We
like to keep Valentine’s Day pretty low key in our house. Usually we’ll cook a nice dinner together,
open up one of those bottles of wine that we stash away for a “special
occasion” and maybe watch a rented movie.
If we go out to dinner, we’ll go out the day before or the day after to
avoid the crowds. This year is a little
different (for obvious reasons). So we
decided it would be fun to spend V-day starting our registry at Babies R Us.
Because Valentine's Day was a weekday and we both had to work, we only had about an hour to go
around registering for things before the store closed. We arrived, checked in at the desk and were
given what I like to call the “fun gun” (i.e. the scanner that you use to scan
in items to add to your registry). Much
like when we were registering for our wedding, Aaron got to be in charge of the
fun gun for the baby registry – I find it makes guys more willing to
participate in the registering process.
Since
we had limited time, we decided to focus on the bigger ticket items. We started with the gliders (aka rocking
chairs), mostly because we tested them out while waiting for the customer
service guy to greet us at the registry desk.
We found one glider that we really liked . . . and then we looked at the
price. We added it to the registry
anyway because we knew it would be a good starting point for research. In fact, most of what is currently on our
registry was scanned with the thought, “Well, at least we know we liked it in
the store and we can use that as a research starting point.” So, if you are planning on buying us a gift,
don’t go running to the registry yet . . . it still has a long way to go.
After
the gliders, we looked at cribs, and got slightly overwhelmed. After wandering around that entire section,
we found one crib that we really liked, but it had an attached changing table
and was kind of expensive. I would actually
prefer it without the extra piece, especially if that could bring down the
price. I went online after we got home
and found a crib that I think is similar, but without the attached changing
table, and is significantly cheaper. But
I think we’re going to have to re-visit the store several times before coming
to a final decision on crib. I know we
want one that can convert to a toddler bed – though it seems like that must be
the “thing” these days. It’s actually
pretty hard to find a crib that doesn’t convert to 3 other beds.
Next
we moved on to strollers. Omg, it is so
easy to get overwhelmed in this category.
There are so many different options for strollers! Do we want four wheels? Three wheels?
A travel system (i.e. one that has a carrier plus stroller plus
base)? Or do we just want a straight up
stroller? We have received so much
advice from our friends on this that it’s hard to keep it all straight! (Though
more advice is always welcome, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email
if you have opinions in the stroller department – or any other baby gear
department, for that matter.)
We
had just been to a friend’s kid’s birthday party and were admiring their 3 wheel
travel system style stroller. So we
decided to pull out one of the 3 wheel, jogging type strollers and see how it
feels to push it around and test it out.
It must have been super amusing to the Babies R Us employees to watch
us, rather obvious first time parents, in the aisles trying to figure out how
to fold and unfold this stroller. At
least I know we were laughing about it!
Aaron testing out the stroller.
I
swear, the smaller the infant, the bigger the gear! Those simple, lightweight strollers that are further
down the aisle won’t be available to us until the kid is significantly older. By the time we finished looking at the
strollers, we were running short on time (and I was running out of steam), so
we quickly strolled by the high chairs and decided that would definitely
require a different trip, same with bouncy seats. I think we put an infant swing on the
registry, though honestly, I can’t remember at this point.
I
will say this, registering with Aaron is fun. We both have our opinions, and they can be
strong and we can be stubborn, but we
always have a good time. I feel like you
learn a lot about your partner when choosing items together. We don’t really shop that much, so this is
our opportunity to go out to a store and make a joint decision. At the very least, we both came away from the
experience knowing that we both agree on green as a good, gender neutral color.
All in all, I think it was a very good
Valentine’s Day. :)
Green's my favorite color!
ReplyDeleteRegistering for your first baby is very overwhelming. I blogged a while back about the best baby items (for me). It might help :). Also, travel systems are great for newborns, although I do promote baby wearing first and foremost. The Chicco system is one of the best bangs for your buck. Then you can get something more light-weight when the baby is bigger and doesn't fall asleep in the infant seat as much. Like a Maclaren, perhaps. Here is the link to my blog about baby items: http://morethanamomblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/top-baby-items-worst-baby-items.html
ReplyDeleteOh, and here is the one I just did about carriers: http://morethanamomblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-favorite-baby-carriers.html
I hope this helps and if you have any questions you know where to find me.