-
the bug in the bugaboo
Wow! Fifty-some comments on my merbaby post! Toby is going to accuse me of exploiting our child to gain popularity again. Really I’m not. I’m just sharing. It would be wrong to keep all that cuteness to myself, right? I don’t know, this is hard for me. I love blogging so much but I waffle on the subject of privacy. At what point am I exposing my baby to too much. As one friend put it, “it only takes one sicko”. But on the other hand, so much good has come from this website. The friends I’ve met, the gifts I’ve received for Baby Bug, the constant encouragement of all your positive comments… nothing but good has come from this site. Please say a prayer that it stays that way.
Today I have some more cute pictures of Baby Bug. This time in the Bugaboo-mobile in the seated position. I’ve been itching to change out the bassinet to the seat for months. It just seems like it would be so much more fun for her to see where she’s going instead of laying down looking up at the sky all the time. I read the whole bugaboo manual and they recommend that you wait until your baby is six months old or able to hold their head up. Well, Baby Bug is only two months old but she can hold her head up all day long.
Turns out maybe I should wait until she’s six months old. She was good for the first ten minutes but then she started crying. I think it was a little scary for her. Just too much stimulus at one time. Usually when we go walking, I put her in the sling facing towards me and she falls asleep. She likes to be constantly entertained but maybe looking at the great big world coming at you is just too much entertainment.
While I’m talking about the bugaboo, I thought I should mention something that came up recently. As you know, I spent a fortune on this stroller and it should be perfect right? It should be dipped in gold for what I paid for it. Well, it is nearly perfect. I still feel it’s the best stroller out there for me because it’s so versatile BUT… lately my wonder bugaboo had a problem. It veered.
Veering is not a good thing. Especially if you’re the stereotypical Newport Nancy type mom (like I try not to be but end up being anyway) with my starbucks in one hand and my cell phone in the other and my elbow pushing the stroller. I usually don’t use my elbow to push the stroller but I could. I love it that I can maneuver this thing with my pinky finger if I want to. So when it started veering to the left, I was quite distressed.
I thought maybe it was my fault because I use this stroller every day. I go over rocks, up and down curbs, through mud and grime and often sideways across driveways that slant at an angle. Maybe it was my fault for driving it so hard. Maybe I tweaked the frame. But really, shouldn’t an $800 stroller be able to handle a little tweaking?
I was so bummed and embarrassed and disappointed. I was going to just keep it to myself and keep on pushing my stroller that always wanted to go left. I figured I’d just get really buff in one arm for always trying to correct for the veer. But a friend told me I had to take it back. I either had to take it up with Bugaboo Corporate or take it back to the store.
Resigned, I dug out my warranty card (that I never filled out, surprise surprise) and started filling it out. Then I came to the spot where you are supposed to put in the serial number and I couldn’t find a serial number anywhere. So I called up BabyStyle (the store I bought it at) and asked them. While the sales girl looked the info up for me, I told her about my little veering problem.
Well, guess what! The sales girl told me to bring it right in for a new chassis! I didn’t have to take it up with Bugaboo. The store handled it, no questions asked. They didn’t care that I had spilled coffee down one side. They didn’t mind the rocks and grime stuck in the tire tread. They just took my left-favoring chassis and gave me a new one right off the sales floor.
The woman helping me said I was the second person to bring my Bugaboo back for a veering problem. I’m thinking Bugaboo might have a design flaw. So if you’re thinking of purchasing a Bugaboo (and I still strongly recommend it. I love it love it love it.) please check it first. The best way to check it is to give the stroller a little push forward on a level surface and watch it. A good stroller should coast a few feet straight without turning left or right. Mine took an obvious turn to the left and almost knocked a display of stuffed animals over.
But now I have a new chassis and it works perfectly.
All’s well that ends well.p.s. The hand pushing the stroller is Baby Bug’s grandma’s hand not mine. Just in case you were wondering.
-
My Little Merbaby
I have been dreaming of making a mermaid tail since I was a little girl. When I was young I used to stand beside my mother as she sewed on her old singer, waiting with excited anticipation to see what she was making. To me, a sewing machine was the ticket to the freedom of creation. If only I could use a sewing machine, I could make anything I wanted! My eyes would bulge at the possibilities.
I used to day dream during my “nap time” (in which I never actually took a nap, just ask my mom) about all the things I would sew when I grew up and was allowed to have my own sewing machine. I could sew a stuffed choo choo train with cotton batting for it’s smoke. It would have real wheels attached by buttons and my brother and I could ride on it!! I could sew a whole forrest of green calico christmas trees that we could decorate with ribbon and pin cushion balls..It used to frustrate me to no end that all my mother ever made on her sewing machine were clothes. Boring clothes. I used to dream up whole worlds of stuffed fabric things.
Then I finally grew up and took sewing in high school. I quickly realized sewing wasn’t so much fun after all. A sewing machine was a machine like any other machine and it was not an extension of my imagination after all. What a disappointment. I paid my dues and worked at it to became a marginally decent seamstress but sewing had lost it’s magic for me. It was just too much work for such a measly result. Why work all month on a dress, ripping out seam after seam to get it perfect, and then when it was done find out it wouldn’t fit right. What a colossal waste of time! Why bother when you can just go to the store and buy something for half the effort and cost?!!!
But somewhere deep inside me that little girl who dreamed of sewing things out of her imagination never died. I just learned to con other people into sewing the things for me. Mostly my mom.
So when Baby Bug and I were invited to a Mermaid Birthday party a few weeks ago, I longed to finally sew the mermaid costume I’ve dreamed of for years. YEARS!!!! It seemed simple enough. I drew out my idea and then I wrote that blog post and guess what… somebody emailed me and offered to come to my home and help me sew it!!! The wonder of the internet never ceases to amaze me!
Dreams do come true!
A blog reader, named Tammy, came over last night and she sewed me the most beautiful mermaid tail for Baby Bug that you’ve ever seen. It even has multicolored iridescent thread for the quilted scales. She also sewed some little puffy sea shell pillows for me to embroider and attach to Baby Bug’s onesie as the “bikini top”. It’s so perfect. I am beside myself with glee. Who cares about the birthday party. I’m just in it for the costume.
Baby Bug loves it too. She thinks it’s a cozy sleeping bag. And when she kicks her legs it makes her tail flip! It’s so cute I think I could die.
Getting a picture of it was another story. Today Baby Bug had FOUR poopy blow outs. I was so afraid she’d squirt orange guava poop all over her new costume, that is probably dry clean only…. But I couldn’t wait to tell you about it. I had to take a picture even at risk of ruining it. I also had trouble with my lighting and it’s so long it’s hard to fit everything in the frame, but you get the idea. It’s lovely.
I love my little guppie.
