Attie Gail forgot her camera on Saturday. Phooey, no photos of the birthday gate-crashing (more on this in a mo'). Allan went to pick up Cheryl from BC Women's Hospital, so Michael was foisted on my dad on Saturday and I took Maddy (Allan's nickname for her is Roo). He dropped her off rather early for a weekend morning, but I think it felt earlier as I wasn't feeling 100% -- extremely fatigued, and the beginnings of a sore throat. Not a good sign.
After chasing Maddy around for a while in my apartment -- which isn't really child-proofed, you see -- I gave her fringe a bit of a trim, then decided we needed to get out in the sunshine. We headed out for Granville Island, where there's the Kids Market and a playground. I was also looking for a stroller, so I thought I'd try and kill two birds with one stone.
I didn't find a stroller, although Maddy and I did spot everything else in the kids market -- doll strollers, games, trains, costumes, kites, merry-go-rounds, and two floors of play area. We paid a few dollars to get into the Toddler Adventure Zone, which is similar to what you find at a McDonald's playplace, but much cleaner and with more things such as stuffed animals and a train set. Apparently, we'd gatecrashed a child's birthday party, and I overheard the mother say "I have never seen this child before in my life," but I didn't care -- we'd paid our money and I wasn't about to leave! I ordered food, and it was even delivered to us! I made a mental note to go there more often... maybe next time we'll even get a party favour.
From there, we headed over to Toys R Us to buy the stroller, since I knew Maddy was not going to last much longer without a nap, and she's too heavy to be carrying around everywhere. I managed to get us over to Broadway just as she was snoozing against my shoulder, and I spotted -- of all things -- a Jeep Wrangler Sport stroller on sale...??? That's what I thought:
Since when did Jeep start making strollers??? Bizarre. Well, this one was much too good of a deal to pass up, and it had front suspension, which sounds over-the-top for a stroller, but it does make a big difference not only for the kid but for the person pushing. The sales clerk assembled it on the spot for us, and away we went.
After another food/bathroom stop, I was feeling intrepid enough to stroll all the way home, so we headed north on Granville after going west along Broadway. It didn't feel like we'd gone that far, so instead of going home across the Burrard Street Bridge, we went up west along 4th Avenue to see what there was in the way of double strollers and baby stuff on consignment. Looks like I haven't been on 4th much lately, cos there is shop after shop of consignment places along there now. I didn't find anything I liked, but for a final stop we went into Crocodile, a high-end baby equipment shop. That's where I spotted the
Bugaboo strollers -- my friend Jennifer is the dealer for Canada. When I visited them last spring in Utrecht, Jen showed me her Bugaboo stroller and told me she just had a meeting with the company to be a prospective dealer, and they'd be moving back to Canada if all went well. Bugaboo is the Mercedes of strollers, but it's high-quality. If you buy all the accessories, it's in the neighbourhood of $2,000 (Canadian). I asked the guy at Crocodile if they made double-strollers, but they don't. So, I had a look at the high-end double-stroller that they did stock, and it was -- gulp -- nearly $800. Mountain Buggy, it was called.
Listen, if you're going to have kids, you'd better have some money stashed away for all this equipment!
