Of Car Seats and Strollers

Heather and I have been more intensely researching and purchasing baby items now. With Anna, we were much more aggressive in purchasing but with our next little girl, we had many of the things we needed. We have thus far bought a BOB Revolution Duallie and a Maclaren Twin Techno stroller.

After having purchased the car seat adapter for the BOB, we now are considering what to do about getting a car seat that fits. See, we have the Chicco KeyFit Car Seat and only the Graco SnugRide, Graco SafeSeat, Peg Perego, and Britax Companion car seats fit in the BOB car seat adapter. At first, we both thought, let's just buy a second car seat for our second car and be able to use that also in the BOB stroller. But, one glance at the Consumer Reports Infant Car seat ratings last night and we both agreed that wasn't best. Why? Because our less than 2 yr old Chicco KeyFit car seat scored a whopping 88 out of 100 on their ratings while the next closest was the Britax Companion at 77 and Peg Perego at 76. The Gracos were further down the list with the SnugRide at 74 and SafeSeat at 72. The Chicco was the only car seat to score above a 77 and it did so with an 88!


So, our plan changed. We probably will borrow/buy a new KeyFit base for the second car and borrow/buy a used Graco SnugRide just for the couple months its needed with the BOB.

As for the Maclaren, it claims to support newborns and using Viewpoints, I was able to verify that this actually works.

Buy Last Year's Baby stuff brand new discounted

For those of you who are not "in the know" about this deal for whatever reason, you can buy last year's model stroller, high chair, etc for steeply discounted prices. There are many sites that offer these older models for good discounts. Heather and I just purchased a 2007 brand new stroller for $110 less (27.5% off!) than Babies"R"Us offers from a site called Baby Dealz. Yes, the "z" in "Dealz" is sort of lame and the site may not be as spiffy as Babies"R"Us or Target...but the prices are phenomenal. Also, we got free shipping on our stroller, ordered it Sunday and it arrives today according to UPS. And, since the site accepted PayPal, I didn't even have to worry about them having my financial info. Also, they are a Yahoo! store which helps me trust them a bit more. In this case, it seems to have worked out...although I won't know for sure until we get the delivery later today.


One thing I have noticed about these deals is that they get worse as the companies have less stock. You can see on Baby Dealz that some of their 2006 models are less discounted than the 2007, and some of the 2007 colors are more discounted than others. I assume this all depends on how much stock they have of a particular product. So, I am guessing the best buys come when their stock is at its peak which would be shortly after the new models come out.

Other sites I have browsed (but never bought from) that I keep links to include:
Best Buy Baby
Albee Baby
BabyRide.com
CSN Baby
D!mart stores

10 weeks til life changes again

Yes, that is right...in 10 weeks Heather is due with another little baby girl. Our lives will completely change...again. :-) When alone, we go from man to man coverage to zone coverage. If I think about it too much, all I can think is "18 months apart..what were we thinking? Anna's isn't ready, I'm not ready, Heather isn't ready, I'm not ready" Whew! Its times like this that I have to recall one of my favorite quotes, "Fear is the opposite of faith." I don't take all fear as being that way, its much too broad of a word. But, in this case it would be worrying. Matthew Chapter 6:33-34 says

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Read the rest of Matthew 6 to know that worrying is not a good thing. I need to practice that a bit in the next 10 weeks...until then...let's see how Anna changes. She is rapidly growing up...I don't want to hope she grows up more just so my life is easier...but a couple little things wouldn't hurt ;-)