The Great Stroller Debate

Our quiet little downtown is very, very busy on Saturdays. I took Jonathan downtown to see the Armistice Day exhibit before it disappears, since the mediatheque is closed on Sunday and Monday. I have never seen a library so crowded. Then we dropped by the church to look at Josephine's and her daughter Hortense's tombs. It is a very beautiful church. Catholicism is definitely aesthetically appealing, if not very politically or historically savory.

I took Jonathan to the kids' bookstore I found on Thursday, which was totally empty then, and we could barely fit inside. Gorgeous books, but no space to look at them. We found the big outdoor market (largely, but not entirely, a farmers' market), and walked home. We decided it would be faster than waiting for the bus, and funner than having a fussy baby on the bus. When we first got here, we wouldn't have thought it was a reasonable walk, but now it seems quite pleasant. We took Tristram to the playground on the way home, and he attempted to figure out how to stand and step in shoes. He's not so fond of them just yet, but he does like the playground.

The reason we thought we could walk home without suffering terrible pain was that we took the stroller. Since he's in shoes now, one pretty much has to choose between wearing him and getting bruised, wearing him with no chance of letting him down outside, or putting him in the stroller. Also, he is so big now that taking him for long walks is getting uncomfortable. The frame backpack is still comfortable, but it's also unwieldy for one person alone to handle. So, I figured it was time to start getting him used to the stroller.

But I don't like it. It's bulky, it's hard to get into a lot of places, you can't just take the stairs (and in the metro stops there are a gazillion stairs and very few elevators), curbs make crossing the street a major nuisance, you can't take a full stride without banging your feet into the wheels, and Tristram is much, much fussier. He prefers being in physical contact with us, being up high so he can look around, being near our faces so it's easier to entertain him and to meet the other people around him...In all, the stroller is a very imperfect creartion. I am quite bitter about this whole move-to-the-stroller thing. But his increasing size dictates that we must get hiim an all-weather stroller very soon. His little umbrella stroller just isn't going to cut it for Paris--winters here are rainier than in London. So there's another big expense. I am thinking this morning, however, that it may not be worth it after all, as Jonathan is having terrible back spasms from having to stoop over to push the stroller yesterday. Avoiding back pain was to be the whole reason for making the stroller switch in the first place.

I want to stay because the libraries here are amazing. They're beautiful buildings, they have genuine museum-quality exhibits, and they have tons of books and music and DVDs to borrow.

I want to leave because it's so annoying to have nearly everything closed two out of Jonathan's three days off. I really miss being able to get what I want when I want it.