Life in Chicago Reviews

City Living Lite (Chicco Liteway Stroller Review)

I think if you're still living in the city after you become a parent there is that inevitable push to move to the suburbs, or at least somewhere more baby friendly. I think this is partly because it makes sense in a million ways, and partly because your parent friends who made the leap from city apartment to neighborhood house want some company out there in the burbs.

Well, we're not there yet. Maybe not ever. I love living in the city and I can't really imagine doing otherwise, at least not for a long time.

That said, city-living when you're a parent isn't always easy. Cramped living quarters, public transportation and the fast pace of it all can be challenging when you've got a kid to tote along. (And I'm just talking about Chicago here. Don't even get me started on what it was like to drag V around NYC last summer. Five floor walk-ups with a stroller? Not for the faint of heart.)

Fortunately for me, and the rest of all the brave city parents out there, there happen to be some great baby products that make it just a little bit easier to get around.

I recently tried out the Chicco Liteway stroller and found it to be just one such of these products. 

It's easy to collapse and open, Veronica seems to find it really comfortable, and it's really cute. I also like that it's a good hybrid stroller, meaning that it's not as huge and clunky as some of those serious things out there, but it's also not a flimsy umbrella stroller.

But my favorite thing about the Liteway?

It's LIGHT.

Um, yeah. Below that's me carrying it AND her down the steps of an EL platform that didn't have an elevator. Welcome to city parenting.

 

Other things I really like about the Liteway:

• It reclines really far for impromtu naps.
• It has an adjustable canopy with a fun window for spying.
• It's good up to 40 lbs, which is a few solid years.
• The storage basket underneath is a good size and it's detachable, in case your diaper bag is stolen by some big city thief and you need a quick-fix tote.
• Oh, and this is neat -- it has adjustable leg rests to suit different age ranges. 
• Lastly, coming in around $125, it's really quite affordable.

Here's a link to it on Amazon.

Take it for a whirl! I recommend.

Finding Out What Kind of Parent You Are: A Moby Wrap Review & Give-Away

FYI: I was not compensated for this review. This is my honest-to-golly opinion. Oh, and you should also know that at the end of this review is an opportunity for you to win a free Moby Wrap, so you can form your own opinion and see if it matches mine. (And if it doesn't you can be all like, "Um, that Claire Bidwell Smith is soo crazy," and I won't mind at all.)

Before you have kids you may think you know what kind of parent you'll be, but the thing is that you don't really know. I actually hadn't thought too much about it, especially given that I didn't even know I wanted to HAVE kids until I met Greg.

The most thought I'd ever given to parenting was when I saw someone doing something I didn't like (e.g. giving their toddler Dr. Pepper or yelling at them loudly in line at the grocery store just because they asked for a pack of gum), and then I would think to myself, wow, I'm NOT going to treat my kid like that. And I would feel kind of smug and superior in this way that was completely meaningless since, in reality, I had NO idea what kind of parent I would be.

In the last six months there are a few things I've discovered about my parenting style. In addition to forming a slightly unhealthy attachment to my kid and failing miserably at sleep training, something else I've discovered is that I really like wearing babies. Who would have thought? Especially from the girl who didn't even LIKE babies to begin with. Now I want to WEAR them?

 

How Baby-Wearing Saved My Marriage: ERGObaby Carrier Review & Give-Away

Hands Free Baby? Yes, Please.

FYI: I was not compensated for this review. This is my honest-to-golly opinion. Oh, and you should also know that at the end of this review is an opportunity for you to win a free ERGObaby Carrier System, so you can form your own opinion and see if it matches mine. (And if it doesn't you can be all like, "Um, that Claire Bidwell Smith is soo crazy," and I won't mind at all.)

Anyway, let's talk about baby-wearing.

Now that we're six months in, it's pretty funny to look back on those first few weeks of parenting. Greg and I just didn't get it. She wants to be held ALL the time? Surely not. Here, change her diaper. No, stick this pacifier in the mouth. She spit it out? Is she hungry? I thought she just ate. Try just putting her down in the bassinet. Ohhh no, that doesn't work.

The only thing that kept Veronica happy was if we just held her in our arms and walked around the house. Seriously. I know you people without kids out there are thinking we must have been doing something wrong. But you people with kids are totally nodding your heads. You know. The girl would not let us sit down. We had to be walking. It was like some new-fangled form of Chinese water torture; all we wanted to do was sleep and all she wanted us to do was walk.

When she was about 6 weeks old we discovered that the only way to get her to fall asleep at night was for one of us to slowly walk around the darkened house with her in our arms. At first she would look every which way, turning her head to take in the shadows around her. And then little by little her body would grow heavier, her arms slack at her sides and then eventually her head would nod, her breathing slowly evening out.

We had to take turns at this walking around thing because she's kind of heavy. You might not think 10 or 15 pounds is a lot to carry around, but try doing it for 30 minutes when you're SLEEP DEPRIVED. It's like you're moving into your first post-college apartment all over again and you're too cheap to hire movers so you totally assumed you would be fine carrying the futon up 5 flights of stairs, but now you're stuck on the third floor with that thing, trying to maneuver it around the bend in the stairs, and all you can think is man, one day I'm going to be like an adult and I'll pay people to do this for me. Yup, just like that.

So anyway, we had to take turns because she was so heavy. And maybe we got a little resentful of each other in the process since whoever wasn't doing the baby carrying got to lay in bed with a book, looking up every 5 minutes or so as the baby-carrying parent walked slowly past the door with Veronica. Usually whoever was carrying the baby would try to catch your eye as they walked past, shooting you a death stare that loosely translated as, Yeah, you enjoy that book for like 5 more minutes and then this is ALL you. Oh, those were the days.