2.05.2010

Friday Favorites: Baby travel

Friday Favorites are back!  Woot woot! 
As some of you know I've been traveling quite a bit over the past two months.  We have been to Walla Walla, Wa, Seaside, OR, Kansas City, MO, Auburn, WA, and Sacramento, CA all since the week before Christmas!  We have one more mini trip back in Seaside next week and then our worldly travels will be DONE for a while!  Yeah for home! 

In the midst of all of these travels Elli has been quite the trooper and I have discovered a handful of products that have made traveling with a baby so much better!  Today I'll only share two because I could go on and on about them all.

Graco Mosaic Lightweight Stroller:  I LOOOOOVVVEEE this stroller!  When we knew we'd be hitting a few different airports I really wanted to find a stroller that wasn't difficult to take with us.  We ended up going to Baby Depot inside Burlington Coat Factory and testing out quite a few models including the highest rated on Consumer Reports.  This was hands down the best one there within our price range. 

Here's what I like about it...
1: I can easily open and close it with one hand which is nice at security check points 
2:  It has a good sized, easily accesible basket.  This feature was simply not available in any other models we checked out.  They were either really small or really hard to get to.  This one was perfect. 
3: It has a 5 point harness but you can only use the lap belts if you like
4: It manuevers easily, even with one hand. 
5: It has a cup holder for me
6: (this is my FAVE feature) it has a recline that's adjustable with ONE hand.  All you have to do is pull on a strap for it to sit up or release a little latch to lower it. 
7. It's adaptable with an infant carseat (we've grown out of that phase, but it'll be nice for the next baby)
8. The individual handles make it easy to slip an extra bag on

Can you tell I love it?  There are a few things I don't love, but they're so minor I don't mind them...
1. I can't easily lift it with one arm (that might have more to do with the fact I'm a weakling)
2. It's umbrella isn't very user friendly and pops off the bars once and a while. It doesn't offer much shelter either.
3. I don't love the pattern we have (Ogee), but it's all that was available at the store.

Okaayyy...here's one of my other favorite new baby things...the Kiddopotamus Tiny Diner .

I'm what my sisters would call a "classic first time mom" and a bit of a germ freak.  The combo leads to a bit of paranoia when it comes to Elli's contact with public surfaces.  Airplanes in particular gross me out after a good friend's daughter contracted impetigo on her face from a plane seat.  So, this little mat was a great solution for my little finger food eater.

The mat is made of a sturdy silicon type material and rolls up compactly into its scoop (aka food catcher) so that it's easy to stow in the diaper bag.  When unfolded it covers a good amount of table surface and attaches with really strong suction cups.  Elli loves to throw stuff off the table and hasn't been able to move this mat yet.

The best part is that this little piece of mind is around only ten bucks!

There you have it!  I'd love to hear what some of your favorite things have been in the past couple months.  Leave a comment and you just might be surprised what treat appear!

Have a happy weekend!

2 comments:

Brian Becker said...

I just like saying "kiddopatamus". With a name like that it automatically got a "fav" rating in my book.

Mindy Seybold said...

I so wish I would have known about this stroller when we were in the market. Now it's getting too late as Judah doesn't like to spend a lot of time in it anymore and is close to the "walking next to you while holding your hand" stage. Bummer. I'm glad you found it!