Adventures in Stroller Building

A few months ago we found ourselves bored on a Saturday afternoon, so off we went to Toys R Us to check out the strollers. He wanted a three wheel one, I didn't really care since I have only ever pushed a square Graco one and I thought it had been pretty good. We poked at all the strollers, pushed them around a bit and finally decided on a grey one with purple accents. We both like purple and we figured it would be nice for either a boy or a girl. Because it was much to soon, and cost about 350 dollars, we didn't bother buying. As well, his Mom had offered to pay up to 300 dollars for the first stroller, and we knew she was still saving for that

About a week later, for some reason or another, I had asked my sister to keep an eye on the flyers for me for baby stuff. For some reason, my street does not receive a bundle of them weekly like most of the city. My sister had told me to sign up online for the Toys R Us flyer. I did just that, and the next day received the first email. Lo and behold, there was our stroller, on for 100 dollars off! But, it was not the purple one, it was a green one. I went back to the store, looked at both again and could not see any difference, but the green was on sale! It was still much to soon and I did not have the money, but the nice lady working gave me a rain check for the cheaper price. 

Finally, about a month later, only 2 weeks ago, we decided it was time. His Mom had given me a envelope the week before with money for the stroller. So one Thursday morning, I went into Toys R us and bought it. It came in a huge box!!

Oh, yeah, it's bigger than I thought. Thankfully, a nice man who was working loaded it into the backseat of my car. I got it home, parked in front of the apartment on the street (I usually park in a lot half a block away) and shuffled it inside. Glad I live on the first floor! 

I decided to wait until he got home from work to open the box, so off I went to work leaving it in the middle of the living room. The next evening when he got home we decided it was to soon to build it, and that if we did it would only collect dust. We were watching television when we both had a nagging feeling we should open the box. So glad we did!

After hauling everything out, I went for the instruction book while he tried to figure it out. He fought and fought with it, while i relayed instructions, showing the pictures. Finally, we discovered the problem, it was broken!!

The picture above is not the broken one, and it is a little hard to see, but below my thumb is a bar that goes through both the black plastic and the grey tube. Well, they put the bar in, but they forgot to thread the tube onto it! Unfortunately, it was not something we could just fix, so we tried our best to throw everything back in the box and decided to take it back the next morning. 

Saturday morning, he decided it was best if we called ahead. I agreed and while I got dressed, he called. No answer...and then I tried, still no answer...by now I was getting a bad feeling that we were going to have a hard time; especially since the first thing in the instruction book said to not take it back to the store, to contact the company with issues. Finally, he got through and explained the situation. They were so nice! She said bring it back, and we didn't even have to bring everything back, just the broken part! So away we went, traded and that night (after having a day adventure in St. Andrew's) we decided to put it together.  

Once again, he fought with trying to open the stroller part. It took along time, but finally he figured out why, there is a little clasp that holds it closed when it is folded. Oopsie! 

He put the tires on while I read the novel of an instruction manual that came with the car seat part. He was surprised at how it all went together and how large it was. I have seen and used strollers like this when K was little, but he has not watched any of his nephews and therefore has never really used one.

We had it all together and were playing around with the baby basket when I realized we almost forgot to put the cup holder on it, I found it laying on the couch; after asking me what it was he snapped it into place and finally it was all built!

We played with it a bit, and then tried to figure out how the infant carrier attaches. It was relativity easy once you get the hang of it! We put the stroller away and left the carrier out because we were going to take it for a test drive when he was looking at new vehicles, we needed to be sure it would fit!

And finally, the finished product! Now it just sits with a blanket over it until it is ready to be used in early January. We still have to get another base for the car seat, so we can have one for the car and one for the truck (or jeep, but that is another story). Hopefully time will fly, I can't wait to test drive it! I keep wanting to take it out for a spin on teh sidewalk, but I think I would look silly just pushing an empty stroller!

Have a great day everyone!

~Natasha.