August 2009

And I thought we couldn't do it!

I thought our trip to Boston was going to be really tough. A six-hour flight, a four-day conference at which I was presenting, 2 different hotels, a 3-hour time difference, a child with trouble falling asleep even in her own time zone, really hot weather, and so on. But we did it, and it was fun! Check out the pictures to prove it.

One of the things that made it so great (besides seeing Adam and Stephanie) was that Adam borrowed a really fancy stroller for us. We were all Sally McPractical when we got our stroller - we chose a model that got the thumbs-up from Consumer Reports but didn't cost much. We've had to outfit it with aftermarket sun shade and cup holder, but other than that, we thought it was pretty nice. Until we met the Bugaboo Frog.

It was a little rolling home for Viola. And I'm sparing you the details of its virtues by deleting the paragraph I just wrote about the 4 positions of the sun shade. Suffice to say, we went everywhere with the stroller - on the subway, on a train, on a ferry, up the stairs to our B&B, and down many, many sidewalks.

We were also mildly successful in continuing our routines and keeping the baby mostly happy. Here's Joe feeding her some sweet potatoes in the hotel room, her third food (after pears and plums in the previous weeks).

Did I mention she's even cuter than ever? By the end of the trip she was starting to wave, clap, and even say "ma-ma" - who cares if she doesn't know what she's saying?

In Pursuit of a High Chair

Sometimes we have a hard time time finding products that both meet our aesthetic requirements and fall within our budgetary parameters. Like the time it took us five years to find a couch. For approximately the last fifteen months, we have been following this familiar pattern looking for a rocking chair and a high chair: research obsessively online, react violently to the offensive product designs, find a great high-priced alternative and argue repeatedly about whether we can afford it, decide vintage is the way to go, visit antique stores and garage sales flakily, check Craigslist once in a while, scour the internet some more, and so on.

However, our high chair needs have recently become dire, as little V is now eating pears, rice cereal, plums, peaches, and sweet potatoes. And her thighs are too big for the Bumbo seat.

How bad can a high chair be, you ask?

Approximately this bad:

Or, oh, this bad:

I'm not trying hard to find ugly high chairs, either -- these are recommended by Consumer Reports.

As is this one:

Just when I thought that every high chair in existence looked like a Barcalounger or an over-engineered athletic shoe, or cost $300 (we still would like to own you, Stokke Tripp Trapp), we finally went to Ikea and got this gorgeous white plastic model for $19.99:

I think she likes it

It's simple, it's easy to clean, and it holds the baby safely while she eats. The tray is a little hard to take on and off, but, again, it cost $19.99. Bring on the mashed peas!

While at Ikea, we also found a non-offensive rocking chair (not a glider!) for a reasonable price. And we dined on delicious meatballs and marzipan in the cafeteria. Thank you, Sweden, for allowing us to purchase your genius output.