Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Germany prep and the stroller that ensued

One week from today we are leaving for Germany! I am so excited! We're headed to see hubby's family first near Cologne and will actually see a World Cup game while we're there - ahhhhh!!! So excited - did I say that already?? SO excited to see a real game!
After a few days we're going to head south to see Sleeping Beauty's castle and other fun things (yes, we're taking BOTH of our kids on this trip because we're lunatics). Then it's over to Munich to hook up with Emma's dad for a swap. He's taking her to Italy for about 10 days - she's got such a rough life that Emma. Then we head back north for our flight home via the sightseeing route. Can't wait to bask in the bratwurst, beer, castles, scenery and ack! crying from the backseat . . .hopefully not too much of that. . .we've never taken both of our kids on a trip anywhere - Miles is only 13 months, so tha
t's not a surprise. But we decided to take the plunge and take them both to Germany - we had several offers from the grandparents to leave Miles with them, and I can always have Emma stay with her dad - but you know? We're total whimps and thought we'd miss them way too much and decided the sleepless nights and whining was all worth it. We're going to be on vacation right? So we'll just load up on the coffee to stay awake during the days and suck it up. What the hell. Anyway, that brings me to my next topic which is this: I needed a good stroller for getting around Germany that Miles would be comfortable enough in to sleep at any given moment (so we don't have to spend 2 - 3 hours every day in the hotel room smack dab in the middle of the day), could handle the potentially slightly rough terrain, had good sun/wind/rain protection (it's been raining there a lot lately) and was light enough to transport. So the search was on, and I mean the search. It took me for-ever to find the right stroller. I went from wanting something incredibly simple and light - to lusting after the much nicer models that come with all the features I was looking for. Thank gawd for all the great review sites out there - I found a particularly good one called: baby gaga
that had really great and thorough reviews on it. And otherwise I relied on the old stand-by: Epinions. Both were invaluable at providing information to this indecisive stroller buyer.

So, what did I eventually decide on? Wouldn't you know it, but one that I originally thought was wayyyy too expensive - mainly because I was convinced you could get the same features for less. And maybe you can get some of them - but no, not allll of them - and I wanted allll of them. So I decided on the Bumbleride Flyer - tee hee! If you click on the baby gaga link you can see it for yourself - I got mine in Bamboo - which I hope is not some obnoxious mint green - but rather a soothing green to calm the spirit - and at 300 bucks, I'll expect this puppy to make me a latte en route to my destination . . .and one for my shocked husband who thinks I'm a total nut for aquiring yet another stroller. Sorry babe, hadda do it.
So now I'm picturing myself strolling the streets of Germany with my sublime little tot inside blissing out on the Bamboo decor and reclining to his heart's content with no sun/rain/wind in his lovely little blue eyes . . .Mary Poppins, you got nuthin on me.

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