Road Ready

Sal got some new wheels!

We sold our Quinny Buzz and traded up for a stroller with a little more oomph. the Buzz served us well, but it was time to move on. I'm a bit of a stroller fanatic. I love to research strollers and figure out which one has the most "pros" vs "cons" for our unique living situation. After moooonths (just ask my husband), of going back and forth between the Britax B ready, Uppababy and baby jogger city select, I decided the BJCS was the best option for life in China. 

My stroller is essentially my car.

I depend on it daily. I travel on foot almost everywhere I go, which requires a comfortable ride for Sal since he spends at least an hour to two hours in it per day. The streets in Wuxi are a mix of concrete with sink holes, blacktop and cobblestone walkways...which, in my opinion require large tires for the best ride. The city select had the most substantial rear tires of the three strollers. 

I do most of my grocery getting in my stroller, and the Quinny Buzz had a small storage basket (smallest, ev-er!). I usually ended up carrying bags back using a mommy hook on the handlebar. I knew that my next stroller needed to have substantial storage space. The city select has a HUGE basket, as well as a pocket on the back of the seat for items like cellphones and keys. I also like that if we use it as a double stroller, dangling feet won't affect the storage space or muck up whatever is down below as many of the inline doubles with a jump seat do. It has an easy two handed, one step fold with the main seat still attached. I am not sure that the city select has the easiest or most compact fold of the three. In fact, it barely fits in the trunk of my rental car (Chevy cruze) width wise. However, the size while folded is not a big issue for us, because we rarely fold and transport our stroller by car. We have an umbrella stroller for travel. Our daily use stroller usually stays opened and lives in our office.

My only concern was the weight, since we often have to lift our strollers over barricades. The  weight as a single is 28 lbs, but I compared it to my Buzz, and there's only a 1lb difference. The uppababy vista and britax B ready weighed less (approx 26 lbs) but the necessity for tires outweighed any weight concerns I had.

So far, I'm loving it.

Granted, we're still in California where doorways are standard width, sidewalks all have ramps, and the pavement is smooth. I'm interested to see how it will do when we hit the streets of China again.

The best thing about the BJCS is all 16 configurations, including the option to add an additional carseat carrier, bassinet or fullsize seat to make it a double if we're fortunate to have another baby Zentil in the future.

Anyone else have this stroller? What kind of Rain cover have you used? Did you purchase accessories? Share!

Roll with it

Stroller. Carseat. Backpack.Child.

I've said time and time again, that the biggest challenge for me, living in China, is not having a car of our own. Not that I would want to drive here--like, ev-er. I love my life too much to get behind the wheel and tackle Chinese drivers. It's like bumper cars. Each man for himself. Stop signs are just suggestions.

We have been  militant  vigilant about using a carseat for our son, even though the norm here is anything but. It took some creative thinking the first time I had to wheel Sal, his stroller and carseat down to meet our driver. I've tried many configurations, from carrying the carseat while pushing the stroller with Sal in it, to carrying Sal with the seat on the stroller.

A few weeks ago, my driver took the seat out of the car for me with Sal still buckled in and set it on the stroller cross bar. Not the safest, but genius for getting him upstairs with all his paraphenalia and my shopping bags. It's our new method of transportation for the walk from the car to the elevator.

I'm starting to think I should design a snap and go type stroller frame for urbanites. I can not be the ONLY carseat toting parent in the world, living in a city that uses modes of transportation other than my own car. I know the Orbit system exists, but honestly, $1000 plus for a stroller? No thanks. Combi also makes a smaller convertible seat with a 35lb limit which fits in their flash frame, but I want to design something more universal. With tires. And a cup holder. And a sunshade.

Until then, balancing Sal and his seat on my ramshackled chinese stroller will have to suffice.

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.

Grateful: Day 17: 5k Monday group

One of my favorite things living here is the friendships I have made.

 

Every Monday, a group of ladies make a round trip walk to Starbucks and the vegetable market together. This is Sal's and my Monday activity, as we leave around 9:30a and return around 11:45a..just in time for lunch and a nap ( if he doesn't fall asleep in his stroller on the way home first).

 

Instead of calling it what it is--a walk to Starbucks so some of my friends can feed their fix so that we can enjoy a nice warm beverage with friends--it's been dubbed "5k Monday" because that is roughly the round trip distance from our complex to Starbucks and back.

 

We get a lot of walking in around these parts.

 

A lot.

 

Like, every day.

 

 

Walking home from the vegetable markt on a sunny morning

I can't think of a better way to spend our Monday mornings..Exercise, Starbucks and getting vegetables and fruit for the week with friends. 5k Monday ladies, I am so thankful for you all!

Inspection

This post almost doesn't need a narative...but I'll give one anyways, cause you know, I'm full of words.

Oh, we've got a curious little friend

He's thinking, " I've got to check these American made strollers out"

Good steering, maneuverability. Plush interior....Only one thing missing...a test ride.

                                     

And this is me, dropping my iphone to pull the kid out of the stroller.

                                   Yep. We got acosted by a 5 year old. It got to the point (after as stern NO! failed to get him off of Sal) that I straight up pulled the boy out with force, and started pushing forward to get away from him. His persistence was remarkable. He was back ast my stroller, climbing up the side as we rolled away. Again, I pulled him off, said Buyao ( Don't want!) and this time Sal and I made a run for it, rolling over the little guys Crocs. Without flinching, the little boy said, "Bye bye".

And off we went.

My guess is that he will make a really good TSA agent one day.