You May Have Had to Be There...

One of our favorite strollers - we've had quite a few over the years - is a simple, light-weight, black Maclaren. My parents bought it for us when Will was about six months old, and we're still using it today for all of our indoor and short-distance stroller needs.

The stroller has one problem though...due to it's low weight (it's really easy to fold, unfold, put in the car, pull out of the car, etc. with just one hand and while holding a child in the other arm) it easily tips over if the weight distribution between the front and the back of the stroller isn't even. That means you can hang bags on the stroller handles if a child is in the stroller, but if the child gets out of the stroller it will tip over backwards, spilling the bags on the handles and anything in the basket below the seat directly onto the floor. This has happened to me hundreds of times, and it's at times embarrassing and always annoying. I often strap Hallie (and used to strap Will) into the stroller, not because I'm worried about her falling, but because I don't want her to get out without warning me and tip the stroller and it's contents all over the floor of the mall.

On Mother's Day we visited the newly remodeled Memorial Student Center on the TAMU campus. Will and I were walking in front, while Tom followed behind, pushing Hallie in the stroller. I turned around just in time to see - and all of this happened in less than a second - Tom pick Hallie up out of the stroller and plop her onto his shoulders, Hallie clap both of her hands directly over both of Tom's eyes, and the stroller topple over. Will and I started to chuckle, and our chuckling turned to out-loud laughter when Tom, still completely blindfolded by Hallie's little hands, tried to pick pick up the stroller, the bag that had been hanging on the handles, and the contents of the bag with his feet. I was laughing too hard to do anything but shove Will in Tom's general direction with the instruction, "help him".

It was all I could do to take a picture; unfortunately I was too late to catch Tom's fancy footwork.

Maybe, just maybe, you had to be there.