Ready, steady, GO!!!!

Ahhh, shopping... You should know what I'm talking about...baby shopping. Both, Wendy and myself thought that it was about time we started our shopping for our baby. Well, being the engineer and the geek in this marriage, I started my research into the perfect stroller, car seat and crib a few weeks ago. Finally, after all the digging around on the Internet and also speaking to my co-workers here, I have down selected the following few items.

Strollers:
1) Phil and Ted's All Terrain Buggy - model E3
(https://secure.intellihost.co.nz/philandteds.com/framesetstroller.htm)

2) The Mountain Buggy - model Urban
(http://www.mountainbuggy.com)

3) Peg Perego Pliko P3
(http://www.pegperego.com)

Well, after lots of arguments...errr...no, I mean, civilised discussion with Wendy, we decided to save some money and went for the Peg Perego Pliko Completco. Actually, my original choice was the Phil and Ted's E3 buggy. However, that priced at about CAD$650, Wendy would just NOT listen to the many solid arguments I had about how technologically wonderful the E3 was. Then I thought I could convince her to look at the Urban Mountain Buggy but that too ran at about the same price point. IMHO, both those strollers are really in a class of its own, extremely versatile, light and extremely mobile. However, that's that I suppose. I gotta kiss my dream strollers good bye *wiping a tear from my eye*. Instead, we settled on the Peg Perego's Plikomatic / Pliko P3. I got entire stroller, the Primo Viaggo car seat and the optional rain gear and the winter boot. The following is a picture of the stroller that we settled for.



The reason why we ended up with this was the fact that it was light (15 lbs). Also, all 4 wheels with suspension and there doesn't seem to have a weight limit. Its construction seems to be much better than the other more usual brands like Graco, Evenflo, Cosco, Safety1st etc... (Oh year, by the end of my research, I really REALLY knew my strollers). The only complain I have is the Primo Viaggo infant car seat. it seems to be ergonically unfriendly for the parents to carry the seat ... and boy...it is HEAVY.

Now, moving on to cribs, we were not too particular here. Any cribs made after 1990 in Canada or North America is going to be a good and safe crib. After researching into the different brands out there, we decided that we wanted to buy Canadian. Why not support a Canadian company if possible, rather than buying Swedish or American. We were particularly attracted to a local brand called Storkcraft (http://www.storkcraft.com). Coincidentally, Storkcraft is a true local company. Not only is it a Canadian company, it is actually a Vancouver company with its world headquarters located here in Richmond! The Bays here in Metrotown was having a pretty good Boxing Week sale and we decided to support yet another Canadian company and bought it from there. This crib is a convertible and can be converted from a crib to a todler bed to a day bed. Pretty cool actually...check it out..



We have just managed to get all of these home and they are sitting out in the garage for now. Will attempt to fix all of them up closer to the due date...

Personally though, I never thought that I could ever become so caught up over being a Dad..... Quoting Martha Stewart, "It's a good thing" I suppose..