{"id":444,"date":"2013-03-22T07:58:58","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T11:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=444"},"modified":"2013-12-19T21:04:45","modified_gmt":"2013-12-20T02:04:45","slug":"gettin-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/22\/gettin-around\/","title":{"rendered":"Gettin’ Around"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have this small and weird obsession with baby buggies (strollers, prams, pushchairs, whatever suits you).\u00a0 I can\u2019t help but check out every one we pass.\u00a0 I even try to guess what kind each buggy is before we get too close.\u00a0 When we were living in Dublin I used to get teased a lot for the number of buggies we owned.\u00a0 Even the taxi driver we used regularly used to comment on how I had a different buggy every time he collected me.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s true I\u2019ve had a lot of buggies in my mommy years but they\u2019ve all served a different purpose and were useful (or unuseful and therefore replaced) in their own way.<\/p>\n

Classic American family, we started with the travel system.\u00a0 Based on the recommendation from a child seat safety expert I know we went with the Chicco Keyfit 30 and opted for the lighter weight (and cheaper!) coordinating Trevi stroller.\u00a0 This served us well through Honeybun’s\u00a0infancy.\u00a0 It was nice to be able to take her from the car in her car seat into the buggy and to be able to lay her down when we didn\u2019t want the seat.\u00a0 However, after only two round-trip airplane rides the poor stroller had been severely abused and no longer steered well and became too cumbersome.<\/p>\n

\"ct06\"<\/a>So when Honeybun\u00a0was around a year old we made buggy purchase number two, an umbrella stroller.\u00a0 We stayed with Chicco and got a Ct0.6.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that I have a thing for Chicco, but I really wanted a basket and sunshade and the Chicco was the cheapest option.\u00a0 This became our everyday, go to buggy. Was perfect for running around town, could easily be taken in and out of the car and when we moved to Dublin was great for buses and trains (other than at Tara St. Station when they warn you to \u201cMind the Gap\u201d and I did indeed almost loose her in the gap the first time as the wheel span wasn\u2019t long enough to reach from train to platform).\u00a0 I did break a wheel off running for the train on St. Patrick\u2019s Day but Chicco customer service was fantastic and mailed us an entirely new buggy within a few weeks since it was still under warranty.<\/p>\n

\"tiny<\/a>We drove the Ct0.6 for a while with only one wheel but after a trip back to Massachusetts and another wheel getting knocked off we need a temporary buggy!\u00a0 So we went to Walmart and bought the cheapest stroller they had.\u00a0 It was great cause it was extremely lightweight and had a huge basket.\u00a0 Problem?\u00a0 It was more like a doll stroller and my over 6 foot hubby had a terrible time pushing it.\u00a0 We took it all around\u00a0Paris<\/a>\u00a0on our first European adventure and were definitely ready to get the Ct0.6 back when the replacement finally came!\u00a0 We\u2019ve been using that replacement buggy ever since.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before moving to Dublin, knowing we weren\u2019t going to have a car but I would have 2 kids to tote around I convinced hubby to get a double buggy.\u00a0 We went with the Jeep Traveler Tandem stroller mostly based on cost and size (it was one of the smaller tandems available in the US at the time) and the fact that the Chicco car seat fit in the back.\u00a0 It was terrible!\u00a0 I hardly ever used it and after a terrible experience trying to get the girls to the doctor in the snow with it I gave up entirely.\u00a0 I spent most of Sugarplum’s infancy using the Trevi.\u00a0 I would carry Sugarplum in a Baby Bjorn when we went places, pushing Honeybun\u00a0and usually on the way home I would push Sugarplum and let Honeybun\u00a0walk.\u00a0 So, I found another (much more expensive) buggy I wanted and sold the Jeep (made 100 euro on it!)<\/p>\n

\"b<\/a>So when we returned to the states for a home visit when Sugarplum was 7 months old (and beginning to kill my back in the Baby Bjorn), we splurged and got the buggy of my dreams, a Britax B-Ready.\u00a0 I got the attachments so I could use the Chicco car seat facing rearwards in the back for Sugarplumand we were all in heaven.\u00a0 Despite being over 100 pounds when loaded with kids, seats and gear, it was still so easy to maneuver and take places (I only found a handful of Dublin doors it didn\u2019t fit in due to the extra wide back wheels).\u00a0 We didn\u2019t travel with it a lot since it was so bulky and I was terrified of it getting damaged but it became our everyday around town buggy and I used it with the rear infant car seat until we moved back to Florida when Honeybun\u00a0was nearly 4 and Sugarplum was nearly 2.\u00a0 I found the rear seat real cheap when we got back so I went ahead and bought it and used it for a few months until it became too cumbersome for me to maneuver with the increased child weight and my expanding belly. I still use it for walking to Target (and use the back seat for holding my groceries).\u00a0\u00a0 I fully expect it to come back into double use when baby #3 arrives in a few months, though. While Sugarplum loves to walk, she\u2019s not good at paying attention and neither are the drivers in our area so I prefer her to be securely locked up.<\/p>\n

After taking the B-Ready to\u00a0Oslo<\/a>, Amsterdam and Warsaw we realized it was not the best for travelling.\u00a0 We took a Baltic cruise when the girls were 3 and 1 and took the Trevi and Ct0.6 (which is a good thing, the B-Ready would not have fit through the stateroom door without folding it!).\u00a0 It worked but not when we needed car seats.\u00a0 So when we planned A Holy Land cruise for a few months later I opted for an easier option.\u00a0 We got a Combi Coccoro seat and stroller frame.\u00a0 It is essentially a travel system but takes a child up to 40 pounds and the car seat can be rear or forward facing.\u00a0 It was convenient but steers terrible so it is now only for travelling when we need the car seat (this is also the car seat Sugarplum uses full time since outgrowing the infant carrier).<\/span><\/p>\n

So, here comes baby #3.\u00a0 We have the Double but it\u2019s nearly impossible for me to take in and out of the car and the Ct0.6 isn\u2019t infant appropriate since it doesn\u2019t lay flat (and doesn\u2019t safely take an infant carrier).\u00a0 So onto buggy number 7, the brand new Chicco Liteway Plus.\u00a0 It\u2019s a brand new buggy that is a lightweight travel system (where was this when Honeybun\u00a0was a baby?!?!).\u00a0 We got it for nearly half price thanks to Babies\u2019R\u2019Us\u2019s great trade in event (we took in the Trevi and got 25% off any new stroller) and a Christmas gift card.\u00a0 I\u2019ve yet to use it but have high hopes for how it will work for our family of the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have this small and weird obsession with baby buggies (strollers, prams, pushchairs, whatever suits you).\u00a0 I can\u2019t help but check out every one we pass.\u00a0 I even try to guess what kind each buggy is before we get too close.\u00a0 When we were living in Dublin I used to get teased a lot for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baby-business","category-tiny-travellers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2425,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/2425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}