Grateful: Day 24: Stroller(s)

Remember how, before we moved...I was all about living minimally while in China?

Yeah, well, having a kid, somehow makes living as minimally as we would have liked impossible.

For the most part, we're succeeding at keeping the excess and non-necessities down. Clothing (for NZ and myself), kitchen supplies and linens ( I'm a recovering linen addict, remember?) are all things we have been successful in keeping pared down...but when it comes to Sal and his "gear", we have done our best, but sadly, China has made it impossible to allow us to survive with just one stroller.

So, we Zentils now own two.

In a small, storage-less apartment. On the 25th floor.

One for running/walking, and one for grocery and mall shopping.

I am grateful for both of my strollers today. They allow me the freedom to explore our surroundings.

NZ & Sal "off roading" on a walk

I love our Quinny Buzz because it has got tires paired with a high cross bar, allowing for a good stride while walking. The tires and suspension allow for us to take it many places where the streets have potholes, or there are staircases we must climb. Handicapped access ramps are not mandatory here, so we do a lot of stair climbing. There's also a comfy memory foam seat for Sal that reclines and can be turned to face me, or to face the street. With the colder weather setting in, we use a Quinny bunting bag that Sal's great grandma got him for Christmas. It's nice and cozy and he seems quite content even when I'm freezing my booty off.

snug as a bug in his bunting bag

Our Quinny is my most-of-the-time stroller that I take whenever we head out on foot. The extra special thing about this stroller was the cost. I picked up this lime green beast on Craigslist for 10% of its original cost. SCORE!

 I have to admit I ran into some problems when I was somewhere alone with the larger stroller. Here in China, most shopping areas are blocked off by cement or metal barricades. These have been erected to keep the electric bikes out of the stores. But the problem is, they also keep mothers pushing jogging strollers out as well.

on the count of three. yi. er. san
( We've got it down)

Barricades in our own apartment complex

Unless I have a friend with me to help lift his stroller over the barricades, I am unable to get to where I need to go. So, after much deliberation, I walked to our local baby store and bought the cheapest, ugliest umbrella stroller they had. It's narrow footprint, and light weight allow for me to get in between the barricades when out shopping alone. I tend to use this one when traveling by car as well, because I can balance our carseat and diaper bag on it while we take the elevator down to my driver.

the "Happy Dino" stroller loaded with our gear to head downstairs to
meet our driver

This girl can do it all!

So, yeah-I'm thankful today for having two strollers which allow me access to the places we go.