Saturday Doings

We got a lot accomplished today. Michael and I cleaned out the garage. It was in bad shape. Strollers piled on strollers, James' "stuff", Michael's "stuff", trash, dirt, leaves and debris. It was horrible. We spent a couple of hours cleaning up and now it looks so much better. James pretty much slept the entire morning while we were cleaning - so that was really nice. I was really surprised because he slept in his toddler bed, which means easy access out at the sound of a pin drop.

Then I took everything out of the garage for the baby and cleaned/washed it up. First was cleaning out the car seat. It was so nasty. I ripped everything down to the plastic, washed the foam, the straps, and the cover. Vacuumed out the crumbs and wiped it clean. I'm still amazed how filthy it was... especially how battered up it is now.

This little (well, it's huge actually) stroller I found on craigslist. The best deal I have probably ever gotten. It's a peg perego duette stroller that normally runs close to $1,000 brand new. I got it for $100. It's an '05 model and I got it from a rich lawyer lady in Ahwatukee. I thought she was crazy to get rid of it, but I happily stuffed in my rig and drove off with it. It does need new wheels so it can steer better but I knew that when I bought it. Luckily Peg Perego will sell them to me for $100. I still think I'm getting a steal. James has been testing it out.

My favorite thing about this stroller is that everything is so easy to take apart. I basically stripped it down to the skeleton and washed the fabric and wiped down the chasis. It was really dirty. I guess the lady never used it and stored it in her garage for quite some time. But the seats fold down almost all the way flat. It has a footrest that comes up - you can see it on the right side. It's really like a recliner. It's crazy! The seats click out and you can face them pretty much anyway you want. Another great feature is that the sunshade will fold completely over to the toddler bar. So if the kid is sleeping you can block out all the noise/light by pulling the shade over.

James is really having a blast exploring this stroller. I also had fun taking the whole thing apart to see how it works.

Why is it toddlers make the funniest faces when you have a camera in front of you?

This is what I get for telling him to smile at the camera.

So now everything is ready for the baby to come. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping she'll come out next month. I'm still having contractions -- I wouldn't say they are here and there but they're not as frequent now it's cooled down a little. At one point they were only a few minutes apart and that was usually in the late afternoon.

One thing left to buy is the jogging stroller and I won't need that until Madison arrives. That will then bring our total stroller count to 5. Michael is concerned what and where I'm going to store these things. Especially the doubles because they are HUGE.