Why did no one warn me, that when kids turn two, they suddenly become little adults. And outgrow everything ?
My little adult now demands a say in everything (yesterday he decided that he NEEDED fries, and that he loved French fries ), and has outgrown almost all his baby equipment. And by that I mean his car seat (meant for ages 0-3) his cabin sized travel stroller (meant for new born to 15kg) carrying him in the carrier is doable, but is so heavy.
On a separate note, I realised that we have a fairly well-travelled child at this point. I think we’ve brought him to 8/9 destinations, the most recent being the gold coast when my husband went to run the gold coast marathon.
I think the older he gets, it gets exponentially easier to travel with him and, it becomes very much obvious how much he takes away from these trips abroad and how much he enjoys it. He now loves airplanes and gets so upset Everytime he sees a plane he can’t get on. I know it sounds very privileged, but we work hard for the trips, and value every moment abroad.
On to the topic of travel strollers. We have been using the Joie Pact-Lite since the moment we started travelling with him (8months) and it has been a life saver. I think the only trip we didn’t bring the stroller was our last Hong Kong trip in feb, where we decided, given the itinerary (including hiking and lots of walking in cramps crowded HK) we would just use the carrier (worked out great, we rented a stroller in Disneyland).
J sleeps in the stroller like a boss (every naptime for around 2.5 hours) and knows that he can sit in the stroller when he gets tired of walking, and will quite willingly sit in it when we ask him to. It’s be a literal lifesaver because it means we can stay out all day and not worry about him.
The Joie Pact-Lite was great because it was cabin sized, which we made use of when he was younger and we’d use the stroller all the way to the gate. But now that he’s older and more into walking and insists on getting his own luggage to pull, we check the Pact-Lite in. It lay flat, for great naps, has a decent sized storage area underneath for us to stash stuff, was really easy to maneuver on flat, even ground (Rocky grounds were…. A no-go, a lesson learnt from Japan and korea) and it’s small signature meant it could stowed away in a car boot really easily. Or not take up too much space in a hotel room.
Sadly, he’s since outgrown it in the sense that he’s too long for it. His legs hang off when he naps, and his head hits the very top of the stroller. He has no complaints, but we decided that since we foresee using a travel stroller often for holidays, we’d see if we can find another that would accommodate a bigger child.
We found the Joie Tourist (newly released in 2019). It’s not cabin sized, meaning most airlines will not allow it in the overhead bins because of its height, but it is only 6kg which is still very light. And folds into a nice small stand. We just got it, and took it on a small push out at Changi Jewel the other day, and we were impressed at how much bigger it was, and how comfortable be looked in it. We’ll try and do a proper review once we bring it abroad with us once.
Gotta go watch the boy now. In a while crocodile.
On a Crazy Adventure 