A Tale of Two Strollers

We started out with two strollers. A traditional stroller and a jogging stroller. Then, as my daughter got older, we acquired an umbrella stroller. You'd think that with three strollers, we'd never be at a loss for a stroller.

You'd be wrong.

There was the time we went to the zoo. My husband packed the traditional stroller in the trunk. Problem was, we had driven separately to my in-laws' beach house and left for the zoo from there. What car did we take? Not the car with the stroller in the trunk. 

Luckily, you can rent strollers at the zoo. It was a price we were willing to pay.

This stroller was sure cooler than the one we forgot.

But then there was the time that we spent a long (and very cold) weekend in Niagara Falls. On the way there, it hit me. We didn't pack the stroller. So we had to make a quick detour to a Walmart where we purchased the cheapest umbrella stroller they had. What we didn't realize until the next morning as we got out of the car near the frigid falls and tried to open up the stroller was that the wheels needed to be assembled and they were zip-tied to the stroller frame.

Did we have scissors or a Swiss Army Knife with us? No. No, we did not.

So I had to run into a nearby restaurant and ask them if they had scissors I could borrow. Thank goodness they were open AND the proprietors of two pairs of scissors that they more than readily handed over to me. Those Canadians are so nice.

Not happy we forgot the stroller - or that it was so cold

With the purchase of that $14 umbrella stroller, we were then in possession of four strollers: two umbrella strollers, a jogging stroller, and a traditional stroller.

But still we just couldn't get our stroller act together. This last part is not really our fault.

On our recent trip to Disney World, we flew out of an airport in a different state. So we had to drive there and stay overnight at a hotel. Well, the next morning, my husband notices that the trunk of our car was open. He goes down to close it, and when he returned to the hotel room, I said, "Was the stroller still there?" Kind of joking, right? But then my husband says, "I didn't see it."

So back down to the car he goes, and sure enough, someone had stolen our umbrella stroller from the open trunk of our car. Instead of just closing it for us or ignoring it and leaving it be, they took it.

I went down to the front desk to ask if anybody had turned it in, but alas, the stroller was gone, and our flight to Orlando was leaving in two hours. 

So again, we made a mad dash to a Walmart and bought the exact same $14 umbrella stroller that had saved us on our Niagara Falls trip.

Buying the same stroller we already had at home...

Luckily, no one stole it while we were at Disney. (Although, the cast members did move it while we were in a Frozen sing-along show, and we couldn't find it when we got out. Luckily, the cast members knew exactly where they'd hidden it.)

Do you guys have any stories like this one? Stories where you kick yourself for forgetting something essential? I mean, we've been parents for three and a half years now. Strollers have been a staple of those three and a half years. You'd think it would just be instinct by now. 

I know there is "mom brain" but is there also "parent brain"?