Shopping

[lnr]

Gorgeous day today, and we spent the morning largely out enjoying it, by heading into town to the shops. Town was pretty busy, but we went by train and had a nice walk through the back streets between Mill Rd and Hills Rd - where I found myself wishing for the camera to capture the blue skies, bright sunshine and lovely Victorian architecture. Instead we just had each other and the baby for company and admired things without stopping to try steal their souls. Successfully bought baby sleep suits, us some roasting tins, Mike a T-shirt, paid in a cheque and had a nice lunch. Also looked at bike trailers in Station Cycles, but failed to look at Dutch box bikes at the School Run Centre as they weren't sticking to their advertised opening hours this week (padlocked gate seemed to indicate closed, anyway). I shall have to try another time. Very pleasant day out anyway.

Matthew's getting better and better at pulling up and standing, bug did manage to fall from full height and bang his head on the carpet thus afternoon, to much wailing. Nap time now though :) I've now got a confirmed meeting arranged with work next week to discuss my flexible working request, and Stephen gave me good reason to hope they'll agree when he and Emma popped round on Christmas Eve. Mike has the day of to look after Matthew, but once everything is confirmed I'll have to get in touch with the childminder again to confirm when she has the place for him free, and arrange some trials to get him used to it! Also need to do some trials of daddy days at some point too!

Might continue to try and include photos in most posts. This one is from another lovely day before Christmas. The tree was even prettier when it still had red leaves as well as yellow berries, but I never got a chance to take a photo at that stage :)

Comments

[lizardc.livejournal.com]

If you are looking at bike trailer, Croozer or Chariot are supposed to be the best / safest makes. Some of the ones I see around Cambridge look really quite scary (very low to the ground, near to car wheels) and also really very small - the poor child inside must have no room to sit up straight!

We have an older Chariot model (the two child version, rather than the single width one) which we bought recently off Gumtree and it's superb - you can detach it from the bike and use it as a buggy too, which is really handy (e.g. when we arrive somewhere and J is sleeping, we can just wheel him in and he keeps napping). Apparently you can also get a ski attachment for it, although we've had no call for that yet!!

Both Croozer and Chariot can be purcahsed in the UK from here (I think they might be the only UK stockists):

http://www.action-kids.com/child-trailers/

There are some reviews here:

http://www.whatbiketrailer.com/chariot-cougar-2-review/

Both are made by the same company and the safety regulations are the same, but the Charior has suspension whereas the Croozer doesn't. The Chariot is also slightly narrower, which is handy if it's a close call on whether or not it will fit through a back gate (it was for us!). A few months ago, the Charior was out of stock in the UK - I'm not sure if this has changed, but I do know people who have sourced them via eBay from other European counties. They are both quite pricey new (the Chariot in particular!) but do come up sometimes on eBay or Gumtree, so worth keeping an eye out there if you're interested.

Just my 2p worth, if it's any use to you! Feel free to ignore if not :).

[lnr]

Lovely feedback thanks - it's the croozer that is stocked at station cycles, and currently on special offer too (299 down from 389 or something like that). Width is more a shed issue, side passage is pretty wide, can fit a bakfiets trike into the back garden no worries. I think we're leaning towards bakfiets or trailer over bike seat. Just a shame we didn't get to look at any today.

[lizardc.livejournal.com]

No prob, glad it's helpful.

We have a bike seat too, which I have used with both boys. Of all the options, it's probably my favourite in terms of ease of cycling and being able to talk to child whilst on the bike. But of course the major drawback is that it's seriously not weatherproof. We used it a lot in the summer and not at all since it started to get wet and/or cold.

Things I like in particular about the trailer:

1) Weatherproofness
2) Being able to use as a buggy as well (especially for naps)
3) It doesn't feel too heavy when cycling (at least with only 1 child in it - 2 is a different story!)
4) Attaches to my bike, meaning we don't have to buy a complete second vehicle.

I've seen lots of the trike / dutch type bikes around and they certainly seem popular. I guess we didn't go for one of those as they just don't seem quite as versatile as the trailers. I guess it depends how and when you are going to use it as to what works best for you!

I was quite nervous about the trailer safety initially, but the Chariot we have certainly feels pretty robust, it's quite big and obvious to see and we have adorned it with a silly amount of reflective tape and lights!

[lizardc.livejournal.com]

I should add that we never seroiusly looked at Dutch bike or similar options, so I don't know much about the pros/cons of those, as the key deciding faactor for us was being able to remove the trailer for naps, which none of the other options ticked the box on....

[lizardc.livejournal.com]

One drawback of the trailer is that I can't have a sensible conversation with them whilst they are in it, as they're too far away.... I have thought that walkie talkies might help here but not tried it!! :)