The weather finally decided to play nice for a couple of days so Joe and I took off work on Monday and decided to take Georgia to the zoo for her first time. It was such a blast! I think I was probably more excited than she was. We don't have any zoos in our hometown so we had to basically just decide what town we wanted to drive to. The one zoo we haven't been to that I wanted to try was still closed for the season so we decided to head to Brookfield which is a northwest suburb of Chicago. They have a large zoo that has been around forever and one that I have been to dozens of times. My parents took us there often when I was a kid and it felt great to go back for the first time in at least a decade.
Georgia is now to the point that she is getting heavy to carry but still wants to be carried often. I didn't expect her to walk too much but she certainly loves to run around and be free, however we put in a lot of steps that day and never would've been able to carry her the entire time. We finally got to try out our new stroller from Colugo and it did not disappoint! Colugo sent me this stroller back in February, but Illinois winter was brutal and we didn't go really anywhere that a stroller was needed so I had been dying to try it out. My original thought with this stroller was for traveling to Georgia (amongst other places) for our next embryo transfer. What really drew me to this particular stroller was not only its adorable design but it's ability to fit into an overhead compartment on a plane.
Unfortunately we have decided to postpone our transfer a few months (more to come on this soon) so my hopes of using it on a plane are also postponed. Luckily though the zoo became a great place to try it out for the first time! So during the week at the zoo, 90% of the people there are moms with their kids so there are lots and lots of strollers all over the place. I was really paying attention to all of them and was overall really happy that we brought this smaller "umbrella" style stroller with us vs. a larger stroller like our City Mini.
Our first stop at the zoo was to the underwater viewing of the dolphins which of course Georgia determined were sharks. She is OBSESSED with baby shark (just like every other child in the world) so all sea animals were "sharks". We were able to easily transport the lightweight stroller down the set of stairs to the viewing area and then on the way back up realized there was a ramp for all of us parents with kids to easily get up and down. I was really surprised but Georgia was very content to ride in the stroller for more than half of the day which made it easier on us not having to carry her or chase her the entire time.
doing the baby shark dance
What I love about this stroller in particular is a few things. One, its super easy to fold, you can do it one handed, Two, its main layer is machine washable. Three, it has a shoulder strap on the stroller itself for easy carrying AND it comes with a book bag style carrying bag. It also comes with a rain cover and 50 SPF sun shade, and rides super smooth with a very generous storage basket. This small compact stroller has more storage space than my full-size Baby Jogger. I can actually fit my Fawn Design diaper bag fully packed in the storage basket, something I can't do with my Baby Jogger. They also make an infant kit which allows use of the stroller for brand new babies along with back packs and baby carriers. I cannot say enough about how pleased I am with the quality of this stroller. It is probably one of my favorite pieces of baby gear and I'm glad that Georgia still needs a stroller sometimes because I'm absolutely loving using it!
Georgia's favorite part of the zoo was the all of the sea animals (again with the love for Baby Shark) and the geese that were roaming all over. She also really loved all the "kittys" as there are several at Brookfield and almost all of which we got to see pretty closely. Lately her behavior has been a challenge to say the least but she did a really amazing job and was overall really happy for the entire day. She got upset one time when we were done with lunch, there was a playground that we let her play on for a few minutes after we ate and she did not want to leave when it was time to continue on looking at the animals, but she spared us a public meltdown which was a relief!
I'm so so excited to have more adventures like we did at the zoo. My goal for the spring and summer is to make it as memorable as we can. I know that Georgia won't remember it but she is growing and learning so much and I want to give her as many opportunities to explore and learn and have fun as we possibly can. I'm thankful that Colugo was able to make the trip even more enjoyable by making it easier for us to get around for the day. I can't wait to share more with you all through this next season of our lives.
PS. I have turned off commenting and plan on doing so on future posts because of so much spam. I'm not sure how else to combat the 75+ comments I get per post that are spam. If you have a question or comment please feel free to email me at babyridleybump@gmail.com
