growing out of the bucket

David and I just got back from buying a new car seat and stroller. Emma hasn't reached the weight limit on the infant car seat, but she reached the length limit, 26 inches. So we got a convertible car seat that you can have rear-facing until she's 20 pounds and 1 year old, and then you can turn it around to face forward when she's a toddler. I thought all the car seat choices were pretty ugly, except one Eddie Bauer one, but I would not be caught dead buying a "designer" baby seat! Luckily aesthetics are not the first consideration in a car seat - and rightly so. We read a Consumer Reports article from 2005 and looked for their "best buy" pick, but apparently it isn't made any more. So we got a variation on it, an Evenflo Triumph. And since these kinds of car seats aren't the "buckets" that you can clip into a stroller, we had to get a new stroller too. (Our current one was just a frame to clip the bucket into - didn't have a seat of its own.) David was moderately interested in one of those jogging strollers, for "off-roading," but I didn't see one of those that was in our price range and had the other features I wanted. I also think I would feel a little hypocritical buying a jogging stroller when I don't exercise! We got a Graco "Vienna" model that weighs 21 pounds and folds up with one hand. It's blue. The two items cost $99 each at Babies R Us.

When I realized that we were getting rid of the bucket I realized this will be a very noticeable change and I felt a fleeting pang of nostalgia. We'll have to carry the baby in our arms or a sling if we don't want to get the stroller out. There's nothing wrong with that, but I've gotten used to lugging that awkward bucket around and sitting her in it in the house sometimes. And it was handy for taking into a restaurant and keeping E clean and contained. Well, it won't be long, probably, before she can sit in a high chair when we go out.

My friend Jeni is going to take the infant car seat and stroller frame, for her baby due at the beginning of July. The car seat used to belong to my niece, Mary Catherine, and the stroller frame we bought new with baby shower money.

And life moves on.