This may move us up another notch or 2 on the yuppie-meter

I bought a new stroller today.

Funny thing is, up till yesterday morning the thought of buying a stroller hadn't even crossed my mind. I'm still quite happy with our first stroller, it's served us wonderfully these past several months, and even though it's already showing a bit of wear and tear (quite appropriate, really, for everything we've put it through) I think it'll still last a bit longer. However, it is quite big. And bulky. And heavy. And when I take it into town I have to rely on someone to help me in and out of the trams, which usually isn't a problem, but it does often deter me from going to certain parts of Geneva if I know that I'll have to take buses that have several steps to get on and off them.

But, again, I hadn't really thought about any of this till yesterday. I'd gone to Orchestra to see about using up a remaining gift certificate there, and as I was perusing I glanced at some Maclaren strollers on display. Hmm, not a bad price, actually. And look how light and small it seems. So I went home and did some research, and within a few hours I was CONVINCED that we NEEDED to buy one of these new strollers. Sure, we only have a couple months left in Geneva, but it would make outings into town easier, and even back home going to Target would be nicer if I had a small, sub-10lb stroller to gently put in the trunk rather than hoisting our current 20+lb model.

So Zach and I talked about it that night, and I convinced him, and so off I went today to purchase our new contraption. ; )

After looking at the models online I had originally set out to get the Triumph, since it has a reclining backrest. I spent a couple hours today shuffling around 3 different stores trying to get the best deal, and after some thought and price-comparing I wound up going with the Volo instead. The reclining aspect didn't seem enough to justify the extra cost, especially when considering that the underbasket in inaccessible (and thus, kinda useless) when the seat's reclined. I also found the visor to be a bit nicer on the Volo (more coverage). With the gift certificate the price came out to be lower even than what it would've cost in the US (wheeee!). And yes, I do realize I could've gotten a perfectly good umbrella stroller for under $50 at Target, but really the basket and the sun visor are pretty valuable perks. There were some other brands in the stores that I looked at, but they were about the same price for the same features and Maclaren has quite a name, it seems, and thus I'm trusting it.

I'd purposely taken D into town in a sling so that I could start using the new stroller right away, and my goodness... was that awesome. It felt like I was hardly pushing any weight at all, and I could easily lift the entire stroller with D in it to get on and off the bus. It's just simpler to manage around town, bottom line. So I'm pretty happy right now. I still see quite a lot of usability to our big stroller, but it will be quite nice having this smaller, lighter option to use when I deem it necessary.

And, as you can tell from the picture, D seems to like it quite a bit as well. =P