The right equipment

Anna with the Rosetta Stone (of a sorts). It's just like India, they'll let you touch anything these days (hehehe).

It's amazing how parenthood can be easier with the right equipment. This is a bit of a revelation to me because I'm not one for lots of baby crap. I pretty much try to get away with as little equipment as possible. When we were buying her bedroom furniture, I planned on using the top of her dresser as a changing table (why get another whole piece of furniture that we will just have to move and will clutter up the room?). Then with toys, I'm not really into anything larger than will fit into the diaper bag. I figure, why buy toys if she will be perfectly happy playing with a wooden spoon from the kitchen? Poor deprived kid. In spite of that mentality, there were some things that even I had to admit we needed. We recently bought a high chair, a stroller and a hand blender for baby food mashing.

The high chair is the kind that straps onto the chair. Unfortunately, our chairs are all director style chairs and there is no way the seat is going to fit on it so we just put her on the table (it's a big table and we put her in the middle so she doesn't tip over, plus I actually use the straps). Feeding her is a ton easier. I don't mind if she gets food on the seat because it's easy to clean (unlike her car seat which is a mess), she is strapped in (I wasn't using the straps on the car seat because they were annoying) so now I only have to contend with her turning her head to watch Jason and she has a tray which is so much fun for things like Cheerios. The first time we put her in her seat, we tried giving her cut up bits of canned peaches. In retrospect, it might have been better to start with something less juicy and slippery but it was fun none the less. The one down side is that now she can throw things and drop things. Every time I give her Cheerios, she has a couple stuck to her pants when I pick her up. Then last night, we gave her some fried rice (we ordered Chinese food) and when we picked her up, she had so much rice in her lap and on the table next to her it was comical. I don't know if she actually ate any but she had a lot of fun.

When we first got here, I was all excited about being able to buy baby food in jars. They don't have them in India and they were a bit of a novelty to me. The problem with them is that not only are they a little pricey (even though I bought them on sale) but they are pretty bland. and they all seem to be pasta and tomato based. I'm not sure she liked them all that much. I know about adding spices but we don't really have any yet (I'm buying them as they come up) and salt is no good. So I got a hand blender like the one we left in India and have been mashing up what we have been eating. I think it's a hit so far. Today for lunch, she had mixed Chinese vegetables. She wasn't so sure of them at first but decided they were pretty good before too long. I'm hoping this will improve her meals. At the least it will increase her culinary repertoire.

Then there is the stroller. I was really starting to want one. I would look longingly at people who had them any time we went out (and a lot of people have them). We thought about getting the same kind we had before but didn't really see it here (the companies have different ones here than in the US) and it cost the same number but with a pound sign in front instead of a dollar sign and that made it really pricey. We thought about ordering it from an American store but didn't know about the shipping. We ended up getting a Quinny Zapp. It's a small, light weight one which is good for taking it in the city and we can still use our car seat with it. Anna mostly likes it but the straps are kind of big for her (even on the smallest setting) so she slides down in the seat. It looks pretty funny.

At first, I didn't like it at all. I'm kind of out of practice with having a stroller and was too used to the freedom that came with just having her strapped on my front. Of course it didn't help that the tube is not particularly stroller friendly. They have escalators and stairs but no elevators any where. So far, I have only gone with Jason so he helps but who knows what will happen if I have to go alone. Although, knowing here, someone will help me (people have all been really friendly). Plus, after our little escalator incident, I'm a little scared of them and have a bit of anxiety taking the stroller on it. I've gotten better with practice but it's still a little scary. And then, the one we got ended up not having a little under basket. I was not expecting that because just the day before I was asking a girl what she thought of it and we even discussed the basket that was on the bottom of her stroller. I was so confused. We have since found out that while it doesn't come with one, someone makes an after market one that we can get on eBay. We will have to do that. So while at first I had some serious buyer's remorse, it's growing on me and I'm glad we have it. When we get back to the US, I might still see if we can get just the frame for our other one (we still have the seat) and we can use this one as our high quality umbrella stroller. We'll have to see.