In all honesty, the thought had not crossed my mind as we pointed our little Fit in the direction of that wonderland of enchantment, Utica NY. This whole business had been about a stroller after all.
But let me back up a little. For probably a solid month, we had been overwhelmed with the process of finding the ‘right’ stroller. Ok, again with the honesty, my WIFE was overwhelmed with said process. I was content with vocal agreement of whatever she decided we should, while occasionally wondering aloud whether said strollers were ‘self-propelled, like a lawn mower’ to significant dirty looks from her.
But after I became involved in the search, I was overwhelmed as well. Buying a stroller can be a torturous (and expensive) process. At least for us. I would assume 80% of folks probably drive down to the BRU (Babies R Us for the uninitiated), spend 5 minutes in the stroller aisle and walk out with something that will suit their needs. Without endless and headache inducing vacillation. But clearly, these people hate their children, and consign them to such horrors as being pushed around on PLASTIC wheels, in a Graco (the Kia of the stroller world I’m told) to the instant derision of the other babies floating around in their Peg Perego’s. No sir, that will not suit us.
So after a good deal of research (and several beers for me), Kim discovered a potential baby Cadillac from a company called Zooper. And of course, the BRU doesn’t carry Zoopers, so we piled into the car one Saturday morning and headed to a baby store an hour away, in the aforementioned Utica.
We arrived at Kid’s World around noon, and after the requisite bathroom stop, did a once around of the store. It’s primarily baby furniture, which is another can of worms we were avoiding discussion of at the moment. After a cursory glance we wandered into the stroller showroom. It certainly wasn’t as massive as the BRU, but there, amidst the Gracos and glinting in the florescent lighting stood the Zooper.
Now I had only ever seen pictures, but as I stood before this miraculous piece of finely crafted baby machinery, I couldn’t stop myself from openly weeping at the majesty of it. The wheels were rubber – and inflatable! The seat could be switched from front facing to rear facing – so I could gaze into my offspring’s eyes as I mistakenly steered us both into traffic. It even doubled as a jogger, for all that jogging I do. It was perfect! And HUGE.
I mean, really big. The wheels are 16 inches in diameter. The saleswoman, being a saleswoman, told us that the stroller collapses ‘for convenient traveling.’ She then ‘collapsed’ it, which really just made it longer and slightly shorter. Regardless though, it fit each of our required needs – the wheels, the facing, no need for an extra jogging stroller, etc. and we were sold. As an afterthought, Kim asked if we could try it in the car to see how it would fit.
And it was at that point, as we tried to wrangle this ungainly device into this tiny Japanese car, that the horror of the situation became clear. We didn’t need a smaller stroller, we needed a bigger car.
Oh crap.
