Phew. I’ve rewritten the lead paragraph to this post so many times I’m sick of it. I’m just going to delete everything and start here: Did you know that I have three strollers now? Somebody shoot me.

1. The Bugaboo

Oh how I love the Bugaboo! It was absolutely perfect as a bassinet stroller when Baby Bug was a teeny baby. I loved how I could wheel it everywhere in my house and she could snooze peacefully. I loved the canopy cover that shaded her from the bright sun. It was wonderful. I loved loved loved it. I think the peace of mind it gave me in those early months alone was enough to justify it’s super expensive cost. I should have skipped the real bassinet and just used the stroller instead.

When Baby Bug got big enough, I LOVED the toddler seat. It’s so fun and funky the way you can switch directions it faces. This way baby looks at you. That way baby can see where she’s going! How great is that? It’s also perfectly comfortable (if you don’t pinch her skin in the seat belt buckle. Ouch!!!) and so easy to push. I love how you can push the Bugaboo with one finger. The wheels just glide any old where you want to go. This has proven exceptionally useful at the laundromat when I’m carrying three over-sized bags of dirty clothes and balancing a bottle of detergent on my head. It’s also proven useful when trying to get in and out of the swinging doors at Starbucks.

Unfortunately, there are some things I don’t love about the bugaboo. First, I don’t love the polar fleece. It’s a giant magnet for cat hair and I can’t be always tape rolling or laundering it. Hello! I’m a mom now. I can’t be consumed by vanity anymore! The cats love to sleep in the stroller, when it’s not in use, and this is a great source of frustration for me. I sometimes wish I had opted for the cheaper gecko model that just has a canvass cover. However the Chameleon does have a nice protective bar that goes in front of Baby Bug that the Gecko does not and I do kinda like that. Was it worth the extra $200? Not sure.

My biggest beef with the bugaboo is how hard it is to carry. It’s pretty easy to take apart and put back together again, but it’s a bit heavy. Not terribly heavy but not light. This is a real problem for me because I live up a flight of stairs. I hate carrying it upstairs. I can either bump it up the stairs all in one piece and risk breaking my neck and the stroller OR I can take it apart in two pieces and heft it up in two trips. Where is the baby during all this hefting? She’s tied up somewhere screaming bloody murder, wondering why her mom abandoned her.

I hate this hassle so much that I often don’t even bother with it. This is such a shame because I paid so much for the thing. I’d definitely use it a lot more if I lived in a one story house with an easy access sidewalk. I think if I lived in Paris it would be perfect. Oh Pareeeeeeeeeee!

The other thing I hate about the bugaboo is that it takes up my ENTIRE trunk. Sure, I have a little car but it’s not like I’m going to go buy a suburban or a mini-van just so I can carry a stroller and my groceries at the same time. I used to just leave the stroller at home or jam all my groceries in the passenger seats. This was a crying shame since my neat nifty little car is a hatch back—perfect for carrying groceries.

All that said, I still love the bugaboo. I love it because it’s sturdy and safe but not huge and clunky like an SUV stroller. Baby Bug can sleep in it. If I’m gone for a whole day trip I can just recline her seat and she can snooze away. I’m such a snob about how a stroller handles. The Bugaboo is the luxury car of strollers. Once you drive one you’ll never want to go back.

2. The Super Jogger © “the stroller for runners”

I love the jogger stroller. You know why? Because it was free. I love it because it’s old and rusty and I can leave it outside in the weather. It’s beat up but completely functional. I love it’s big huge tires that can cruise over sand like a breeze. I love that I can leave the jogger stroller downstairs and nobody steals it because it’s so ugly. I love that it’s always there and I can take it for a quick run to the grocery store or Starbucks or the beach. I can leave it outside on the sidewalk and it’s always there when I come back. Long live the old ratty tatty jogger stroller.

What I don’t love about the jogger stroller is that it’s ratty and… well, big. It doesn’t fold up and it won’t fit in my trunk. I can’t take it on trips. It steers great when you’re going fast but horribly when you’re going slow. You pretty much just have to pick it up and manually make it go at a different angle. It’s super light (great for running) but if you hang anything on the handle bar, it will capsize and dump the baby out the back. This is all fine because it’s a jogger stroller. You’d never want to take it shopping.

If you aren’t lucky enough to be given one, like me, I would recommend the BOB for a jogger stroller. It’s pricey but it’s light and it has all the bells and whistles that I wish mine had. Plus it does fold down small enough to fit in your trunk. I know all this because I’ve coveted whoorl’s.

3. The Maclaren

This is the new stroller. It’s so nifty! I was going to go out and buy a cheap $20 target umbrella stroller but the family I used to babysit said I could have their old Maclaren instead. I’m so glad I waited for the hand-me-down. It’s the nicest lightweight stroller there is! I’ve used my sister-in-law’s old jeep stroller and though it was nice, it had some things I didn’t like. My biggest problem with the Jeep stroller was that it didn’t have any shoulder straps and I NEED shoulder straps. I don’t know about the rest of the babies in the world but my baby likes to lean forward as far as she can and stick her tongue in the wheel spokes. She’s a squirrely little one. She must be strapped in.

I think that sums it up for me and my post about strollers.