant, to toddler over the years. Those are the best to have (imo).
Good luck with your decision making!