The best thing about Dad To Be?

They say that the best thing about 'Dad to be' is that you get to buy lots and lots of tech' gadgets. And had Jude have been having this baby in any of the 10 of the last 11 years I'd have agreed. I'd have had a home sonar kit so that I could listen to the baby's heart, I'd have had a Stokke stroller so that the baby could be raised (like Lazerus) towards us should it cry. I'd have bought the 'Pretty City Titty Milking Bra' (or whatever it's called) and had the solar panels attached. There would have been a baby bouncer thing that mimics the 8 most common movements of mom. There's have been a baby surveillance system that would have rivaled the cameras leading to Michael Jackson's bedroom. And there would have been custom made vinyl wall adhesives in the newly made-over nursery.

But a couple of things have happened in the last year or so. I started taking the meds and the crazy has worn off. We got to know people who had kids and asked ourselves 'why are their houses filled with plastic shite?' We got to know people who said things like 'hey this crib has been in the family for 40 years, I used it, do you want it for a year?' and we learned to say 'yes'.

And of course I started a new business and pumped all of the money it made right back in, to people and flights and logos and trips and websites and office spaces and lawyers and accountants and corporate tax and (mostly) into the bank in case it all goes horribly wrong and we end up having to pay everyone without making a cent (the crazy isn't totally gone, but it's nice to have enough not to have to worry about the swamped, parched nature of a new business. We're very liquid, apparently).

So Jude and I are being frugal, by choice and by neccessity. Trying to keep the baby stuff down to a minimum. Trying to keep it to natural materials. To borrow what we can and recycle what we can't. To keep the baby's environmental footprint down and the costs of baby manageable.

That said for the last four months I've been playing a neat game with myself. One $20 bill from every trip to the ATM wasn't for me and coffee and backalley handjobs from toothless crones (all that $20 will buy you these days I think - that or two 'full contact, full nude' lapdances (but I'd not know what to do with my hands). Instead it belonged to the baby, and today I'd finally 'saved' enough to buy this

It's the I'Coo Pacific and it's really rather neat. German, lightweight, reversible, the seat turns into a bassinet, the bassinet into a seat. There's a universal car adapter, it folds if you so much as think the world 'fold' and no doubt it makes babies smarter, cooler, quieter and more likely to say 'I love you so much, you're such hip people' to their parents when they hit their teen years. It has a foot muff (all the better to avoid frostbite with) and let's not forget the rain cover bunting bag.

In the past I'd have bought this without thinking, then changed my mind and bought something more expensive, giving this one away over an expensive dinner that I'd pick up the tab for. Somehow seeing it as the result of 4 months of covert saving makes it all the sweeter. Unless it sucks. At which point I'll pay myself a huge dividend and head straight to the Bugaboo store....