Founding a Family in Clutter

Product Review: Kolcraft Stroller

Kolcraft Travel About Stroller
click to see larger photo!

See it here!

Truly Great for Travelling About!

Pros:
Sturdy, Easily Stowed, One Hand Fold - REALLY, Easy to Set Up, Lightweight, Comfortable, Easy to steer, Durable, Large bag area underneath
Cons:
Child tray not removable
Best Uses:
Long Trips, Short Trips, Air travel, Toddlers... note I never had a newborn or infant so I can't say for those.

I bought this as my first stroller (different color: blues and green patchwork pattern) before I adopted from China. I took it with me to China, and it went on planes, escalators, busy streets, shopping malls, small back alleys, and it was great. I now have three, but this is still by far my favorite.

It does actually fold with one hand: EASILY. It folds up and then it stands up, it doesn't roll around and fall over like other strollers I've seen. It was easy to to assemble out of the box when i bought it.

Dust and wet weather will make the wheels swivel less well (one or two days of pollution in Zhengzhou did it in), but a quick jot of oil on the axles and it was good to go again.

It handles very easily and you can even maneuvre it passably with one hand. You aren't fighting with it all the time like strollers I have pushed other people's children in, that cost two to six times the price.

The harness to hold in the child is sturdy. The back could go down to horizontal, but my child was happy to sleep in it with just the simple back=lowering feature it has. The parent cup holder is very practical place to put everything from small items you are shopping for to stray mittens and gloves. The sunscreen/bonnet is sturdy and has held up to my two year old pushing it around. It is large enough to block quite a bit of sun. The tray in front of my child gives him a place to play and put food (he loves to put cheerios in and out of the drink holder when stuck waiting somewhere). Now that there is snow and his boots are dirty, I do wish I could remove the tray to put him into the stroller, and he didn't get his boots on the seat fabric. But that is minor.

The basket underneath is large and very well placed. I see so many strollers with large baskets which become almost inaccessible once the child is in the seat, small baskets or no baskets at all. This basket is easy to put things in, holds a very respectable quantity of items, and very sturdy. I use it to carry 4 liters of milk and other groceries home from the store.

The stroller is sturdy and I have carried with my 25 lb son in it myself up and down hundreds of steps, onto the bus, etc, with no fear of it folding or buckling like the umbrella stroller I have.

It is very comfortable to push.

I am very very pleased with the quality and reliability of this very inexpensive stroller. I would highly recommend it to others whether they are travelling about or just strolling around the neighborhood.

--------- yup, I love this stroller... a very good thing, and I am so glad I didn't spend $200-$400 on some wonkin huge designer thing, or jogstroller. I paid $59.99 cdn on sale. It is regular $79.99 cdn. It folds up so flat, so easy to push around. I bought it on the recommendation of a mom who had taken it to China for not just one but two adoptions, and it was still ticking. A good thing. Only available at Toys(babies)areyouandme.

Product reviews!... Baby Bjorn Potty

Well I have been pretty bad at updating.

And now I am wasting my Friday night by posting product reviews on Toyzareyouandme. So I thought I would post them here too! Does that count as posts??

Baby Bjorn Potty
Five Stars!!!
see it here!

Pros:
Solid, Easily Cleaned, Child-friendly, Easy to use, Comfortable, Nice colors mine green
No Cons

This was the second potty I bought. The first was the Dorel Canada Potty 'n Step Stool, but the lid falls down, the boy's pee deflector flips down, and it is a pain to pull the pot out to empty, and the inside is a honeycomb of plastic structural pieces to strengthen it: read very difficult to clean.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this potty! I was dreading going from easy to deal with diapers to washing number two out of this pot. But it is so easy. My son can run up and go quickly himself as it is sturdy, is always "open", there are no parts to fiddle with or break, and is is a perfect shape to not have "accidents" over the front or rear edges. He is only just two and often gets so excited he has done a deed in it, he lifts up the white pot himself to show me, and the pot is deep enough that it doesn't spill.

The "boy deflector" at the front doubles as a handle, and it is perfectly designed. The pot is solid, shaped so it drops perfectly into place on the chair with no effort. It is smooth and pours out and cleans like a charm. No corners or seams for dirt to get caught in. There are no drawers, nothing to slide in and out with risks of jostling and spills, no lids.

The nonskid bottom means it actually sits there instead of skidding around the floor (and believe me he tries).

And it must be comfortable: before he started potty training, he carried it all over the house to use as a chair while he played!

It was expensive, but I think it is the baby item that is the best designed, practical, does exactly what it should in a most excellent simple way, that I have in my house.

And it is so sturdy, I see zero wear and tear and thus the resale value should be good.

I highly recommend this item.

---------------------------

On a nonreview note: small son has consistently been using the potty for number one and number two this week. Today he only wet one diaper, during his nap. I get him to pee when he gets up, then put pullups on him for his breakfast. Take pullups off right after breakfast and he runs around with nudie butt, and goes to the pot when he needs to poop. Yay!!

Get him to pee before putting pullups back on to take the dog outside to play for an hour in the park... still dry when we get back from the walk, I take them off and get him to pee again, pullups back on for a snack. Off again, nudie butt, and he makes a second poop.

Diapers on for naptime... wet diaper upon waking. Pee, then the same pullup on for lunch. Nudie butt after lunch til we make cookies together: same pullup back on for baking. Pee before we go out for dog's suppertime walk (same pullups on for walk)... pee on arriving at home. SAME pullups (dang, I am not good for their sales eh!!) for supper. Nudie butt after supper, and he plays until he goes himself to the pot to poop. Yay!!!

