The Stroller Conundrum

 Two is an interesting age for both parents and toddler. I find two is also completely different when you’re looking at it through the lens of two kids.When it was just Bubba two seemed so little. So helpless. So young.But now, I tell you what, he’s just about ready to do his own laundry.This really isn’t too much of an exaggeration… he loves pushing the buttons on the washer and dryer to help. But I digress. All kidding aside I’m having a bit of a hard time reconciling that they are both still babies even though Bubba does so much more than Little Bear. I mean I know that he’s a toddler and trust me, he’ll tell you he is totally not a baby, but a big boy. But if you think about it, in comparison to a five-year-old- Bubba is a baby. Why is it that I expect him to do such grown up things as a little one? Should I expect him to walk down the stairs on his own? What about going to get something upstairs and coming back? Where is my rulebook? I wonder if this is how the First Child Syndrome thing came about. From what I’ve been told, I was a “do it myself” kid- interestingly enough, Bubba, as we’ve seen, is a “do it himself” kid. Uh oh.This brings us to the stroller conundrum.We went to the outlet mall after Daddy got home from work. Mama needs a new pair of shoes. No really, I needed sneakers. I used mine all up. In fact, I was told as we were walking into the store “You are not leaving this store without shoes. Yours are falling apart.” I disagree, but whatever you say Hubs. Daddy also wanted to take a look at some of the cooking stores for a new pan, or something. Clearly it would be insane to take two kids with two strollers with two parents pushing them. That seems like a whole lot of packing and lugging around for it to be feasible. So we went full out single stroller. But don’t you own a double stroller? Nope, sure don’t. I figured Bubba would be too big to want to ride in the stroller next to his sister when she got big enough to hold her own next to him. I don’t know why I thought that, I had no real knowledge to base that on. I took a gamble and double strollers are expensive. So there we were, a quaint little 4-pack-family making our way through the outlet mall on a summer evening. Ahh, but Bubba wanted to do the hills (run on the ramp) and carry the pepper mill. We don’t need another pepper mill. And play chase in Williams-Sonoma. Note- the ladies at the Williams-Sonoma outlet were just lovely and paid no mind to the crazy kid trying to entice his parents to follow him through a game of chase among the precariously stacked glassware. If that doesn’t get your heart rate up, I don’t know what will. Aside from the safety aspect all I could think was I wonder how much all of those glasses cost and how many I will get to take home in one piece after he destroys the display. So it was a short, and inexpensive trip to that store. Then it was off to the next shop. We headed to the shoe store to take a look. Awesome choice as they have a plethora of benches for tiny tots to sit on and hop down from, repeatedly. Though tonight, he wanted to help mommy. Yet another lovely lady was working at the shoe store and she didn’t mind as Bubba proceeded to bring several shoes to the counter as I was paying. Don’t worry, we had him return them to their rightful places. So after another quick, more expensive stop, we were out of there too. Finally, it was time for food. Bubba wanted a foomie (smoothie) on the way in so we had stopped to grab him one from the food court, which he decided not to consume- he drank mine instead. We passed by once again and grabbed dinner quickly. It wasn’t very good. I don’t know why I thought it would be. Oh well. But Bubba proceeded to jump up and down from the chair at dinner several times,  by this time he had been out for a couple of hour, so again, short and sweet. I am positive that had we invoked the second-stroller-alternative it would have been an entirely different outcome. Not better, just different. Oh, and we would have looked like a royal circus trying to navigate the narrow lanes inside the stores. At least this way the tantrums were kept to a minimum and Bubba felt like he had some ability to add to the outing. I am sure that had we strapped his busy-body into a stroller it would have been like caging a beast. Sometimes it’s better to go a bit rogue and ensure a less tantrum-filled outing with a bit more work from Mommy & Daddy. I’d rather have it that way than make it easier on us but less enjoyable for him.Oh the choices and joys of parenthood.Be Great,M