Halo, Teutunia

We spent most of the weekend looking for the perfect stroller for the kid. Wil and I have a serious case of first-timer syndrome, which meant that nothing was good enough for Chase. I had made peace with the idea that the stroller that we needed to handle cobblestones would be enormous, and I could count lifting the thing up and down the stairwell as my workout as long as she was comfortable. We visited a few baby stores and didn't really find anything that we both absolutely LOVE--until yesterday. We dragged the poor child out of the house, and interrupted her naps yet again, to visit a few more baby stores in Trier. If you remember, Trier is the oldest city in Germany, which can be dated back to the Roman days. It's also a sizable city and I was hopeful that we would get to play with a few models I had read about. To make a long story short, the first store either went out of business or moved to a new location without leaving a forwarding address, and I was already bracing myself for disappointment before we pulled up to the second one. As it turned out, the stroller god was smiling brightly upon my child as this was what I saw as we stepped into Trier's BabyOne store:





It was like being inside of a baby WalMart. If you could dream of it and it's baby related, BabyOne has it. I got to play with almost every model I had in mind and then some. But really, it was love at first sight. Of all the ones we "test drove," this apple green monstrosity was a definite winner:



Short of ordering our child a hovercraft, we got her into the smoothest ride possible. Wil made sure the wheels were huge, the shocks could absorb an earthquake, and the seat was as comfy as my uterus before her legs got too long. Well, maybe not quite like my uterus, but it's pretty dang close. So what if it's built like a German tank and weighs approximately the same? When folded, it's still the same size as a large luggage, but nothing could beat watching the kid fall asleep in her infant cot while we took the machine out for some off-roading at Trier's historic Coliseum about half an hour after we paid for the stroller.


Testing out the screen.



The gladiators walked through this tunnel over 2000 years ago!

After the Coliseum, we ran over to Porta Nigra and walked around for a few more hours.

I'm constantly amazed how much money European parents are willing to spend on their kids' strollers. There were tons of Bugaboo and Quinny. Made us feel better about going over our budget by a mile for her Teut.




Where's Chasey?




The last time we were at the Dom, Chase was still inside of me and Wil was in the field. I was really sad to be there without him but suddenly felt very calm and at peace once I stepped inside the cathedral. I remember asking The One Up There to take care of Wil and the baby that was growing inside of me. So I had to come back to say thank you for my perfect baby and husband.
Her first taste of mango gelato.
She liked it so much that she actually screamed when I took it away. I have created a monster.
It was a great but very long day!