A nice surprise

My lovely wife said she had a surprise for me on Saturday morning. She wouldn't tell me what it was but just told me to get in the car. In any case, we eventually arrived at Babyworld's showroom and it all became clear; I have been looking at the Baby Jogger Summit XC on the internet (it's a buggy/pram etc thing) while R quite fancied the Bugaboo Cameleon. However, we hadn't been able to track down a retailer where we could try out the Baby Jogger and compare the two. Anyway, R had found that Babyworld stock them both and as the showroom is not too far from us, that is where we went on this Saturday morning.

Our main requirements in a buggy/pram are;

• Must be part of a travel system so we can use it as a pram, i.e. with a carry cot and also with a car seat.
• Must have good suspension to protect the child's back.
• Must be good off-road, as we live in a somewhat rural area and want to be able to easily take the kid for walks in the wood.

We spent over an hour in Babyworld with some superb staff, who took us through everything and were incredibly patient. Thanks to them! It quickly became clear that the Camelon wasn't really the one for us, but R is  a bit concerned about the heft of the Summit XC - it's a bit like having a 4x4. In any case, we ended up also looking at the Baby Jogger City Elite, which is quite similar, but with somewhat smaller wheels. The main differences for us are;

• The Elite has an adjustable handle bar.
• The Elite does not have suspension on the rear wheels.
• The rear wheels on the Elite are 12" instead of 16" so looks a bit less imposing.

The final decision is down to R, but I'm still favoring the Summit XC.


Afterwards we went to Marlow to shop for Maternity clothes. There is only one shop in Marlow that does that at a sensible price, namely Bloomin Marvellous. Unfortunately, they were having a closing down sale as Mothercare has bought the brand and are closing down the shops, so there was nothing left for R. On the plus side, the baby onesies were reduced by 70% or more, so we took the opportunity to buy some of the basic baby clothes at a vastly reduced price. Got to grab these opportunities.