Farewell, Sweet Stroller

Okay so I have a melancholy, cheesy and overly nostalgic side to me....if you have been reading our blog and haven't figured that out...well I would be surprised. If you are aware of this fact, you will understand that I am a little bit (okay overly) sad about the fact that we have just sold baby Ben's stroller. We had not planned on selling it, but we did need to sell our car seat so we wouldnt have to take it back to the States with us. We had such a hard time selling the car seat without the stroller that we finally gave in and sold the entire set. (I am pretty sure most readers at this point have either stopped reading this or have glazed over looks in their eyes). Let me explain my melancholy and my slightly unhealthy attachment to the stroller now...

Last year, at my baby shower for Ben, my dear friends gave me a Graco Travel system - a car seat and stroller combo. We brought our newborn baby home in that car seat after he had spent 3 weeks in NICU. Then I proceeded to walk that baby around the lake near our house in that stroller. We then uprooted the stroller from Mission Viejo and took it on a drive up the coast to Washington State, where it transported our baby around to homes of grandparents, around Seattle, and along the Puget Sound. Next we put the stroller on a plane to London, where it carried a sleeping baby (confused by the time change) around the city to see cool things like Big Ben, the Parliament Building, statues of nursing mothers (or was that me?), Westminster, Windsor Castle and more. This stroller is a serious trooper.

After London, we put the stroller back on the plane where of course it had to be crammed under the plane with all the other oversized luggage. It was most likely man-handled more than usual since it was on its way to the security sensitive country of Israel. Here in Israel, the stroller has received more abuse than most strollers will ever see in 10 years of life. It has bumped and jolted down the cobbled streets of the Old City, it has jockeyed for space in the crowded streets of the main "souk" or middle eastern market. It has gone to and from the grocery store about 4000 times (give or take) - with it's basket filled to capacity with heavy loads of canned goods, pita, and hummos. Of course it has carried a baby this entire time as well. Jerusalem is a city on a hill, and this stroller has seen its fair share of hills and endlessly long staircases. It has been locked up outside of our apartment every night for 8 months - gathering dust, collecting the boys rocks and pottery, and even being a nighttime rest area for a local cat(not Jack).

This stroller has been dragged all over Israel, through London and also to Jordan. It didn't even complain when we left it at home in favor of a smaller umbrella stroller for Egypt and Greece.

This stroller has fearlessly, generously, and comfortably been a resting place for our baby in his first year of life (the baby, not the stroller). In the midst of a fairly "unsteady" year of activity, the stroller has stuck it out and provided some security. This past week, the stroller was the seat baby Ben sat in whilst he opened his first ever 1 year birthday present. It is a fixture in many of our families most poignant photos of this year.

All that said, it will be sad to leave the stroller behind. It represents a year which we are also preparing to leave behind, and with all the bumps, all the uphill climbs, twists and turns, this has been a year to remember. So I wish our stroller, and this extraordinary year adieu.