Decided… well, almost

Almost eight months after having the baby, we have decided that we really do need to buy a pram.

Call me environmental, but recycling a colleague’s almost complete and clunky dated travel system and squeaky but clean foldy-uppy-buggy with a canopy rib emerging has lost whatever appeal it held for us a year ago. You cannot do much at all with the first, except hamper the efforts of the man trying to get past it to the electricity meter in the cellar. The second has scratched me a number of times and was inadequate on a number of recent occasions.

What I am looking for in a pram is the opportunity to go on-road and off-road. The chance to go on walks with my parents (muddy fields) or in-laws (cobbled streets). The option to have the baby facing me. A bumper bar for activities for the growing child. Enough protection from the elements without being mistaken for John Simpson in Afghanistanwear. Enough space in the boot when the pram is folded for other vital travel equipment, such as passports, clothes and baby spoons. Various reclining positions (for the baby) and various handle heights (for me). The option of putting a toddler somewhere when a second baby arrives. A decent image. Roomy but compact. A three-wheeler, which actually only has three wheels. In short, after searching for eight months, believing the quest to be fruitless and almost giving in, I have this week found the perfect pram, and it is available in America. It is called The Zooper Zydeco. I didn’t make that up. Google it if you want a picture – images are in short supply on my blog at the moment due to technical fallacies on my part and heresies on the part of wordpress.

However, we both agree that ordering a Zooper Dooper Pram is not a great plan for such ecologically aware folks as ourselves. And so, reluctantly, I have chosen to go with my head rather than my heart.

As of tomorrow, we might have ordered a Proper Phil & Teds Sport Buggy. In Red. Ooooh, I’m excited just thinking about it. But unlike last night, when I was sickening for some bug I’ve been fighting all day today, I will not allow my heart to race and keep me awake until 4 am sickening for some buggy that I’ve almost certainly decided to buy.

Probably.