OK, so we’ve been pregnant for a couple of weeks. (Please see the new countdown ticker under the blog title.) The idea is starting to settle in. The idea of being pregnant at least. The idea of having to care for a child after the pregnancy is over is still frightening.
This past weekend we went on our first shopping excursion to start “pricing” items. We wanted to see which had the best bargain on things like diapers, onesies, baby clothes, and, yes, all of the sundry attachments that come with having a baby, like cribs, changing stations, strollers, etc.
So we went to a nearby Babies R Us just to look, or so I thought. My wife had other ideas. She was in a buying mood, although she didn’t inform me of this until we were in the store. And so it begins.
We get to the stroller section and I start gazing over the 20 or so strollers they have on display. Some are simple umbrella strollers, but not suitable for a newborn. Others are, but they don’t come with the infant carrier. My wife and I agreed a long time ago that we wanted a device that would have an infant carrier that would snap into the car seat base and stroller interchangeably for ease of use. It seemed most logical.
We found one such stroller with relative ease. As luck would have it, it was the very pattern that my wife had eyed for awhile. It also was on clearance. That’s good from a price perspective, because it was on sale, but bad because it means in my wife’s mind that we MUST BUY IT NOW.
When we were engaged, I learned there was no use in trying to rationalize with a bride. I apply the same principal to a pregnant woman, regardless if she’s my wife. So, after fiddling with the thing for about 20 minutes to see if it collapsed easily (it did) and if it was easily maneuvered (it was) I pulled the box off the shelf and hoisted it into the carriage. I hadn’t had to move such a bulky item since we bought our last television. Funny how priorities change. About a month ago we reduced our cable service to the most basic plan because we weren’t watching it.
To add fuel to the impetus to BUY NOW, which didn’t need any fuel at all, the box I pulled down was the last one on the shelf. Great. There was no reconsidering this purchase.
Did I mention what we decided on? It was a Graco Coach Rider Travel System. 
What is a Travel System? Apparently it is the SUV of strollers. It can actually roll over other strollers in its way. OK, not really. But come on. Is this really necessary? I asked a coworker whose wife had a baby girl last week. He said they took their travel system out for its “maiden voyage” the other day. That is a direct quote, too. I asked if he cracked a bottle of formula over the bow to christen the land yacht.
This, I bet, is the first of the absurdities we will experience in this journey through pregnancy. We’re already looking at cribs, but luckily we are going to take more time in deciding on which will be best for our little cherub.
Peaks and Lavallees 