Stolen

Last weekend we bought a double stroller. It has a lot of bells and whistles and is kind of an indulgence, so it took a long time for us to decide to buy it. Hours of internet research and then three hours in the store, to be exact.

The store we bought it from is a toy store in a fancy mall on Michigan Ave. They have great customer service there, and tons of strollers set up for you to try out and push around. Still, we didn't think it would take that long to decide which one to buy. I had resigned myself to a much less-expensive stroller - but thank goodness the less expensive stroller wouldn't fit a newborn. Then I had an excuse to look at the higher-end strollers.

So Charlie manages Jett in the store while I start quizzing the stroller guy on the strollers - weight, width, which can hold both a newborn and a toddler, how easy they are to fold, etc. After about 45 minutes, Charlie and I switch. I occupy Jett at the train table and Charlie test drives all of the strollers.

I'm telling you, it is insane how much time you can spend picking out a stroller.

It's also insane that there is no perfect stroller out there. The one that is narrowest (so it can fit through a doorway) might have the most useless sunshade. The lightest stroller is the hardest to fold. So even before you've purchased a stroller, you're already prioritizing some crucial stroller feature over another equally crucial feature. I know, I know, this sounds insane. I think we spent less time agonizing over our car.

Anyway, after we had both checked out the strollers we eat lunch at Potbelly's to mull it all over. Then again we take turns - one of us rides up and down the escalators with Jett while the other one checks out our top choices. The rest of our decision making process happens in 30 second intervals, between the time that Jett steps off the down escalator and steps on to the up escalator. I think we spent 30 minutes talking in 30 second intervals.

The stroller is fab. It's easy to fold. It will carry two toddlers or a toddler and a newborn. But it's no bigger than a single stroller. Which means when we went to the zoo the next day, we fit through the doors of the primate house with hardly any effort. Steering is dreamy. It floats over small boulders and dances around corners and Jett likes it.

I spent the weekend visualizing my summer with this stroller. The baby laying down, sleeping peacefully, Jett up front, rocking his favorite outfit: pajama shirt, diaper, and shoes, and me, glam mom, walking to the park with my babes in my practical yet glam urban stroller.

Then yesterday, in the middle of the day, I parked my daydreamy stroller behind a closed gate, on my sister-in-law's porch, for 45 minutes, and somebody stole it.

I think the CTA stole my stroller. It was making them look bad.