Bath, then double diaper to sleep overnight.

Rinse and repeat. Very exciting.

Now if I could only get him to SAY he needs to go, so he could actually wear pants the whole day!! Good thing he is good about running around with a turtleneck, polar fleece sweater, socks and warm slippers! hehe!

Unsure

Sorry for not posting here more often.

I have so much less time, and so much on my to do list, and another blog for family and friends about my trip to china, and coming home... so I end up putting up videos and photos and an entry here and there and my blogging time feels used up...

But I am going to blog this here.

It is a Sunday afternoon and the kiddo is sleeping still (though might be up at any moment), and I am feeling unsure and uncertain.

The initial rush of the adoption success is passing. The novelty of the Dao coming from china is passing too. Now people have stopped calling to meet him, and if they haven't yet met him, it has been two months so it is no longer a priority. We stopped by my ex's place this late morning esp cuz his daughter is there (one weekend out of two) and she doesn't get to see him much and adores him, thinking to drop in for a half hour for a coffee before his nap, and were told by her (she is 10) that she and a friend are "recording a record with my dad" (he's a musician and has such equipment in the livingroom) and we could come in if we stayed in the other end of the apartment and didn't bother them or make any noise. LOL! Like I could keep a two year old from visiting the very people he wanted to see in their house... and keep him from making noise as I prohibited him from going down the hall. So we came home. It wasn't a problem but just indicative of the change.

And I am feeling more comfortable with my mama role. We are doing potty training, and we have eased into a routine... perhaps a too routine routine. So there is less all-consuming interest in "the first playdoh" "the first fingerpainting" "the first this the first that" (though the first poop in the potty was pretty exciting).

And I am less jetlagged and I seem to be mostly over my horrid cold/flu from a week ago, and can scarcely justify sleeping during his nap times....

And so this gives me more time to worry and feel uncertain.

Is time slipping by so fast and I haven't called around to get a place for him in a garderie (daycare). Will I ever pick up my career again? Am I an illustration hasbeen because I have so few computer skills (and money to put in to technological equipment) and so little desire to apply myself to acquiring them? Am I an illustration hasbeen because I am not advertising assiduously for jobs? Am I an illustration hasbeen because I got so many jobs in the 90's and thus my stuff is "90's" as surely as Holly Hobby is late 70's? (though she has revived her career as a non-Hallmark illustrator... which I tell myself I could do with time and application and dedication... )... Am I an illustration hasbeen because I don't apply my time to my art, improving it, expanding it, just DOING it? Am I an illustration hasbeen because of my personality? Too defensive of my artwork, my research and thus why I drew what I drew? Too dedicated to having a fair contract (and thus "difficult"?)

Ahhh my personality. I asked someone in the adoption circle around here if she had been just too busy to talk lately or if i had said or done something to put someone off. Ahhh yay, she said something about no, just my regular personality as it is all the time. Oh dear. Does that mean there is no hope? I have feared since I am about 10 yrs old when my parents divorced, to be the cause of my own social and personal demise because of my personality (certainly the parts in it similar to my rejected father). Fearing one's own personality does not lend confidence and ease to social interactions and relationships, no it does not. It just adds and augments the problem. So now I can worry about my personality in the adoption "friendships"... acquaintanceships? that I have made, now that I am less interesting as a "case" since my adoption is "done".

And friendships, yes friendships... have I become boring and dull, a cartoonist not cartooning (do you know it takes a lot of brain energy and time to cartoon? To turn things around to be funny and think up lines to write?... and it is hard to do that when you are doing an outloud running commentary to a two yr old all day so he learns English and French and baby sign language and Chinese), a bi-dyke who hasn't had a relationship with anyone for a year and a half, not with a woman for over four years, not dating, not interested in dating, cannot hardly imagine sex (though I seem to remember sex in a dream a couple nights ago) or finding the time and energy to arrange any of that. So all my gossip possibilities seem to have drained away. And the social interactions with adults with any overture of non-parental vibes. A fun exciting fetish event participant who has shut herself off from the email lists (who has time to read those emails, let alone something to contribute?!! ), hasn't gone to a playparty or bar event, convention or workshop in years (where did those interests go?) Who doesn't fit into her old sexy clothes, hasn't the energy to dress up, hasn't the desire to feel sexy, the time or freedom to attend anything. Even books and movies. OK, I read LL Bean catalog, ToysRus flyers, search online for the next good baby signing video, read the blogs of people who are adopting (who often stop blogging once the adoption is complete).

I guess I just feel that even if I had a scintillating personality, wasn't mouthy and bossy and sarcastic, verbose (and gee I say "um" and "like" a lot... and seem to have lost most of my english vocabulary these days as my brain stalls)... I have so little to offer in a social interaction with another adult these days. Unless they are interested in discussing potty training, overly enthusiastic submissive dogs or how to keep mittens on toddlers. (dang, I just realised I forgot to hang up the wet mittens from this morning).

So, yes, unsure. I am feeling unsure of myself. I feel unsure of my social network, being able to provide the Dao with a family (other than myself), my career, my financial stability once my parental leave is up, my body (which is degrading I tell ya), my mind.

Well, small son is awake from his nap.
Gotta go.
What a cheery post!